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Tom Grennan

26 Jul 2024

The Castle Green, Cardiff Castle, Castle Street, Cardiff, CF10 3RB

EVENT INFO...

Tom grennan, live at cardiff castle on fri, 26 july 2024.

Presented by DEPOT LIVE

Gates @ 17:00 Last Entry @ 20:30

Tom Grennan is to headline a massive outdoor show at Cardiff Castle .

The chart-topping BRIT and Ivor Novello-nominated star will play the iconic venue on Friday July 26 .

Tickets go on general sale now   from depotlive.co.uk     

CUSTOMER INFORMATION

Cardiff Castle is not responsible for the management of this event, we do not handle any ticket sales and are unable to advise on or update any bookings.

If you have already purchased tickets, please contact your ticket provider’s customer services directly, quoting your booking reference.

For any other queries, you may find the answers in our Frequently Asked section below or, for further information, please contact:

DEPOT Live Tel: 029 2022 0491 [email protected]

FREQUENTLY ASKED

• Unless otherwise stated, Cardiff Castle does not operate an on-site box office for any concerts taking place in the grounds. We provide an approved link to purchase tickets online, as directed by the show promoter; however, tickets may also be available from other outlets.
• Most concerts taking place at Cardiff Castle are standing room only, dedicated seating is not provided. Note that standing tickets are also commonly described as General Admission. Please make sure to check the details of your tickets before completing any purchase.
• Some shows may offer a Gold Circle area with more expensive tickets. A Gold Circle is usually a section directly in front of the main stage and separate from the General Admission. At a standing concert the Gold Circle is also likely to be standing.
• It is generally prohibited to bring any kind of folding or camping chairs into a standing arena. Picnic blankets are often allowed; however, space is likely to be very limited near to the stage as most people will be standing.
• Most shows will provide a dedicated area for accessible tickets, this is often on a raised viewing platform, or similar, and will usually allow for a single companion free of charge. Note that accessible spaces are limited and are likely to sell-out quickly. For further information, please use the contact details provided above.
• Children attending concerts are often required to be accompanied by an adult, while some shows may not allow children at all. Please make sure to check the details of your tickets before completing any purchase.
• The grounds at Cardiff Castle are an open-air venue and will be subject to weather conditions, shows generally do go ahead in inclement weather. Please make sure to check the forecast and dress appropriately, note that umbrellas are usually prohibited from standing arenas.
• At most shows there will be a range of food and drink available to purchase from on-site venders. It is generally prohibited to bring your own food, drink, and alcohol into the grounds. Please check any information provided with your tickets, or use the contact details provided above.
• Access to the Castle grounds can be either via the South Gate (main entrance on Castle Street), or via the North Gate (from Bute Park, off North Road). To help with crowd control some shows may specify an entrance on your tickets, please check your details before arrival.
• There is no dedicated customer parking available at Cardiff Castle, however, there are several public parking facilities close by. Pre-bookable parking is available at NCP Cardiff Westgate Street and NCP Cardiff Greyfriars.

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Tom Grennan Ups The Ante With ‘Evering Road’

Rolling Stone talks to UK pop singer Tom Grennan ahead of his 2022 Australia Tour

Tom Grennan has spent much of 2021 putting the sophomore slump phenomenon to shame.

The London-based pop singer released his second album, Evering Road , in March. The record debuted at #1 in the UK charts and the single “Little Bit of Love” has gone Platinum. But the album’s 14-track, 46-minute duration isn’t the extent of Grennan’s 2021 output.

In April, Grennan was back in the UK top ten courtesy of the song, “Let’s Go Home Together”, a collaboration with fellow UK rising star, Ella Henderson. “Let’s Go Home Together” remains in the UK top 100 five months later, making it Henderson’s most successful release since her chart-topping debut single, “Ghost”, from 2014.

In June, Grennan featured on the Calvin Harris single, “By Your Side”, the Scottish producer’s latest attempt at penning the song of the summer. “By Your Side” thrust Grennan straight back into the UK top ten and quickly joined “Little Bit of Love” and “Let’s Go Home Together” in surpassing 50m global streams.

But that wasn’t it for Grennan, who recently turned 26 years old. In early September, he released the single, “Don’t Break the Heart”, one of five new tracks to appear on the Evering Road Special Edition. With a couple of extras having already surfaced on the album’s deluxe edition, Evering Road is now a 21-song, 70-minute album.

