When he was a boy, Tom found an exploded artillery shell on Gullane Beach, near Edinburgh. The British army had held training exercises there prior to the D-Day landings.
On further investigation, Tom found that the shell made some quite wonderfully percussive sounds. He then went inter-railing and busking across Europe with his saxophonist brother Phil, and used the shell as the base for each improvised drumkit he made. The portrait session took place on the same beach, in the exact place where Tom found the shell.