Trevor Thoms (30 October 1950 – 8 December 2010), known as Judge Trev Thoms and Judge Trev, was a British

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...

, best known for being a member of

Inner City Unit Inner City Unit were a London based popular music group active from 1979 through to 1985, their music style encompassing psychedelia and punk rock. They recorded four studio albums, one studio EP and one compilation album of previously unrelea ...

Atomgods Atomgods were a UK Hard rock, heavy rock band from late 1980s. The band were formed by former Inner City Unit guitarist Trev Thoms, Judge Trev Thoms, the first recording lineup consisting of Hiro Sasaki and Kofi Baker (Ginger's son). They were s ...

, and The Steve Gibbons Band.

Background

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he played in a blues-rock group with hints of

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

and

heavy rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard rock mu ...

called

Iron Maiden Iron Maiden are an English Heavy metal music, heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris (musician), Steve Harris. Although fluid in the early years of the band, the line-up for most ...

- not the famous group of the same name - along with Barry Skeels, who later played for Zior and eventually became a

tour manager A tour manager (or concert tour manager) is the person who helps to organize the administration for a schedule of appearances of a musical group (band) or artist at a sequence of venues (a concert tour). In general, road managers handle tour det ...

for acts such as

Black Sabbath Black Sabbath are an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward (musician), Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler, and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. After adopting the Black Sabbath name in 1969 (the band ...

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

Manowar Manowar is an American heavy metal band from Auburn, New York. Formed in 1980, the group is known for lyrics based on fantasy (particularly sword and sorcery) and mythology (particularly Norse mythology and Greco-Roman mythology), as well as n ...

, and

Yngwie Malmsteen Yngwie Johan Malmsteen (; born Lars Johan Yngve Lannerbäck, on 30 June 1963) is a Swedish-American guitarist. He first became known in the 1980s for his neoclassical metal, neoclassical playing style in heavy metal music, heavy metal, and has ...

(another member of the band was called Steve Drewett, but probably he is not the same person as the one who later founded

The Newtown Neurotics The Newtown Neurotics (later just The Neurotics) are an English punk rock group formed in Harlow, Essex, England, in 1979. They are noted for their openly political music. History As The Newtown Neurotics, the band began their career playin ...

). They recorded one album called ''Maiden Voyage''. He later played in the seminal British Blues Boom band, Spirit of John Morgan. He has backed

Graham Bond Graham John Clifton Bond (28 October 1937 – 8 May 1974) was an English rock/blues musician and vocalist, considered a founding father of the English rhythm and blues boom of the 1960s. Bond was an innovator, described as "an important, und ...

Gregory Isaacs Gregory Anthony Isaacs OD (15 July 1951 – 25 October 2010)Thompson, p. 127. was a Jamaican reggae musician. Milo Miles, writing in ''The New York Times'', described Isaacs as "the most exquisite vocalist in reggae".Miles, Milo (1992),RECORDI ...

and Steve Gibbons, and was a member of

Steve Peregrin Took Steve Peregrin Took (born Stephen Ross Porter; 28 July 1949 – 27 October 1980) was an English musician and songwriter, best known for his membership of the duo Tyrannosaurus Rex with Marc Bolan. After breaking with Bolan, he concentrated on h ...

's band

Steve Took's Horns Steve Took's Horns was an English rock band with blues rock and punk influences formed in 1977 by former Tyrannosaurus Rex percussionist (and Pink Fairies founder) turned solo artist Steve Peregrin Took together with Trev Thoms, later of Nik Tu ...

with Dino Ferari on

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

. Artists he had played with include,

Opal Butterfly Opal Butterfly was an English psychedelic rock group from Oxfordshire, which was active between 1968 and 1970. Although the band itself did not gain widespread success, the musicians did go on to conduct successful musical careers. The band inc ...

Ray Morrison Jesse Raymond Morrison (February 28, 1885 – November 19, 1982) was an American football and baseball player and a coach of football, basketball, and baseball. He served as the head football coach at Southern Methodist University (1915–1916, ...

