By Keith Walsh
When British singer/songwriter Tom Cridland wanted to honor some of his favorite musical artists, he got down to business. As an established entrepreneur with his own fashion brand and the head of two musical projects, Cridland has lots to offer fans of music. Since launching his “Greatest Music Of All Time” video podcast two years ago, he has interviewed more than 350 legends from eras going back to the dawn of rock and roll. His subjects include Chris Rea, Smokey Robinson, Dionne Warwick, Verdine White, Annie Lennox, Don McLean, and far too many others to mention here.

I asked Cridland what the criteria are for music to qualify to be the greatest of all time. He told me: “It’s just a tongue-in-cheek-title, but in my mind the answer is sounding as close to The Beatles as possible.” Indeed, Cridland grew up in England in the early 1990s, in a household where The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and other greats were on constant rotation both at home and in the car. Throughout his childhood, Cridland was exposed to a treasure trove of sounds, and his listening only intensified when he went to college, where he delved into rock and roll, soul, funk, pop and R and B music going back to the 1950s.

“They Become Legends Later”
In our phone interview, I queried Cridland about whether there was a common factor in all of the stars he interviewed that contributed to their success and longevity. “Yeah, it’s very difficult,” he said. I’m not sure what it is. I’m not sure whether they even have a common ingredient. I guess there’s an authenticity to a lot of the ones that I think are really great. They just really do their own thing. They’re obviously very determined, because it’s very easy to look back and do a career retrospective and say ‘well in 1973 you had this big hit, and in 1982 you had this massive hit,’ but what happened in the nine years in between?  A lot of things, probably a lot of heartache, bankruptcies maybe, no one caring who they were. They were probably able to walk down the street and not (be recognized). They become legends later. It’s easy to forget that.”

Cridland’s first interview for the series was British singer/songwriter Chris Rea. Since this auspicious beginning he’s had the privilege of speaking with scores of award-winning artists and chart toppers across six decades. And it all starts with a mutual love for rock and roll. I asked him how important the music of the United States, or American music, is to the project. “Well, Greatest Music Of All Time to me is Rock and Roll, which comes from America, so American music is the be all and end all, I mean British music too. That’s all I care about, I’m not particularly sophisticated. Sometimes I get people on who are slightly away from music, who might come from different walks of life. And it’s all their Desert Island Discs sort of thing, and they’ll choose classical music and opera. And because it’s called ‘Greatest Music Of All Time’ they’ll expect me to be knowledgeable about it. That exposed me! But American music, Soul Music as well, Pop, Disco, everything, is amazing.”

“There’s No Mystique”
Cridland cites Smokey Robinson as a standout interview, not only because of his status as a legend but because he was the first American artist he interviewed. It’s difficult for Cridland to narrow down to the greatest moment of all of his interviews, but he did tell me it was “all of the in-person ones. I really enjoyed going to Verdine White’s from Earth, Wind and Fire’s home. David Crosby gave a pretty good interview. I was pretty tired from the tour at that point. Verdine and Smokey were two of the better ones. “ The tour Cridland refers to was the 2019 tour of his solo act, with his band, of the continental United States. In addition to his solo project, Tom Cridland leads a band called the Tomicks (he sings and plays drums) with keyboardist Nick Whitehead, his girlfriend Debs Marx, and a cast of supporting players.

Cridland has rather strict standards when it comes to what makes music great. In the past he has discounted some current artists so I threw out some names to see what he might say about Harry Styles? Ariana Grande? Post Malone? His reply did not disappoint. “I’m sure they’re more talented than me, in different ways,” he said. “I think I’m probably a better writer that any of those. They are better, they’re stars, they’re fantastic stars, maybe with the exception of Post Malone. I’m not really sure what the merit of him is, other than he managed to get a duet with Ozzy Osbourne. Ariana’s got a fantastic voice – I like some of her records. Harry Styles, a lot of people are banging on about Harry Styles, He’s okay. Not really my cup of tea. I prefer One Direction Records if anything.”

Greatest Music Of All Time Podcast On YouTube

This line of reasoning merited further investigation, so I prompted Cridland to reveal more about what it was about current radio stars that he felt was lacking. “In all honesty,” he said, “they don’t have the personality, they don’t write their own songs, and thirdly the reason why modern pop stars are really annoying is that there’s no mystique, they’re on social media all the time, sharing every aspect of their lives, and they’re also involved in politics all the time. If anything, people got slightly annoyed when John Lennon became too political. People like music as an escape from politics, and I ventured into current affairs and politics on my podcast. I think as the world opens up (from COVID-19) I’ll probably be doing fewer podcasts and bringing it all back to music. “

Good points. Speaking of Tom Cridland’s music, in addition to releasing a single a week for his solo project, Cridland’s band The Tomicks just released their third album, the masterful “Corporate Psychopath.” Hear it at the links below.

Tom Cridland.com
Tom Cridland On YouTube
The Tomicks On YouTube

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