New songs, a Talking Heads cover and November headline shows from Brighton onwards mark the next stretch for the Sunderland songwriter on Fiction Records.
Sunderland singer-songwriter Tom A. Smith released the deluxe edition of his EP *Put On A Record Tommy* on 9 September 2026 via Fiction Records. The expanded set adds fresh material to the original release — the single *Am I Ever Gonna Be A Rockstar?*, *Dancefloor Magic*, *Carried Away* and *Our Song (Extended)* — alongside an extended cut of the title track and a cover of Talking Heads’ *Life During Wartime*. Smith has spoken of using the sessions to experiment with sonics while staying true to the style that first brought him notice. The deluxe package is a clear marker of where he sits now: still building outward from the direct, guitar-led writing that defined his early run, yet willing to stretch the arrangements and the running order.
From The Cluny to Fiction That run began early. Smith played his first gig aged eight, supporting Detroit Social Club at Newcastle’s The Cluny. He reached the Glastonbury stage before secondary school and was handpicked by Tim Burgess for the Kendall Calling bill, becoming the festival’s youngest performer. Live work with Sam Fender and Catfish and the Bottlemen followed, along with support slots for The Lathums and The Mysterines. Self-uploaded performances drew attention well beyond the North East: Iman shared his cover of David Bowie’s *Lazarus* in the week of Bowie’s death; Blossoms spotted him in a crowd and invited him backstage; Morrissey used his reading of *Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want* as walk-on music on a US tour. Nile Rodgers, James frontman Tim Booth and The Coral were among those who circulated clips of his playing. On record the path has been steady rather than sudden. Singles began with *Wolves* in 2021, followed by the EPs *1* and *2* in 2022 and a run of further singles that year, including *Could I Live With Being Fake*, *Dragonfly* and an Apple Music Home Session. Later releases took in *I Don't Want You To Have To Remember Me For Longer Than You Ever Knew Me* in full and single-edit forms in 2024, *This Christmas Time* the same year, then *Fashion* and a feature on *Human Nature* in 2025. The *Say What You Want* EP arrived in 2025. *Put On A Record Tommy*, now expanded on Fiction, sits as the latest statement in that sequence: a short-form record that has been opened out rather than replaced.
Dates still ahead Alongside the deluxe release Smith has confirmed a UK headline run. Brighton’s Patterns is listed for 11 November, with further dates through November and December. Festival and headline appearances stretch into late 2026. A date at Bristol Electric on 12 September has already passed. The remaining itinerary keeps the focus on club and mid-size rooms, the scale that has carried him from those early North East supports to a growing national circuit. What the deluxe EP and the autumn dates share is a sense of consolidation. The new tracks and the Talking Heads cover widen the sonic frame without abandoning the songwriting that first travelled online and into the rooms where Burgess, Fender and others took notice. For an artist still early in a catalogue that runs from 2021 singles through successive EPs to Fiction, the move is practical: more material on the record, more nights on the road and a clearer line between the bedroom covers that once circulated among rock royalty and the working life of a touring songwriter. Further late-2026 appearances remain on the calendar; the precise shape of any larger run beyond December has not yet been set out.
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