MUSIC
'LOADING...' IS OUT!
Releasing Friday 19th December 2025 on all major providers and CD
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"A MAXIMALIST, KITCHEN-SINK EXPLOSION: Chaotic, witty power-pop, stitched from baroque'n'roll, snarky Mercurial harmonies, and overdriven jazz funk cabaret
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Written, performed (par a handful of "tough enough" guests) and produced entirely by Sidcup's multi-instrumental tornado, Tom Monks - his debut solo album 'Loading...' captures the full unfiltered force of one of London's most unpredictable and frighteningly talented young musicians.
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Across his career, Monks has become a beloved figure of London's "new-new wave" movement (a working title). He's shared stages with legends such as Nine Below Zero, The Yardbirds, Dr. Feelgood, and Glenn Tilbrook; contemporaries such as Laurie Wright, The Molotovs, and Another Day; and well over a thousand others - earning notoriety as a reputably energetic and musically promiscuous performer, leaving crowds equally bedazzled and concerned for his well-being. The most worrying thing? He's fine.
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And 'Loading...' overduly cements Monks as an artist in his own right - which he does with zero sonic hesitation. It's 38 minutes of non-stop curveballs: from the Farfisa-soaked opener "Come Home With Me", to the Wings-meets-Seinfeld groove of "Out Of Hand", the Merseybeat rollercoaster "Another Guy", the gloriously disgusting synth meltdown of "Clone Zone", and the harmony-fuelled, hot rod homage of "Colin's Car" where even Brian Wilson at his SMiLiEST would have said "dude, calm down.
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Loading... will be unleashed on all major streaming platforms and CD from Friday 19th December 2025. If you wonder whether it'd make a good Christmas gift for a loved one, it's at your own risk."
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Stream Today​
CLONE ZONE OUT NOW!
Released Friday 20th September 2024 on all major providers including Spotify,
BandCamp, Apple Music, Tidal and YouTube​
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"JAZZY, FUNKY, THEATRICAL ROCK: A pocket groove, a choir of Tom Monkses lyrically provoked by parkas, and the most DISGUSTING Minimoog solo in the world"
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Written, recorded, produced and performed entirely by myself, Clone Zone is the final single release before the unveiling of my unfathomably highly anticipated debut solo album, 'Loading', with a supergroup live spectacle to boot.
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Armed with witty lyrics poking fun at ultra-competitive creatives who emulate stock figures instead of embracing their unique selves, Clone Zone offers playful, bold, and self-deprecating observations of a desperation for individuality in a world accustomed to nostalgic regurgitation.
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Huge huge thanks to Dan Cooper for mastering it and making it sound humongous, and Reece Bailey for the artwork photography and design making me look beautiful.
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ANOTHER GUY
Released Friday 2nd April 2021 on all major providers including Spotify, BandCamp, Apple Music, Tidal and YouTube​
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'Another Guy' gleefully and bluntly tackles the common crisis of desperately persuading a pal to take off the premature rose-tinted glasses and stop the inevitable, in the form of upbeat, whimsical rock & roll.
A sonic throwback to Merseybeat, Another Guy is complete with jangly guitars, Mellotron rhythms, Hofner bass, Farfisas, and rich harmonies - intricately jam-packed into two and a half minutes of plot twists and radical left turns.
INTERMISSION
Here's a (currently) video exclusive segment from the record, about folk losing their minds to the internet and all their loved ones cos of it. We've all seen it especially since the start of this decade.
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Filmed remotely for my appearance on Uncaged TV in Spring 2021 with the help of Nancy Gorman, in between the reopening of the barbers and the rest of the UK.
OUT OF HAND
Released Friday 8th February 2019 on all major providers including Spotify, BandCamp, Apple Music, Tidal and YouTube
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In late 2018 (I looked older when I was younger), I completed the first full song that I didn't disown. The penny dropped that songwriting is a billion times easier if you have a concrete subject to write about - something that resonates with or riles you up so much that situations flow out into words, and all you need to do is make it scan.
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So, artistic communities are one of few circles where it's acceptable to be "different", myself included. It's mostly a wonderful thing, but also a double edged sword because it can attract the deluded, demanding, and/or downright nasty, who are either unaware of or content with being so. At the time I wrote this song, our local scene had an influx of them (thankfully transiently so, albeit mostly with spectacular bangs)!
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Being the host of a particularly popular event, the role of mediator or pacifier was always placed on me by default, mostly by people decades older than me. Some events ended up like Jeremy Kyle. It started affecting my brain to the extent of medication. I couldn't take any more of it. So I lit the creative fire with it, which has burned ever since.
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Featuring the glorious Nathan Persad on drums, and hundreds of Sidcup's locale on backing vocals. The mix is primitive and has been revisited for the upcoming album - the song and the take remains the same.
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