Watch the official music video for ‘Little Bit of Love’

“I think I wrote 130 songs,” says Grennan, who roped in more than a dozen producers and twice as many co-writers to bring Evering Road together. “I just didn’t want [the leftover songs] to collect dust, to be honest. I didn’t want them to not be heard and I felt like they still made sense to the record.”

Grennan’s debut album, Lighting Matches , came out in July 2018. Recorded when Grennan was just 21-22 years old, Lighting Matches put the spotlight on Grennan’s mighty vocal facility and knack for taking command of familiar pop melodies.

The songwriting was split between radio friendly pop rock a la Blossoms and the sort of rousing pop-soul that’s proliferated in the post- Adele era. Although Grennan didn’t quite stamp his name on either genre, the album won him an enthusiastic fanbase, reaching #5 in the UK charts and eventually going Gold.

On Evering Road , meanwhile, Grennan extinguishes any ambiguity regarding his core focus. “I make pop radio tunes,” he says, speaking to me on Zoom as part of his Australian virtual media tour. “That’s what it is and that’s what it is always probably going to be.”

“Little Bit of Love” is a prime encapsulation of that which gives Evering Road its broad appeal. Essentially, Grennan and his crew of co-workers—whose previous clients include Lewis Capaldi, Tom Odell and Dua Lipa, to name but a few—sought to combine heart-on-the-sleeve singer-songwriter traditionalism with the snap-to-grid polish of contemporary pop.

Watch the official music video for ‘Something Better’

The results are nothing if not familiar. “Little Bit of Love” is built around the I-V-vi-IV chord progression—famously deployed in everything from The Beatles’ “Let It Be” to Blink-182’s “Dammit” and Taylor Swift’s “Out of the Woods”—and one listen is enough to implant the chorus in your brain for several days.

“It’s a simple song, but listen, nursery rhymes are simple tunes and they lock onto kids’ eardrums and they go round and round and then adults starts singing it with their kids. And that’s what we’ve done,” Grennan says.

He continues: “If you start over-analysing and start thinking, ‘It needs to be this cool thing,’ it’s like, fucking no it don’t mate. It just needs to be fish and chips. It just needs to be that nice, cool meal that everybody loves and you don’t need to be putting no weird shit on the side, like caviar on fish and chips.”

In other words, Grennan’s professional ambitions are utilitarian in nature. But even so, saying Evering Road is the musical equivalent of fish and chips is a bit misleading. For one thing, Grennan has a charming, geezer-like personality, which shines through in his photo shoots, music videos and media appearances. He also sings with an unmistakable vocal rasp, a result of his customary high-velocity vocal delivery.

“I have my own little things, I’m creative,” says Grennan. “But my way is just like, I want to hit every person.”

Watch ‘Little Bit of Love’ performed live from the Late Show with James Corden

“Little Bit of Love” has essentially done just that, attracting nearly 200m global streams and more than 20m YouTube views. It’s been certified Platinum in Australia too, leading to an appearance on Channel 10’s The Project and a televised performance on the eve of the AFL Grand Final. In June 2022, Grennan will fly to Australia for a tour of capital city club venues.

But he’s not declaring mission accomplished just yet. Beneath an acoustic performance of “Little Bit of Love” on YouTube, a number of commenters voice frustration at Grennan’s perceived maltreatment by the arbiters of pop hegemony. “How is this guy not absolutely massive” says one, while another states, “I don’t care if he’s underrated, he’s my secret to enjoy.”

“It’s true,” says Grennan, siding with the YouTube commenters. “This whole game is luck and at the moment I’m having a bit of luck. But do I think that I’m underrated and not as big as I should be? Yeah, I do, to be honest.”

Grennan’s candour is refreshing—he has no time for self-defeating soliloquies about the virtue of creative insularity—but it does raise some questions. Namely, if your primary aim is to become “that nice, cool meal that everybody loves”, is anything short of playing the Superbowl halftime show going to feel like a failure?

“Listen,” says Grennan, chewing it over, “Would I like to be worldwide and known by millions of people, being really famous? I would actually, yeah. But am I happy with where I am right now? 100 per cent, and I will never be bitter in that sense.”

Watch the official music video for ‘Amen’

All this talk of top tens, streaming figures and status, but what does it amount to? Chart success isn’t the reliable indicator of pop cultural dominion that it once was. And as for Grennan, well, he’s observed much of his recent success from the confines of COVID-19 lockdown in his London flat.

