Tomas Lowe

She said together we can take on the world… she told me that I’d never find another girl, like her. And she said that together we anything” - from ‘Boys that sing’ by Viola Beach. Thomas Lowe was a member of an English indie rock band “The Viola Beach”.

A talented young musician, he grew up in Warrington and attended Cinnamon Brown Primary before moving to Birchwood High School. According to his mother Ruth, Thomas began playing an instrument at school. He lost his father at an early age, and during that time his friends got into music, so he would go with them during lunchtime and "mess around" with the drums. He started playing drums at age of 14 and in the way of youth spirited about anything, he and his friends formed a musical group called ‘Stocks’. Music became Lowe’s passion.

During a school skiing trip to Austria, much to his mother’s feared premonition, Lowe got injured and returned home on crutches, however not as she imagined due to a skiing accident, but while playing air guitar. He had dislocated his left knee, twisting it rather, enthusiastically the wrong way. He went on to Priestley College for hi further studies where he obtained a B.Tech in Sports Science, before completing his degree in sports rehabilitation at Bolton University.

After college, Lowe went for traveling, but because of his heart, he returned to his hometown and left the job he had as a teenager at a music venue ‘The Lounge’. By that time his fellow band mates from the ‘Stocks’ had moved in different directions. It was here where he met Kris Leonard Born on 6th February, 1996, Kris Leonard (also cal >> Read More... , the Frontman for the band Viola Beach. The opportunity to join Viola Beach arose and he grabbed on to it with open arms. The Viola Beach was formed in Warrington, Cheshire in May 2013.

After two of its original band members quit to focus on their university studies, the band’s final lineup was Kris Leonard (20) as Guitarist and Vocalist, Guitarist River Reeves (19), Bassist Thomas Lowe (27) and drummer Jack Dakin The ex-lover of Viola Beach's Jack Dakin has p >> Read More... (19). Within a year, in which they were formed; their track “Daisies” was featured on Bandcamp’s The India Cassette Player’s second compilation album. The band was able to self-finance the recording of their first single, “Swings and Waterslides” releasing it on their own record label Fuller Beans, which was added to the BBC Radio’s #1 playlist in September 2015.

These were not very easy years for Lowe. Ruth, his mother, in an interview, recalled often asking Lowe to get a proper job but Lowe was living his dream. She remembered him saying that if he could travel around the world, play his music and only earn a penny, he would still be content. Around this time, Kris Leonard was working as a cleaner when he heard about a platform for emerging musical talent sponsored by the BBC and sent one of the band’s tracks.

BBC found their music and songs to be infectious with the "hints of slacker pop", and decided to support them. Within weeks, when they had performed at the BBC Introducing Stage of 2015, they were playing with prominent musicians and DJ’s and they just knew that the doors had opened for them. They released their second single, “Boys That Sing/”Like A Fool”, on the Communion Label 22nd January 2016. Ruth, talking about Lowe in an interview, said that while on the road Lowe never failed to text her when he reached his destinations and when he got back.

He messaged her on Friday when he and other members had reached Sweden and that was his last text. On February 13, 2016, the four band members and their manager Craig Tarry (32), died in a tragic accident on a motorway bridge, southwest of Stockholm Sweden. The band’s last gig was at ‘Where’s the music’ festival, in Norrkoping the previous day. Tomas Lowe filled his 27 years of life with love and fun. He cherished and worked hard towards his passion, never taking the opportunities he got for granted.

He followed his heart and persevered to achieve his dreams with his band-mates. How many of us will remember our last week, month or year as unique? Momentous? Tomas Lowe filled his life with small and big moments, glimpses of which we will now, always, see in the music he and his band created. In a statement, after that fateful night in Sweden, the band’s and their manager’s families made it clear that the tragic circumstances met by Viola Beach and their manager, Craig, will not define their memories. They will be remembered now and forever, for the music they loved and were so passionate about making together.