Pete Thomas

Born in Reading and a graduate of the Newcastle College of Performing Arts, the first instrument that Pete learned to play was the guitar. In his early teens he discovered the bass guitar and subsequently the double bass, and these became his favoured instruments for live performance and recording. Nevertheless he is no mean player of the tenor banjo, mandolin and bouzouki and enjoys playing them whenever the opportunity arises as a change from being the “bassman”.

At the Derby Folk Festival - image by permission © Mark Steele 

His career started when he was still at school and he has performed for more than a decade professionally with many bands covering many genres: R&B and rock, English and Irish folk music, bluegrass, and gypsy jazz.

Pete has frequently deputised as a bassist for the Blue Jays and for the Rave On performance and he is now going to join their line up full time. Rave On is the quintessential rendition of that charismatic 50’s and 60’s era and performances are showing throughout most of 2026; the venues can be discovered on his gig list. Pete has always been inspired by the Rock and Roll music of the 50’s and 60’s and performed a great many of those numbers when he played professionally in a cover band as a teenager. But it was as a pre-teen that he came across the Shadows music and enjoyed playing the famous Hank Marvin lead guitar riffs for fun but it was the subtle bass lines of Jet Harris that persuaded him to become a bassist.

As well as becoming the regular bassist for Rave On, Pete is now the bassist for the Blue Jays and they have been invited to headline Rock and Roll performances on cruise ship sailings: seven to date which can be found in the gig list.

The Victoria Bass Trio has gelled together very successfully and the last gig of the year at the Toulouse Lautrec Jazz Club went down a storm. Playing to a full house they had a standing ovation at the end of the performance.

Gypsy Jazz takes less of his time now but he is always delighted to play bass for the virtuoso French guitarists when they visit the UK as happened when he performed with Angelo Debarre in London in December.

Paul Armer and the Dawn Chorus bluegrass band had a great UK tour in November supporting the American band Gangstergrass and had the great accolade from Gangstergrass that they were the best support band they had ever played with. Pete is hopeful that he can perform with the band as much as time allows.

PM Warson’s latest album is due to be released early in the year but tour dates are yet to be announced.

See the Discography page on this website for details and links for all the music mentioned above.

Click for pics/clips of Jazz, Folk and Blues/Rock

See also Pete Thomas's Instagram page and YouTube account.