FOR a musician fresh from performing on the stages of Glastonbury, Romsey’s Tom Crouch is incredibly humble, writes Catherine Earp.

Playing the guitar and keyboards for the touring band of Gabrielle Aplin, the singer that won over the nation when she sang Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s The Power of Love on the Christmas John Lewis advert, Tom had no idea where that would take him.

Since then, Gabrielle has soared to number one and is embarking on a European tour supporting John Mayer.

“When I agreed to play in her band, it was all very casual. None of us knew at the time where things would go or how quickly they’d go.

It’s been a crazy journey so far and I’m just glad of the opportunity to come on board.”

The band played on two of Glastonbury’s stages, the BBC Introduces as a special guest and The Acoustic stage.

“It’s such a huge festival and it was my first time there. So when you first go, it’s a huge process just thinking about the magnitude of the event,” he said.

“For the BBC introducing stage, I was a little bit nervous because the first two tracks were going out live on Radio 2.”

It’s not just behind the scenes that Tom shines. With his own legion of fans, he’s a musician in his own right, recording and releasing original and cover songs on YouTube.

“I love the studio environment, I love going in and creating something new, something that’s never been created before,” he said.

“I hope to do much more of that with Gabrielle when I’ve got a little bit of time off. I’m hoping to release some of my own music and do some of my own shows as well as keeping up the session work because it’s an entirely different set of disciplines that you have to teach yourself.”

His soft voice and talented playing has already gained him the label of the next big thing.

Watch this space . . .