Tom Waits for No Man
As he limbers up for yet another sell-out Irish tour, guitar-picking hearthrob Tom Baxter is keen to scotch rumours of impending nuptials and wax lyrical about his love affair with this country
Edwin McFee, 21 Oct 2008
A lot has happened in the life of whiskey-voiced singer/songwriter Tom Baxter since he was featured on the cover of Hot Press at the start of the year. It’s quite heartening to see the platinum selling artist continuing to go from strength to strength, taking his sound across the globe, but if a recent story about up-coming nuptials are to be believed, everything could have went oh so very wrong for the softly-spoken 34-year-old.
“OK, let’s clear this up, I’m not getting married,” laughs the affable Englishman. “Ever since this story was put on a press release it’s become the bane of my life.”
To cut a long story short, a few months ago Tom played a show in the West of Ireland. By his own admission it was a bit of a hazy, drunken affair which ended up with one particularly amorous fan offering to take him up the aisle. Oo-er.
“It all happened during a silly night after a few too many drinks,” he confirms. “There were a gaggle of girls in the front row of my gig who were a bit merry and I ended up having a bit of banter with one of them. At one point she proposed but we didn’t take it too seriously. I didn’t get down on one knee or anything.”
That moment seems to sum up Tom’s profile in Ireland perfectly. It appears that our country is going through a bit of a love affair with his sophomore album Skybound. In fact, such is the passion for Baxter’s tender threnodies, he’s decided to end his touring campaign with a five night residency in Dublin’s Academy as a tribute to his huge success in our part of the world.
“Ireland has been the place that has made everything happen for me,” Tom enthuses. “I’m at the end of the touring cycle for my second record and I asked my manager to book me a gig in Dublin at the very end because you’ve been very kind to me.”
Err, kind really isn’t the word though Tom, especially when you take into account you’re playing five nights on the trot.
“Yeah I guess you’re right, five nights in Dublin is a brilliant run, isn’t it,” agrees the singer. “I feel very lucky to have this level of support. I like the idea of being in the same place in Dublin for five nights in a row. It’s almost like a residency. I want to do something different for these shows. I want to change the set up and play for longer. The idea is to do 40 minutes solo then have a bit of a break, then bring in the band for the more up-tempo tunes. I like the idea of doing what Dylan does.
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