, Count Prince Miller,

, Panchito's High Rockers, The Spiders, the Skin-Deep Blues Band and Nik Turner's Fantastic All Stars.

Career

After ''The Horns'' broke up in the late 1970s both Thoms and Ferari joined ex-

Hawkwind Hawkwind are an English rock band known as one of the earliest space rock groups. Since their formation in November 1969, Hawkwind have gone through many incarnations and have incorporated many different styles into their music, including hard ...

Nik Turner Nicholas Robert Turner (26 August 1940 – 10 November 2022) was an English musician best known as a member of space rock pioneers Hawkwind. Turner played saxophone and flute, as well as being a vocalist and composer. While with Hawkwind, Tur ...

. Thoms also worked with Turner and Twink under the hybrid

Pink Fairies Pink Fairies are an English proto-punk rock band initially active in the London (Ladbroke Grove) underground and psychedelic scene of the early 1970s. They promoted free music, drug use, and anarchy, and often performed impromptu gigs and ot ...

name Pink Wind. He later formed

and has worked with other ex-Hawkwind members including

Ron Tree Ronald Tree (born 8 April 1963 in Leeds, England) is an English musician and songwriter, best known as frontman and bassist for the English space rock band Hawkwind from 1995 to 2002. He also played both these roles in the reunited Steve T ...

. He and Ferari formed their own version of Inner City Unit called Judge Trev's Inner City Unit. A regular 'collaborator' he also played with the revived Pinkwind featuring

& Twink (ex

) and after moving to Brighton regularly appeared with Slim Tim Slide (Tim Rundall) sometimes under the pseudonym "Stinky & Stumpy", a partnership that continued sporadically for the rest of Thoms' life. He played festivals such as the

Big Green Gathering The Green Gathering, formerly known as the Big Green Gathering is a festival with an environmental and social justice focus, including workshops and talks on permaculture, politics, ecology and crafts, as well as art, live music and spoken word p ...

, Cosmic Puffin Festival,

Glastonbury Glastonbury ( , ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbury is less than across the River ...

, Earthwise etc., performing his solo acoustic set or with the reformed Inner City Unit with Nik Turner. He also played gigs as

Trev and Kev Trev is a masculine given name, sometimes a short form (hypocorism) of Trevor or other names. It may refer to: People * Trevor Trev Alberts (born 1970), American college sports administrator and the director of athletics and former National Foot ...

with

Kev Ellis In physics, an electronvolt (symbol eV), also written electron-volt and electron volt, is the measure of an amount of kinetic energy gained by a single electron accelerating through an electric potential difference of one volt in vacuum. When us ...

, singer from Bubbledubble. He also ran the website Real Festival Music where he also wrote festival reviews. Thoms died on 8 December 2010 from

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of ...

Later years

During the last years of Trev's life he was active in forming The Real Music Club in Brighton and indeed his last ever gig was at a RMC event to celebrate his birthday, and his last recordings were with fellow RMC members Paradise 9. With the aim of promoting local talent as well as providing an outlet for his own work the club continues both live and on Brighton and Hove Community radio www.bhcr.org.uk and annual Trev Memorial gigs are ongoing.

References

External links

* Archive of Official website (defunct since his death) https://web.archive.org/web/20110912184351/http://www.judgetrev.com/ *

Trev Thomas Trev is a masculine given name, sometimes a short form (hypocorism) of Trevor or other names. It may refer to: People * Trevor Trev Alberts (born 1970), American college sports administrator and the director of athletics and former National Foot ...

allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

Judge Trev Thoms Trevor Thoms (30 October 1950 – 8 December 2010), known as Judge Trev Thoms and Judge Trev, was a British guitarist, best known for being a member of Inner City Unit, Atomgods, and The Steve Gibbons Band. Background In the late 1960s and earl ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thoms, Trev British rock guitarists British male guitarists 2010 deaths 1950 births