ONE of the UK’s finest boogie-woogie pianists is making a long-awaited return to Lyme Regis.

Tom Seals has announced a special concert on Friday, November 8 at the Marine Theatre organised with Jazz Jurassica, the promoters of the town’s jazz and blues festival.

It is three years since Tom first played in the town. Since then, he has played around the world, including at Ronnie Scott’s, Glastonbury and Birdland Jazz Club on Broadway.

Still only in his mid-twenties, Tom has already played alongside the biggest names in jazz and blues, such as Jamie Cullum, Jools Holland and Gregory Porter, always living up to his unique promise to play piano like “a ninja on steroids”.

Tom is a former student of Paul McCartney’s Fame Academy (Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts)where he took McCartney’s advice to heart. “He said 'when you've written a song, go away, leave it for a day – if you come back the next morning and you can remember the song and the words then that's the one that'll be a hit'." It is advice which paid off when Tom’s debut album, "Ace”, soared to Number Two in the UK Blues Charts in 2013.

Julie Sheppard of Jazz Jurassica said: “Tom Seals is just ridiculously talented. When other kids were listening to Britney Spears or the Spice Girls back in the 1990s, he was listening to Glen Miller and Frank Sinatra. He swings. He boogies. He rocks. He takes his music very seriously – but not, thankfully, himself. He’s the consummate entertainer. He went down a storm when he first appeared here so we’ve had many requests to bring him back!”

Tom and his band promise to deliver a high-octane evening of music and banter. As he says, “The truth is, when I’m on stage, I’m having the time of my life”.

*Tom Seals Band, Friday, November 8, Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis. Tickets from www.marinetheatre.com or Lyme Regis Tourist Information Centre on 01297 442138.