But as high-vaccination numbers and rapid testing has allowed the UK to reopen, Grennan’s success is finally being concretised. In late August, he appeared at the Reading and Leeds festivals for the third time in his short career. Official footage from Reading shows Grennan and his band leading a massive crowd sing-along during “Little Bit of Love”.

Such enthusiastic crowd involvement will no doubt be a common feature of Grennan’s September-October tour of England and Scotland—tickets for which completely sold-out in advance—and his trip to Australia next June.

“I’ve never been to Australia, so it’s a dream,” Grennan says. “I’m going to make sure we have a big old party and I’m going to make sure that I get invited back to Australia.”

2022 Tom Grennan Australian Tour Dates

Wed 8 June – The Triffid, Brisbane Thu 9 June – 170 Russell, Melbourne Fri 10 June – The Factory Theatre, Sydney

Presale available from 10am local Thursday 30 September via secretsounds.com

General onsale starts 10am local Friday 1 October

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Tom Grennan: ‘I’ve got a big heart. And I’ve got a sensitive one, too’

The singer-songwriter says he feels he’s an arena artist and wants to be a global star – but he still finds time for a night of guinness drinking with his irish cousins.

Tom Grennan first wanted to be a professional footballer, then an actor, before he turned his hand to music.

Is Tom Grennan a pop star or a rock star? The English musician is not quite sure himself. He strides across the hotel lobby with a Gallagher-esque swagger and an air of cool insouciance, yet there are glimmers of his down-to-earth nature beneath the nonchalant bluster. He has, after all, written songs for Westlife and Clean Bandit, and there aren’t too many rock stars who would be sipping on a freshly-made carrot and ginger juice of a Wednesday morning.

If Grennan had not been painting the town – or more accurately, the village of Glasson, Co Westmeath – red with his Irish cousins last night, you’d be forgiven for thinking you had sat down with the wrong person. The Bedford-born musician’s father hails from Ballycumber, Co Offaly, and he has family spread across Offaly and Westmeath; last night, he indulged in “the best Guinness I’ve ever had” and spent the evening chatting to locals at the bar of a 300-year-old pub. There are, he admits ruefully, no establishments like that in Bedford.

In a quiet corner of Dublin’s Grafton Hotel, the sharply-dressed Grennan, difficult to miss his with trademark mop of curly hair, undoubtedly radiates charisma even if his answers are slightly non-committal, arguably even a little disengaged. Perhaps you could blame last night’s pints. I ask him what the best thing that someone could say about Tom Grennan is. He exhales loudly, thinking for a moment. “That I’ve got a big heart,” he grudgingly yields, with a solemn nod. “And I’ve got a sensitive one, too.”

Grennan has made his name as a purveyor of strident indie-pop songs such as Little Bit of Love and Don’t Break the Heart, and collaborations with everyone from Calvin Harris to Joel Corry and KSI. Now, he is releasing his third (and best) album yet; What Ifs & Maybes comes off the back of 2021′s Evering Road, the album that propelled him to fame and confirmed his capacity to sell out big venues across the UK and Ireland. That album was written after the end of a long-term relationship in which he was a self-confessed “toxic boyfriend”.

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“I definitely drew a line under a period of my life after that album,” he nods. “It came out at a weird time, obviously, during Covid. It was quite nice, actually; it was literally just this piece of work that went out to the world, and people could live with it, and I didn’t have to tour it. And I got to work on myself before I started to write this one.”

These dark clouds had gone, and the sun was shining over my head, and I felt happy – and I was ready to write this album —   Tom Grennan

The downtime, he says, brought him a degree of clarity and allowed him to find happiness again. “I was in this place where I dunno… I could see clearer,” he says. “These dark clouds had gone, and the sun was shining over my head, and I felt happy – and I was ready to write this album. And I think that’s really come out in the music; it’s colourful, it’s exciting, it’s full of life. That’s what I am right now.”

Still only 27, Grennan has packed a lot into life already. There have been various career paths, although none as fruitful as music; the initial plan was to be a professional footballer, having played for Luton Town at youth level. When that didn’t work out, he studied acting until he was discovered by a label rep while playing a pub gig. There are no regrets about how things worked out, he says.

“The acting could happen still,” he shrugs. “And I still love football, and I get to play in charity games and be surrounded by people who play football – so nah, I’m good. I’ve never dwelled on things. I’ve literally just said, ‘I’m gonna throw myself into the unknown.’ And that’s what this album’s about; it’s about the spontaneity of life, and not knowing where it’s gonna go. If you feel comfortable, then things are easy. If you feel uncomfortable, then you’re doing something right – because you’re able to swim, innit, in the deepest of waters.”

