Thomas Charles Greenhalgh is a singer, songwriter and multimedia artist best known as a foundational member with the post-punk band the Mekons. While primarily credited as a guitarist in the early Mekons recordings, Greenhalgh's role as a lead singer and songwriter came to the forefront during the 1980s.
Early life
Greenhalgh attended
Sevenoaks School in
Kent with Andy Gill and Jon King, future members of the Gang of Four, as well as Kevin Lycett and Mark White, who would later form
The Mekons.
[Simon Reynolds. "Rip it Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984". Penguin, 2006] After Sevenoaks, he attended the University of Leeds, the birthplace of a number of punk bands. As students in the Fine Arts program, Greenhalgh, Lycett, White and
Jon Langford formed the Mekons in 1976 and worked closely with the Gang of Four and Delta 5.
[Andrews, Mark. " Art Into Pop: Leeds Punk & Post-Punk, 1974-–81". The Quietus, 19 November 2022. Retrieved 17 May 2025.] In the politically charged atmosphere of the late 1970s, they participated in events such as Rock Against Racism.
[Simpson, Dave. " Pubs, disco and fighting Nazis: how Leeds nurtured British post-punk". The Guardian, 19 April 2019. Retrieved 17 May 2025.]
Music career
Along with
Jon Langford, Kevin Lycett, Mark White, Ros Allen and Andy Corrigan, Greenhalgh formed the long living and prolific
[Kopp, Bil. " Last Punks Standing: A Preview of Mekons at Hideout". Newcity, 11 July 2019. Retrieved 17 May 2025] post-punk band
the Mekons in 1976 when they were all art students at the University of Leeds. According to Greenhalgh, "the punk thing was an incredible spark of creativity, but it didn’t necessarily mean that you had to conform to what might conventionally be seen to be punk. It felt more like an imperative to do something. It was very much in the spirit of the times to get up and form a band. The 70s was a really interesting time for art, expanding into
performance art and
conceptual art. So, it wasn’t such a strange leap to consider music as a viable activity for someone who wasn’t necessarily trained."
[" The Mekons". Record Collector, 30 September 2019. Retrieved 17 May 2025]
Greenhalgh has taken part in a number of Mekons-related projects, many of which include Langford. He was The Three Johns' sound engineer for their first American tour in 1985. As a member of the Jelly Bishops, he collaborated with Langford and John Hyatt, releasing the album Kings of Barstool Mountain (1988).[" Jelly Bishops". onlangford.de, January 14, 1988. Retrieved 17 May 2025]
Other work
Greenhalgh was a member of the band Red Hot Polkas, appearing on Let's Polkasteady (1987) and Two Step to Heaven (1989). Around 1991, he collaborated on Plate, recording yet-unreleased experimental electronic music. With fellow Mekon
Sarah Corina, he recorded tracks on
banjo ukulele; a sample ("Lowlands of Holland") of which appears on
ResonanceFM's Clear Spot in 2002.
He produced Michelle Shocked's cover of the Beatles' "Lovely Rita" for the 1988 compilation Sgt. Pepper Knew My Father.[" Radio 1 - Keeping It Peel - 10/02/1987 Mekons". BBC Radio 1. Retrieved 17 May 2025] He also produced Mush's second album, Face in Space (1998). In 2000, Curve guitarist Alex Mitchell and he (as DJ Sparky Lightbourne and DJ Tommy Tomtom) appeared at the Foundry in Shoreditch.
External links
