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Once
out of Abingdon, he worked as a salesman, selling suits at a shop where his boss
is as irritating and cruel as his headmaster, Parker, back in Abingdon’s
Boy’s School.
·
Thom
had his long blonde hair during this time and he usually turned up in an Oxfam
suit, as he couldn’t afford any of the suits he was meant to be selling. The
boss took an instant dislike in him for his appearance.
·
Thom
quit when he was wrongly accused of stealing a suit.
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Thom’s
obsession with cars deepened when he was dating with his current girlfriend.
·
He
and his girlfriend got into a terrible accident one day where it ended up his
girl suffering from whiplash and he came face to face with the car’s lethal
potential.
·
Became
very uncomfortable on the road ever since. His next car, a Morris Minor, had a
door that wouldn’t shut properly. He had to maintain his speed limit out on
the highway as he watched other cars racing by at reckless speed.
·
Thom
took a year off before entering university, unlike the other 3 members-Ed, Colin
and Phil. While they were away from school, Thom and Jonny wrote songs, taping
them on a four-track in Jonny’s bedroom.
“Composing
songs with Jonny made me feel more comfortable with writing lyrics--an activity
I hadn’t felt like bothering with for a long time.”
·
In
1988, Thom was admitted to Exeter University, where he studied English and Art.
“Exeter
University is a finishing school for upper class idiots and one of the most
exciting environments I’d ever been in.”
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In
his first year, he took a job at the Lemon Grove, a campus bar. He was the DJ
for the University’s Big Club night, usually held on Fridays. This had made
him a cult figure on campus.
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Thom
and a friend, now known as sHack, decided to form a band, called Headless
Chickens.
·
Thom
also became a member of an anti-fascist club at Exeter, which caused him to take
up physical fighting again.
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Thom
had created a sorting figure in campus by sporting an outsize coat and a
“Granddad Hat”. This new look also drew him into trouble when he received
stares from two blokes in a bar one night. He blew them a kiss but he was beaten
up. Here, his attraction to fighting dwindled.
·
Thom
was totally uninterested in his first year academic programme. Also, he prefers
to do nothing when his professors had told him to do whatever he wanted.
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In
his second year, he was introduced to computers, Exeter’s newly acquired Macs,
and he was fascinated with it.
·
Thom
and the other band mates would return to Oxford on weekends once a month or so
to do some rehearsals. The commitment was unbelievable to them, despite their
hectic schedule.
·
Besides
music, Thom’s other great interest was drinking. But he brought it under
tighter control when another Exeter student named Rachel captivated him.
·
He
didn’t approach her in a normal way like others did but his excuse was that he
had limited experience with the opposite sex.
“She
really thought I was a freak. She thought I was impossible to talk to, really
moody, difficult, unpleasant and idiotic. And I think I was. But she bashed the
crap out of me.”
·
His
relationship with Rachel was a happy and a successful one, until today.
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Thom
obtained his degree although his professors assured that he still couldn’t
paint.
·
Even
though Thom moved back to Oxford, he would hang around in Exeter in sHack’s
flat and play guitars. This new project, which Thom would be a part of only
briefly, was known as Flicker Noise. But Thom only played the one show before
deciding to devote himself exclusively for On a Friday.
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