Tough decisions

He has grown up in recent years, he says, and had to make some tough decisions as he chases his musical dream. “I’ve had to lose some friends on the way,” he says. “I’ve had to let people know, ‘this is where I wanna get to, and unfortunately this relationship is not gonna happen because it’s not good for where I want to be at.’ I’ve had to be honest and fully open with people, and say, ‘Yo, I need to break away’ – because if I want to get to the next level, I need to.”

He is reluctant to go into detail about why he had to cut certain people out. “I dunno,” he says with an ambiguous nod. “I don’t know.” Bad influences? “Yeah, maybe,” he says, shrugging. “Something in my soul said, ‘I need to get to the next level’, and this is how I’m gonna do it. And I think that’s just being honest.”

His newfound happiness, he says, is down to several factors, including self-acceptance, “an unbelievable family, and an unbelievable missus”. If Evering Road raked through the debris of his last relationship, What Ifs & Maybes sounds like the soundtrack to falling in love, with songs such as Psychedelic Kisses and Loving Don’t Cost a Thing. While he won’t be drawn on the details of his personal life, he admits that his relationship with fiancee Daniella Carraturo had an impact.

“I think she’s definitely influenced a lot of my writing, because that’s the life I’m in,” he says. “But it’s also me falling in love with life again. It’s me being full of life. I’m in love with the person that I am, and I’m not afraid to be that person. And she’s definitely made me like that – and it’s just uplifting, yeah. It’s good.”

I run, it’s good for your head. Just getting out into fresh air, everything; just waking up early and getting ahead of the day. Mark Wahlberg mentality —   Tom Grennan

Although it sounds as if Grennan has a natural sunny-side-up disposition, he shakes his head at the notion of being instinctively positive.

“No, no,” he says, shaking his head. “I’m human, innit? I’m not always on, and always wanting to talk, and bubbly… some days, I’m like, ‘Just f*** off’.” He sighs. “And other days, I love life. But I feel like changing habits in my life into positive ones have definitely changed the way I am. Like, exercise. I run, it’s good for your head. Just getting out into fresh air, everything; just waking up early and getting ahead of the day. Mark Wahlberg mentality.”

[  Lewis Capaldi on anxiety, Tourette’s and fame: ‘This isn’t the f**king 70s. I’m not Tommy Lee’  ]

It will come as no surprise, given his laid-back demeanour toward most things, that comparisons to acts such as Ed Sheeran and Lewis Capaldi – fellow young men with guitars and a bunch of anthemic pop songs made for arena singalongs – are shrugged off.

“I know both of those guys, and I’m a big fan of them,” he nods. “And they’re doing really, really, really good things. But I’m on my own journey, and if I’m honest, I don’t look at anybody else’s career and go ‘I want that.’ I know what I want, but I’m the only one who’s gonna go on my journey. So who knows? But if people are comparing me to them, then… cool.”

A house in Offaly

Like both of them, Grennan is already at arena level, having recently played London’s O2 Arena for the first time. He is undoubtedly ambitious and already hungering for more – stadiums, he says, are the ultimate goal – but he hasn’t forgotten the people who got him here, either. He plans to buy a house in Offaly, perhaps his granny’s when it goes up for sale, for his mum and dad to have an Irish base.

“I hope this doesn’t come across as me being full of myself, because I’m not that; I’m just confident in my ability,” he says with a wide-eyed nod. “And I don’t think there’s a showman that puts on a show like I do in England. And I feel like I’m an arena artist, and I can cement myself there. So I wanna be at that level around the world, in Europe and in Ireland.” He sets his jaw, allowing himself a smile. “I wanna do everything. And I just want it to be a big party.”

What Ifs & Maybes is released on June 16th. Tom Grennan plays Fairview Park, Dublin, on June 30th.

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Tom Grennan: the pop wideboy putting dark days behind him

At 18, the Bedford-born singer was set upon by a group of strangers, an assault that left him badly injured. The experience spurred him on to develop his music, polished pop-soul with a wideboy touch that is fast earning him acclaim

G rowing up, Tom Grennan didn’t harbour any aspirations to be a singer. In fact, his mates back home in Bedford had never heard him perform until a house party during their A-level year. “I’d just got properly drunk for the first time,” the 22-year-old remembers. “And I just started singing this Kooks song, Seaside . They’re the first band I’d ever seen live. I’d never sung before – it was the alcohol that gave me the confidence.”

