Meet Thompson Crowley: A fellow Blogging Musician, songwriter, author, traveller. A true inspiration to my own efforts.
I was blessed as a child with a big garden and a mum that worked in a bookshop. That, along with many trips up to Scotland, fed my creativity. I started writing at a young age: poems, songs, stories, tales; and eventually I got quite good at it.
After finishing school I left the Lincolnshire town where I’d grown up, and moved up to Edinburgh; taking with me an old guitar someone had lent me, and a handful of chords which my big brother had shown me. And I soon got the hang of it, knocking up song after song to pass the time.
I then moved back down to Lincolnshire and teamed up with fellow songwriter Luke Morgan and started performing. Both of us agreed that there wasn’t much going on in those there parts, so we put our pounds together and bought ourselves an old, rusty campervan; in which we began travelling, busking & gigging around the country.
My life continued in that fashion from there on out. I just couldn’t stay still. The wandering lifestyle had got a hold on me. And in tents, more vans, on bicycles, with prams, buggies, bags, I continued for years to roam the British countryside; singing in every town that I passed. You can read about my adventures in my book, ‘At Home in the Bushes‘.
I moved to London for a year or so. I even managed to get Luke down. And along with Yorgos Chatziandreou we formed a band called The Rum Deals; gigging all over the city. I also met my wife, Adriana, falling madly in love amongst the fallen autumn leaves and bus stops. But the city life wouldn’t endure; the lure of the road was just too much.
A while later I went back to Edinburgh, this time with Adriana. Also joining us from London was guitarist Andy Towell. We three, along with New Zealander Mat Pottinger, formed a band by the name of The Patches. We then teamed up with violinist/producer Jason Lim (a.k.a INSTRUō) to record our first proper album.
We had settled somewhat; found ourselves a nice flat to rent. The band developed, with additional members: Oliver Sentance, Graeme Anthony, Marc Burn & Callum Stevenson, eventually joining too. But that call of the road, it just wouldn’t let up. And by now I’d got myself a passport. So, me & Adri got married and set off on our honeymoon, cycling around Western Europe, with our little dog Rags in tow.
Eventually, after a few months, the trip came to an end and we found ourselves back up in Edinburgh. It had come to feel like home. And we embarked on yet another musical project. Along with Oliver Sentance, Graeme Anthony & Aga Banach we formed a medieval-themed Jazz-folk band, called The Fed Peasants.
We gigged all over the city, performed at the Edinburgh Fringe, and recorded a great album with Jason again, up in the Highlands. I also got back to playing solo gigs as well. But eventually it all came to an end. Yep, we were heading off again; this time a little further afield.
We’d been wanting to get over to Australia for a while, it just always seemed like such a big task. But eventually the wheels were in motion; it finally looked like we might be able to do it. So, we told yet another band, and yet more friends, that once again we were leaving. But we weren’t going straight to Australia; we thought we’d have just one last adventure before we left the old world.
In the early months of 2016 we bought ourselves a cheap car and drove through Scotland, England and France, all the way down to Barcelona, Spain; and it was from there, after 8 long months, that we finally boarded the plane that would take us over oceans and continents, to our new life down under…
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