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 is now officially a member of the Blue Jays line up and is the established bassist for the Rave On performance.  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. 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.

The Blue Jays have been invited to headline several Rock and Roll performances on cruise ship voyages in 2026 with six more to go before the end of the year. The band is always immensely popular. All dates can be found in the gig list.

The Victoria Bass Trio has gelled together very successfully and can be seen three more times in 2026, finishing once more at the Toulouse Lautrec Jazz Club just before Christmas; their performance there last year finished with a standing ovation. All details and venues can be found on the gig list page.

Paul Armer and the Dawn Chorus bluegrass band played at Ebenezer’s Bar in Crewe in March and this venue provided a studio-quality livestream which can still be watched by searching on the Folk page. The band will be appearing at the Yellow Moon festival in August and the Didmarton Bluegrass festival in September. Excitingly the magazine British Bluegrass News features the band in an exclusive interview with Paul Armer and Chris Lord with a front cover photograph and the extended article within. Definitely a worthwhile read. Pete is also performing with the London Bluegrass Band twice during the summer; details can be found on the gig list.

In April PM Warson officially launched a new single, with Pete on bass, by the magnificent blues singer Carmy Love, entitled You Gotta Understand/Thinking of Leaving. It was released as a 7” vinyl, the first pressing of which sold out almost immediately; it can also be streamed. Details can be found on the Discography page.

Gypsy Jazz takes less of Pete's time now but he is always delighted to play bass for the virtuoso continental guitarists when they visit the UK.

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.