Grennan’s friends assured him that his performance had been better than your average boozy karaoke session, and he began making music. When he moved to London to study acting at university, he got a guitar, learned some chords, and started searching out open mic nights. “I didn’t really do much studying,” he admits with a laugh. After graduating, he got a job making lattes at Costa, but continued plugging away at his music: polished pop-soul with a wideboy touch. Think Paolo Nutini, if he’d grown up on Jamie T, listened to rappers J Hus and Dave, and featured on a Chase & Status record. It’s a sound that is reflected in Grennan’s image; in his press shots and on stage, he pairs classy tailoring with an oversized nose ring, and a blunt, half-shaved crop.

Eventually, label managers started showed up at gigs, and many meetings later he landed a record deal. Jump forward a year and a bit, and he’s slowly becoming ubiquitous; he cropped up in Charli XCX’s hit video for Boys alongside the likes of Stormzy and Riz Ahmed, and duetted with grime MC Bugzy Malone on Memory Lane , the first song to get clearance from the Gallaghers to sample an Oasis track (Wonderwall). He’s even soundtracking Sky’s Premier League coverage (“It’s crazy, it’s wicked … every time I’m watching the football I forget my song’s on it”).

As a romantic origin story for a soulful, working-class pop star – like his hero Adele – Grennan’s journey ticks all the boxes. But there was something darker behind the scenes spurring him on. Finding his voice helped him recover from an incident at the age of 18, when he was attacked by a group of strangers and left with metal screws and plates in his jaw for life. “I look at it in a positive way,” he says. “It made me, like, I don’t know … It made me very thankful, do you know what I mean?” he stammers, reticent to talk further about it.

But there is a perseverance evident in his music that suggests he’s able to turn hardship into success. His breakout hit, Found What I’ve Been Looking For , is a guitar-pop anthem elevated from its bare bones thanks to Grennan’s vocals – alternately weathered and featherlight – as he sings about being scared “the magic might fade away” but carrying on nonetheless. Similarly, Aboard, the standout track on his upcoming debut album Lighting Matches, boasts an earworm chorus that oozes raw emotion (“if it’s cool then it’s cool, won’t fuck around no more” he roars, pledging allegiance to a new love). Despite all this passion, Grennan’s just as adept at no-strings pop, like Royal Highness , which fizzes with Bruno Mars-style energy and lyrics about a girl who has a “little sting” to her. He’s laddish but likable, a quality that shines through in his sound.

“I believe that I have something that’s not like anything else,” he says, sounding excitable rather than arrogant. “I suppose I dream big as well.” Grennan is eager for 2018 to begin, with his album and his biggest UK headline tour to date on the way. But, even as his star ascends, he hasn’t forgotten his beginnings. Particularly, that night when he had five beers too many. “The Kooks are sick,” he says, a sentence you might not expect a hotly tipped talent to utter this side of 2010. “If I ever meet them I’ll definitely say thank you.”

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Tom Grennan

It’s one milestone after another for 27-year-old Bedford-born lad Tom Grennan. Emerging onto the music scene as the featured artist on Chase & Status’ 2016 platinum-selling single “All Goes Wrong,” it didn’t take long for his own material to propel him into becoming one of the UK’s most prominent and sought-after male artists. Following a run of EP releases, Grennan has spent the past five years as a hitmaking machine with a live reputation. To date, he has accumulated five platinum singles, and 8 top 40 entries while spending over 200 weeks in the top 100. 

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2018’s Lighting Matches , the first of two gold-certified albums, served as the then-23-year-old’s debut LP and sparked what has been a meteoric rise for Grennan ever since. Avoiding the sophomore slump, 2021’s Evering Road went straight in at No. 1 and proved that Grennan was being embraced by both the industry and the public at large. In the previous two years alone, we have seen him performing on the Reading and Leeds and Isle Of Wight Festival main stages, rack up three BRIT Award nominations, a nod at the IVOR Novello Awards, as well as produce more major collaborations with Calvin Harris (“By Your Side”), Ella Henderson (“Let’s Go Home Together”), KSI (“Not Over Yet”), and Joel Corry (“Lionheart (Fearless)”), the latter of which became the England football team’s anthem during the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Based on those statistics and achievements, it’s not hard to recognise how he recently shifted over 180,000 tickets on his most recent European tour, is it?

