St. Thomas: Let's grow together - The comeback of St. Thomas

Last time I mentioned St. Thomas, 15 months ago, I wrote

I see from St. Thomas's fan site and official site that he's spent a fair chunk of this year recovering from drink and drug problems, and hasn't played live for a while. I hope the recovery is going well…

If you click either of those links right now, you'll see St. Thomas died last September, apparently from a combination of prescription drugs (which sounds similar to Heath Ledger's recent mishap). I found out just now, before I put this record on: it was a big shock, and coloured my listening completely.

I only saw him play live twice, exactly a year apart, and his persona was warm, full of fun, bags of charm, and a good slice of mischief in his eye. Not your snivelling Pete Doherty-type. I certainly wouldn't have picked him out as someone likely to difficult (it seems I was wrong about that) or as a mental illness sufferer. But now I look back over his catalogue and find songs with titles like My Early Funeral. Very sad for him and all those close to him, leaving aside his fans.

Here's a picture of Thomas on the night I bought this album. Lots of sly, louche energy in his performance, from what I remember.

I opted for the album on LP rather than CD, which Lucy objected to since it meant that she couldn't rip it onto her iPod, but it's a lovely thick and heavy slab of vinyl.

MusicBrainz entry for this album Rate Your Music entry for this album Listen to this album in full at Last.fm

Comments

[Brian]

Jeezle Petes....
I hadn't heard this news and got a quite a shock reading it on your music arcades. I saw him support Lambchop in Paris in a spiegeltent on the Parc de la Vilette in Paris. I enjoyed his performance and alas didn't buy any of his merchandise that night. I did buy Lambchop's Treasure Chest of the Enemy but oh... that poor lad. That is very sad.
Long may you run long may you run

[Brian]

Oh and just to clarify - that was in Paris.
Yes, Paris ;)