My Big Break

Lee Mack is headlining tonight. “Let’s hear it for Tom Morley” says the MC as I step on to the stage. Three other comedians have gone before me and I’m about to perform my own 5 minutes of stand-up pre-Lee. Am I mad? No, this is a tried and tested act. Like a Jack-In-A-Box popping…

Read More

Having A Voice

#justadrummerTomMorley.jpg

Annie Lennox adjusts her pillow, closes her eyes and says, “I’m so glad we can do this now Tom, I thought I might have to book in advance”. I’ve become a Reiki healer. For years Annie and I have danced on the same dance floors but we’ve never formally met until today. And here we…

Read More

Scritti Politti

#justadrummerTomMorley.jpg

Green insists I go to the library and look up Marcel Duchamp. “Now”.  For months, during our first year at Art School in Leeds, he’s been looking over my shoulder, “I like what you’re trying to do Sebastian but it’s all been done before. Better”. Yes, between 1974 and 1977 I’m known as Sebastian, influenced…

Read More

UBUNTU vs PowerPoint

#justadrummerTomMorley.jpg

Private jets are bad right? Paris gigs are best reached by Eurostar but this particular client is in a hurry and has lined up further events in Germany, Spain, Italy and several other European cities. And he owns two jets so I convince myself just taking the one is being positively ECO. “Raphael wants to…

Read More

Backstage Slammer Nights

#justadrummerTomMorley.jpg

Craig Revel Horwood praises my songwriting. “Janine got a standing ovation Tom, did you know? Your song is so emotional and it really suits her voice”. We’re backstage at Miss Saigon and last night there was a charity concert here to a packed house at the Theatre Royal. Janine Desiderio is the female lead. “Yes,…

Read More

Banged Up Drummer

#justadrummerTomMorley.jpg

Because of the way I look I’m crying. My tears are flowing for deeply personal reasons but I’m also crying for my country. Our country. I’m crying for our future. Everything you’re about to read here is true. Everything. Allow me to take you back to London on September the first in twenty twenty one.…

Read More

Peace One Day

#justadrummerTomMorley.jpg

Jeremy Gilley from ‘Peace One Day’ jumps out of his black cab looking as stylish as ever. I see him through the gleaming front doors. This guy’s energy is something to behold. He’s in the foyer networking within ten seconds of arrival. J’s speed of engagement is mesmerising to someone like me who was once…

Read More

Emma Thompson Asks

#justadrummerTomMorley.jpg

Emma Thompson asks, “How will you get everyone up and moving Tom?” We’re backstage at The Royal Court Theatre in Sloane Square. “I’ll use the same trick I used at the funeral” I reply. “I remember us all dancing but I don’t remember the trick” she says. Maybe trick is the wrong word. Having studied…

Read More

The New Artists

#justadrummerTomMorley.jpg

Podcast person. “So, how did you two get together?” I was one of 25 people standing shoulder to shoulder in an art gallery. It was 1999. Three metres away, opposite me, was another line of 25 people. We were encouraged to breathe and look at the person directly opposite. It was a bit embarrassing to…

Read More

Jamie Wheal YouTube

Tom Morley & Jamie Wheal

I love doing this and seeing what insights I wake up with. I’m about to take a mid-afternoon nap, but not before a posing a question to my subconscious. “From an evolutionary and biological point of view, why are people who belong to communities of faith, healthier, wealthier and happier than people who don’t?” I’m…

Read More