LITTLE TRIGGERS: Rock n Roll from Liverpool
Little Triggers are a formidable live force featuring Tom Hamilton on lead vocals and guitar. Rock media have been quick to spot Little Triggers’ huge potential, with Classic Rock Magazine featuring them as both a coveted High Hopes new band and awarding them two Tracks of the Week and a Track of the Year. Planet Rock, Total Rock and BBC Introducing radio stations have been spinning their singles since 2019. As well as being the front man of Little Triggers, Tom performs solo and collaborates with other artists.
Little Triggers emerged from the ashes of Tom Hamilton’s teenage outfit, The 45s, who signed a three album, $800,000 publishing deal with Primary Wave/BMG, only to see the other band members pull out under pressure from school and parents. Devastated, the 17 year old Tom accepted a place at Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts and kept a commitment to a two week French tour by hiring a couple of session players and stepping up to front the band. Having befriended ex Dr Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson when he snuck backstage at a gig in Kendal when Tom was 14, The 45s supported Wilko and his band on several occasions and Wilko joined them onstage to play Dr Feelgood classics in Wilko’s hometown of Canvey Island.
The 45s went on to share the stage with acts such as Elvis Costello at a festival in Belgium, tour with The Stranglers, be joined onstage by members of The Damned and support acts as diverse as Eddie & the Hot Rods, McFly and the Vamps. Having gigged and toured extensively with The 45s, including several trips to France and Belgium.
With the Little Triggers line-up finalised, the band rehearsed manically before embarking on a Summer tour 2018. This culminated in a magical night at a festival in France with 3,000 fans going berserk, mass stage invasions and young girls and guys becoming impromptu backing dancers. The band were invited back to France for four gigs in August that year, returning to enter the recording studio to lay down their debut album. An end of year highlight was stealing the show from a Doors tribute band at a sold-out Academy gig in Liverpool. 2019 saw another 8 gig French tour, including playing to a 4,000 crowd at Le Voix du Rock festival near Poitiers and storming a festival in Suffolk, who’s organisers labelled Little Triggers “band of the weekend.”
The debut album was released in May 2019, with the first single, So Fine, played five weeks in a row on Planet Rock Radio. The band were given a rave review in a Classic Rock magazine ‘High Hopes’ feature and the end of the year
saw So Fine featured as one of Classic Rock magazine’s ‘Tracks of 2019’. A UK tour was squeezed in at the start of 2020 with the last couple of gigs cancelled due to the pandemic and subsequent lockdown.
Little Triggers have released a further five singles over the last couple of years and performed all over the UK since lockdown restrictions eased. The band, originally a five piece, then a four piece, and laterally a duo, has become a flexible vehicle for Tom Hamilton to perform his own songs and achieve the particular sound he wishes to make. The band were invited to take part in the televised finals of Sumerian Records ‘No Cover Show’ with Alice Cooper as head judge in 2021. The finals were shot at The Troubadour Club in West Hollywood over two weeks last Spring but the band couldn’t make it due to Covid restrictions on travel. The finals have now been shown via Sumerian’s You Tube channel, averaging 300,000 views an episode. The finale contained a two minute video of the band performing their own song BURN and the comments received have been amazing with viewers saying that Little Triggers could have won the show!
The good news is that there will be a Season Two and Little Triggers have been asked to be part of the show. Look out for new music soon. And in addition, look out for Tom playing Bob Dylan in a walk-on part in the Sky Max serial ‘Funny Woman’ from the novel ‘Funny Girl’ by Nick Hornby. This will hit your screens in October this year.