By Keith Walsh
After founding a successful fashion label ten years ago and releasing three albums with his roots-inspired rock band The Tomicks, and 33 singles as a solo act, British designer turned singer/songwriter Tom Cridland has traveled the U.S. and elsewhere with Tom’s Elton Tribute. There’s a bit of magic involved as Cridland picked up the drumsticks after encouragement from Nigel Olsson, a luminary of Elton John’s band for more than 50 years.
Earlier this summer, Cridland’s fashion brand released neckties, authorized and inspired by Olsson. I asked Cridland about these limited edition neckties. “(Nigel) wanted some ties to wear on the road, so I know he’s got the perfect logo for a tie, Nigel’s logo that he’s had on his drum kit since the 70s. There’s a version of it… where it’s just a purple tie. The purple tie was designed to go with the purple suit that we designed especially for (Elton’s show at Glastonbury) but it was too hot on stage for him to wear.” These ties, as well as Cridland’s 30 Year Sweatshirt emblazoned with the Stick Man logo, are available for a limited time at Tom Cridland dot com.
Earlier this year Cridland and Olsson worked together to create suits for Olsson’s performances with Elton John for the final performances of the Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour. “It was a great honor to have him in the purple suit,” Cridland explained, “because the rest of the guys were all wearing Versace shirts. He wanted to wear the Tom Cridland suit.”
I asked what kind of input Olsson had in the creation of these custom clothes. “He pretty much told us exactly what he wanted,” Cridland said. “He wanted a purple suit with a trim. He’s very hands on in telling us what he liked.
How about with the ties? Same thing? “The ties, he pretty much let us do it. He just tells us the type of direction that he likes to go in. He likes bright colors, but he doesn’t like all the ornate designs as Elton would wear, he’s a bit more understated.”
Guitar Man
Earlier this week, Cridland met up with another Elton alum, guitarist Davey Johnstone, and the two recorded an interview for Cridland’s podcast, Greatest Music Of All Time.
Cridland describes the conversation, which will be released on his podcast channel in October: “That conversation really varied — everything from the tour and what he thought about the last gigs in Stockholm and in Glastonbury. We covered recent events and his plans to keep on creating. But you know, they really aren’t touring again. We covered all the sort of recent developments and then I kind of dug in a bit deeper to some of the more obscure stuff that they’ve done. We talked about the album Reg Strikes Back, that late 80s comeback album, about Breaking Hearts, which was the last album that the classic band played together –of Nigel, Dee (Murray), Davey with Elton. That was the last time they actually played all the songs on an album. And we talked about some more recent albums — Wonderful Crazy Night and Peachtree Road. So I made sure to cover some obscurities, and then we covered recent events. And Davey is always game to be just very open. He was a great podcast guest and very good of him to drive all the way here.”
Music — And Lyrics
Also this week in Los Angeles, Cridland and his fiancée Deborah Marx listened to a lecture by Elton John lyricist Bernie Taupin, who just released his memoir Scattershot: Life, Music, Elton, and Me.
Cridland: “I definitely have taken more from the Elton John band than from Bernie per se, but I love Bernie’s lyrics, obviously, just by the fact that I love Elton’s songs so much that his lyrics must have done something to me. I’m looking forward to (reading his new memoir) because at the talk he seemed like a nice guy, was articulate and told some interesting stories and he definitely had a profound appreciation for the contributions of the band. Davey was in the second or third row at the talk, he gave him a shout out.”
Cridland continues: “He came across very well, I thought, and his lyrics — especially on things like Tumbleweed Connection and Madman Across The Water, and even on, you know, all the greatest hits… (all) those words that you think about. I suppose his contribution gets lost, but I think he’s pretty well looked after by Elton and the music industry. (The lyrics) are given quite a high status.”
“‘The Greatest Discovery,’ that’s a really great lyric. It’s all too easy to dismiss his contribution. I think I’ve read some very critical stuff, even about ‘Your Song.’ … I think ‘Your Song’ is a beautiful lyric — I like just about all of his lyrics. I never think anything that Bernie’s been involved with has suffered because of the words. Sometimes it’s the production being of its time. I mean, maybe it’s the odd thing — but in general there’s some really really beautiful stuff.”
‘An Authentic Thing’
There’s a new Tomicks album, Tomicks IV, completed and waiting to be released. And Tom’s Elton Tribute is gearing up to play around Europe and The U.S, with a brand new show, The Rocket Man Experience.
Cridland explains: “Think of The Rocket Man Experience a bit like how Elton did The Red Piano or The Million Dollar Piano— it’s going to be designed as a greatest hits show and then in the future, what I want to do is do the hits, plus a full album. So the next tour after this, we’re going to do the whole Captain Fantastic album and then we might do Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, we might do Tumbleweed Connection.”
“When you’re playing live as much as we’re going to be playing, it’s nice to know the next song is ‘Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me,’ the next song is “Your Song,’ ‘Tiny Dancer,’ ‘Rocket Man…’ because you know it’s going to go down great and it means that the audience are going to want to come and see you next year. The brilliant thing about his hits, a lot of the time you can make ‘Rocket “Man’ into a 10 minute song — there’s room for improvisation, there’s room for musicianship. Like Elton does it, and when we play live, there’s no backing tracks or click tracks, or (auto) tuning. Obviously, a lot of great musicians do, and a lot of shows do use all that stuff and I’m not saying anything is better or worse. But that’s the way that I like to do it and I think that’s the way Elton does it, and that’s an authentic thing.”
‘The One’
Next month, at the Hotel Caruso in Ravello, Italy, Cridland and his muse and business partner Deborah Marx will tie the knot in front of 150 friends and family. Tom will be wearing a black morning coat designed by Ede & Ravenscroft, traditional striped trousers, and a yellow waistcoat. The groom’s party is Tom’s best man, Nick Whitehead (keyboardist and writing partner with The Tomicks), Cridland’s brother James, and his friends from university Martin and Jamie. Classic American soul band The Stylistics, for whom Cridland opened on their UK tour in 2021, will entertain guests at the reception.
(Cridland recently released a memoir of his own, Million Dollar Addict, available at Tom Cridland dot com.)
Tom Cridland dot com
Tom Cridland Instagram
Bernie Taupin Instagram
Davey Johnstone Instagram
Nigel Olsson Fan Club
Elton John dot com
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