Tommy Binks by Pete Mella L2SB catch up with Tommy Binks, Rotherham's acoustic-punk warrior.   It’s hard to believe that Rotherham’s floppy-haired acoustic-punk trooper Tommy Binks has only been playing solo for just over a year.    The 21-year-old has played in various bands since he was at school, and his solo debut was at the Grapes in March 2002. He’s not, however, your typical singer/songwriter.    “When you tell someone you’re a singer/songwriter they always imagine chilled out, David Gray type stuff,” says Tommy. “I mean I do like singer/songwriter stuff, Beth Orton and stuff, but mine’s more in your face, a bit more punkified.”    Tommy’s epiphany was seeing Michael J Fox perform ‘Johnny B Goode’ in Back To The Future, and he’s been playing guitar ever since. His influences include The Lemonheads, The Pixies and Chuck Berry, and he has a dislike for Coldplay and cheesy pop – singling out Busted in particular.    “Music’s music, though,” he says. “It’s not a great deal really, as long as they don’t come round and sit in my bedroom and play it in there. Then they would be busted!”    Things are going well for Tommy. He’s getting a quite a fan base, in towns including Sheffield, Doncaster, Kidderminster and York, where audiences lap up already classic songs such as ‘Eskillator’ (a song about lost love in a supermarket) and ‘Cravings’ (a love song to wine gums).     In March he won the "Turn of the Year" singer/songwriter competition at York’s Golden Lion, winning a day’s free studio time. His new single, ‘Broken Nose’, is available soon, and there are many more gigs coming in the next few months.      As well as all this, Tommy plans to beef up his songs even further with a newly formed band, tentatively called Tommy Binks and Friends.     “Solo stuff is less stressful, because you haven’t got other people to organise,” says Tommy, “but with a band you can just rock.    “The acoustic stuff that I do is all kind of upbeat and quite aggressive anyway, so it does work very well with the drums and the bass and the distortion and stuff.”    So is the band a democratic unit?    “I’m in charge,” laughs Tommy. “I don’t take no sh*t from no-one! No, I mean they have ideas and stuff, they write their own drums and bass bits and stuff, but basically I show them the chords, give them a little acoustic demo, and it just builds up from there. But as far as organising practices and gigs and stuff goes it’s my responsibility.”    An album from the band should see the light of day by Christmas, recorded using the studio time Tommy won in York. Is this the end of Tommy Binks the solo artist?    “It’s going to be nice to do stuff with a band again,” says Tommy, “but I think I will carry on doing acoustic stuff, just for the simplicity really.”    The band play their debut gig at York Junction in July, with more gigs, including Sheffield, in the pipeline. Meanwhile Tommy can be seen solo at the next Acoustic Revolution at the Grapes, a night he has played twice before and singles out as one of his favourites. A new glut of songs has also been written.    “I had a bit of a writer’s block for a while and I’d not written anything for a while,” he says, “but a few weeks ago it just kind of splurged out, and I got a couple of new songs. There’s one called ‘Rover Metro’ which is about my car, and some good rocking songs that are going to be done with the band.”    Tommy’s single-minded acoustic punk vision leaves you wondering one thing - what would he be doing if he’d never seen Marty McFly’s duck-walking performance?    “If I’d never picked up a guitar…,” he muses, as if the thought had never struck him before.    “I’d played piano before so I’ve always been a bit musical, so I’d probably be a geeky keyboard player or something.    "I’m just glad that I can, cos it’s just so much fun being able to do it, and being able to sing at people.”    [link]  May 27, 2003 8:55pm