That ’ s really what my politics are and that ’ s what has affected all the things that I ’ ve done along the way , outside of just making music for fun . But in terms of the other things , it ’ s always driven by asking how will we actually affect change ? Can we really do something better for these people . I get very tired of gestures and conversation . I want people to be doing stuff . I ’ m like , What are we doing ? What are we actually doing ?
“ So if people have just had enough , what I would say to people is you have to understand the scale of ... look , when was the last time in British history , that we swung from a party with a working majority , to a party of a different stripe with a working majority ? When was the last time that happened ?”
If you read the papers and listen to the news , a Labour victory at the next election is almost inevitable . All you hear is talk of 20plus point leads in polls , but Tom ’ s right . It ’ s a major swing , a bigger swing than Tony Blair achieved in 1997 . “ People just seem to think it ’ s inevitable and I keep saying there is nothing inevitable about what we ’ re trying to achieve . But it really feels like the safety of the country hangs in the balance , the sanity of the country hangs in the balance . Everything hangs in the balance of this election and it ’ s so important that we fix this stuff .”
Labour still have , for many people , the ghost of the past hanging over them . For a long time , certainly at the time of the last election , the party was unelectable . By making Corbyn leader , they opened the door for Boris Johnson with his 80 seat majority and , arguably , for the disaster that is Brexit . The more you think about it - and incidentally , it was 1970 . The last time a swing of this size happened was 54 years ago - winning the next election isn ’ t inevitable . Maybe right now we should look at what ’ s needed now rather than talk about mistakes made in the past . “ If you ’ re not going to do something or change something , why be involved ? I could be a member of the Green Party . Some of their policies are OK , but the truth is , the reason I ’ m in politics is not because I want to wear a badge that suits my ideology . I ’ m in politics , because I want to make things better . I want to do stuff . I don ’ t understand the politics of not doing stuff .
Tom Gray moved to Brighton in 1997 - “ I came here for a gig and never left . I was sofa surfing for a year or so and had a permanent address by ‘ 99 . I ’ d grown up in Merseyside and even in the creative areas , it felt you could feel physically threatened quite a lot . Whereas in Brighton it didn ’ t really have that . It felt safer . As soon as I came here , I felt ‘ I ’ ve found my people ’. Everyone ’ s cool with everyone . You can dress how you like , everyone ’ s comfortable with it . I couldn ’ t believe it existed . I was 20 years old and had spent most of my life in Liverpool and Leeds and , believe me , it ’ s very different .”
According to his Wikipedia page - and where else do you look to find out about people ? - “ Tom Gray is a Mercury Prize-winning British songwriter , composer , and activist . He is a founding member of the rock band Gomez , the founder of the Broken Record campaign , and the elected Chair of the Ivors Academy . He is an elected Council Member of PRS For Music and sits on the board of UK Music . He is a UK Labour Party activist based in Brighton & Hove , and a member of the Musicians ’ Union . He was the recipient of the 2022 Unsung Hero Award presented by the Music Producer ’ s Guild UK ”.
If that ’ s not enough , he ’ s also writing a stage musical now around “ Danny , Champion of The World ”, a Roald Dahl story about a boy and his dad who go nicking pheasants off the rich landowner up the road . It ’ s great . It ’ s my kind of stuff , sticking it to authority . But the main thing is it ’ s just a really beautiful story of a non toxic male relationship between a man and a son . You very rarely see that depicted and I think that ’ s why I ’ m really attracted to it .”
We talked long about local issues , housing , the environment - he doesn ’ t fly , Gomez toured carbon neutral - but what I was really interested in was this .
What was that like , winning the Mercury Prize . You were up against Massive Attack ’ s Mezzanine . “ I mean , they were robbed ,” he laughs . Do you still remember when the envelope was opened ?
“ Just . I was 20 . I had no way of understanding what was happening . I was too young . I was just like , ‘ Wow , we made a tape and it won the Mercury Prize ’. How do you process that ? Do you remember that feeling , the night ? “ Yeah , we lost the Mercury Prize that night .” Do you remember where ? He laughs , again . Clearly it was a good night .
That whole music thing , was it great ? “ Oh , come on . I loved it . I ’ ve had an absolutely charmed life . Honestly , I ’ ve been so lucky to have been able to make stuff and be involved with brilliant people . The reason I stopped touring was that my son started going to school , and I wanted to take him to school . That ’ s what I wanted to do . I didn ’ t want to travelli the world any more . You did a lot of all that travelling the world ? “ Mate , we were massive in North America . We had our biggest album in America with our fifth album , when no one was thinking about us here , that ’ s when we were starting to have radio hits in America . In 2007 we were in the top 30 grossing acts in America , playing 240 shows a year and playing big theatres all over North America , Australia , Asia , Japan .” Does one moment stand out ? “ There were loads of times when you ’ d just think ‘ This is ridiculous ’, but I had a moment on stage in Glastonbury in ‘ 99 . The sun was setting behind the audience and I could see it and they couldn ’ t see it . So I just stopped the gig and got everyone to turn round and look at that and like 80,000 people turned round faced away from the stage and looked at the sunset . And you just heard everyone go ‘ Wow ’. There ’ s not many times in your life where you get to do that .”