Tom's a whipper snapping 22 but his musical taste in the boompty has all the hallmarks of the much older Luke Solomon.” – I-DJ MAGAZINE 2003

Tom took his first steps into DJing properly when he put on a one off night called Homegrown in his home town of Northwich back in July 2000. The night was run alongside two of his friends (both DJs) Adam B & Nathan Landry. Shortly after the night they were contacted by Levi's and Mixmag to play alongside Tom Stephan on the 'Levis Student House Party Tour', which took in Leeds, Newcastle and Sankeys Soap in Manchester, this gave them a taste of what Djing out to crowds was like and they loved it.



In 2002 Tom and the other two lads set up www.homegrown-music.com as a base to promote themselves as DJs. The site grew immensely over five years and is know internationally for its 'Homegrown Hotmix' concept in which two guest DJs per month supply mixes for people to stream and download, previous guests have included Jazzanova, Miss Kitten, Mylo, Tom Stephan, Justin Martin, Natural Rhythm, Mazi, Tony Thomas and many more underground DJs.

As a DJ Tom has been playing out for the last 7 years all over the UK and across Europe. In this time he has held down 5 residencies, including a weekly residency at Manchester night ‘Landed’ back in 2003 where each week he warmed up for legendary Hacienda Resident Graeme Park. Doing the warm up slot enabled Tom to gain invaluable experience into building a vibe up from nothing, which is something he still enjoys doing today. Since 2005 Tom has been a resident and promoter for Manchester deep house night ‘Stylus’ in this time he has DJed alongside and brought to the rainy city many world class DJs including, Jimpster, Phil Weeks, Jason Hodges, Justin Long, Jay Tripwire, Ralph Lawson, Hipp-e, Joey Youngman, Evil Eddie Richards and many more. Tom is also resident at the Zagreb Film Festival in Croatia where he plays each night of the festival during a week in October, each year gets bigger and better with over 2000 people attending the nightly events. As well as his residencies Tom plays out regulary across the UK and Europe. Notable gigs in the UK include, Tribal Sessions & The Redlight at Sankeys, The Gallery at Turnmills, in London, Stealth in Nottingham, Electric Chair in Manchester, and doing various summer parties down at the now sadly defunct ‘The Bomb’ in Nottigham. Tom has ventured abroad on numerous occasions and played at some amazing parties, the highlights of which were playing at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival in Croatia 2005 (on top of a fort!), playing at the awesome Cova Den Xoroi in Menorca (set in a cliff top cave), a tour of Belgium in 2005 and a week long tour of Croatia and Montenegro in Summer 2006 (playing in bombed out hotels, parties on remote islands and lots of good times!). Tom also won I-DJ Mags coverted Top Tape prize back in 2003 and he didn't even have to bribe the judges with drugs and knock off DVD players.



The logical progression to the studio started for Tom in late 2003 when he joined Adam to learn the ropes. The two of them produced ‘Homegrown Headz' in Jan 2004 and it was released in May 2005 on Midlands based label Lost My Dog, gaining excellent reviews from DJ Mag, I-DJ and lots a good reactions from DJs. In June 2005 they released the amusingly titled ‘Honey I've Lost My Panties' EP on Southside Shuffle which also received excellent reviews and reactions.

“I've lapped up everything these guys have released in their short career. These four trippy little buggers are evidence there is more yet to come. From the jazzy, bendy "VR Nightz" to the twisted tech-ery of "Light Em Up", it's like a Midlands house version of MFF. Excellent stuff” – I-DJ MAGAZINE 2005

Into 2008 and Stylus now has a new venue (One Central Street, Manchester) and lots of exciting projects in the pipeline, starting with the guys bringing US legend Karizma over in February and Ben Westbeech and Jimpster in March. A small tour of Belgium alongside Adam is also planned for Tom at the start of Spring.

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