R.I.P. Tom Davies of Nebula, 1975-2023
Stepping back from his duties as longtime bassist for heavy psych rock pioneers Nebula this past Spring, Tom Davies let it be known that he was battling leukemia. Today word has come from Davies’ family that he has unfortunately passed away. The following was posted tonight, Sept. 6, on Davies’ social media:
Dear Friends,
We want to let you know that it’s with great sadness Tom died peacefully last night surrounded by his Mum, Sister and Partner Camille. The past 9 months living with high risk Leukemia were the most challenging of his life and he faced every hurdle with great strength, courage, determination and of course humor.
We want to thank everyone for their love and support during this time, he felt the love which bolstered him in his darkest moments.
Our world will never be the same again but we feel blessed to have had him in our lives.
Love
Grethe, Camille, Sarah and Will xTom Davies 1975 – 2023
Tom Davies joined Nebula in Sept. 2004 and went on to serve nearly 20 sometimes-tumultuous years in the band as the trio founded by guitarist/vocalist Eddie Glass released two albums — 2006’s Apollo and 2009’s wildly undervalued Heavy Psych — before a hiatus that lasted the better part of a decade. But when Nebula came back, Davies came back with them, and the trio of Davies, Glass and drummer Mike Amster took to stages around the world successfully, reissued the band’s entire catalog as well as a collection of demos and off-album whatnots through Heavy Psych Sounds — a label whose founder readily acknowledges Nebula’s influence on his own band Black Rainbows — took part as a flagship act in the ‘Live in the Mojave Desert’ stream and live album series, and, most crucially, put out two studio LPs in 2019’s so-correctly-named Holy Shit and last year’s Transmission From Mothership Earth.
As runs go, even accounting for a global pandemic, that’s nothing short of incredible. I won’t at all claim to know the details of Davies’ life, but even just to look at the outpouring of support after his diagnosis came out in April. The fundraiser that pulled in $16,000-plus to go toward medical expenses. The compilation Ripple Music put together this Spring. Countless notes of support from bands, friends, fans, tour mates, labelmates, whoever. By all accounts, the world seems to have lost a decent human being as well as an obviously talented and charismatic player.
I was fortunate enough to interview Davies on a couple of occasions, and he was always a nice guy. A combination of West Coast ultra-caszh with a British politeness underneath. He thought before he spoke, at least in all my dealings with him. On behalf of myself and this site, I’d like to express sincere condolences to Davies’ family, his friends, his bandmates past and present and all who knew him. That he will be missed is no doubt an understatement.
Tags: California, Los Angeles, Nebula, Sad shit, Tom Davies
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Sucks to lose a cool dude like him. He told me that he was “not going out this way” and seemed to be in pretty good spirits, all things considered. For some reason the rock gods had other plans…
My condoleances for the family of Tom Davies, Nebula and friends. He’s leaving masterpieces of music to us thankfull for this!
I remember I went to a Nebula show in Canada in 2007. I was checking out their merch when a bloke asked me some sorta question and I replied (in my Australian accent). He commented (in his British accent) something along the lines of “Hello, here’s a geezer!”. Maybe he mistook me for also being British. Anyway, I had no idea who he was but we both laughed. 30 minutes later he was on-stage playing bass for the band. Nice fella.