The booked and busy star meets Principle on a sunny Thursday morning for his cover shoot at a studio in High Barnet. His schedule is all go go go as he’s just flown back into the country after a recent visit to Ireland and has even more promotion straight after the five-hour shoot. Sitting in front of the mirror, I introduce myself to Grennan who is getting his haircut. Despite the blatant tiredness, he is still engaging and a total professional. Grennan moves into another room where the grooming continues and our interview begins. It’s been a few weeks since he conquered his biggest run of headline shows and it’s clear from the tone in his voice and the life in his eyes that he’s still on a high from the experience. 

“I felt like it was a whirlwind of emotions. It was a mad thing to see how much the journey has been a constant growth, do you know what I mean?” Grennan says. “It was just a big party, man. The set was amazing, the stage was amazing, the crowds were unbelievable. I feel like me as a showman, I upped the levels and came off that tour thinking, ‘Yeah, I deserve to be in these arenas and I’m gonna stay there too.’” Kicking off the UK leg at Birmingham’s Utilita Arena, Grennan went up and down the country and played in 10 packed-out arenas throughout March.

Concluding at London’s iconic O2 Arena, he recalls pulling up to the venue as a “pinch-me moment” but makes it known that this milestone is only what he considers a stepping stone for his next set of goals. “The next tour it’ll be two or three. I’m excited just to keep building and seeing the journey growing even more,” Grennan says.

During the preparation stages, it was important for Grennan to make sure fans were going to get their money’s worth, at an affordable price. Over the past year, it’s been pretty hard to ignore or for people not to be affected by the cost of living crisis that is impacting the country right now. And like all things that cost money, tickets for concerts have rapidly increased in price. For example, those planning to see SZA on her first UK tour will have to fork out as much as £120 for a standing ticket while nosebleed seats for Madonna’s upcoming “Celebration Tour” are a hefty £225. VIP packages have become the norm and Ticketmaster’s re-sale service is an opportunity to scam customers into coughing up three times more than they should. Grennan recognises that this is a huge problem and made the cautious decision to have tickets for his shows capped under £50, something which his audience expressed appreciation and respect for. 

“I think it’s embarrassing when people do it,” he says in response to the inflation of packages. “Don’t get me wrong, each to their own. But for me, my experience with fans is that they have invested in me anyway, in my music and their time. And I don’t want anybody to feel like they’re being taken for a mug, really. I wanted to keep prices down and for everybody to come away from that tour happy and still have a bit of money in their pocket.”

Some may say that the arena tour took place at an interesting time in Grennan’s career. Over the past 12 months, he’s been dropping hit singles that have simultaneously been charting and dominating the airwaves. However, he has yet to release the project they were always intended to exist on. Announced in September of 2022, Grennan’s third studio album, What Ifs & Maybes , still remains unleashed but is scheduled to arrive on June 16 via Insanity Records, who offered him a recording contract after a representative saw him performing live at a pub in Finsbury. Knowing that his audience was going to have to wait a little longer to hear the record in its entirety, Grennan used the opportunity to perform a number of new, unreleased music three months in advance. What could have been considered a gamble resulted in the complete opposite as Grennan recalls fans gravitating toward certain songs pretty immediately. 

“I’ve got a song called ‘Psychedelic Kisses’ and I really felt like that one connected with people,” he says. “There was this one fan, she created her own boiler suit with these illuminated, reflected kisses going down it. It was from then that I knew it was obviously connecting. All of them really felt like they deserved to fill the room. I could see that these songs are gonna definitely be loved by people.”

Personally and professionally, Grennan has never been in a better place, and the music on What Ifs & Maybes represents those positive vibrations. The artist previously described 2021’s Evering Road as a breakup album that was written as more of a thank-you note. This one, however, is all about spontaneity and how it feels to be full of life. In return, Grennan wants listeners to be able to match his energy and mindset after hearing it.

“I want this album to be for people who haven’t got the confidence or feel like they can’t get somewhere. If you’ve got a dream, believe in that dream. I’ve done that all my life. And it was only after Evering Road came out that I then really became happy. I found the love in me,” he says. Grennan credits his girlfriend for playing a huge role in his journey to loving himself. “I found my missus and I was just energised by life and I saw everything as a colourful thing. I didn’t have the black clouds over my head. This is what this album’s all about. It’s about just being free and being able to express myself the way I wanna express myself,” he adds. “I want everybody who’s listening to say, ‘I can be what I want to be, do what I want to do, and I’m gonna live everything that I want to live.’”

Lucky enough to be given an early listen to the album, I selected a handful of tracks for Grennan to give fans a little more insight into.

“How Does It Feel,” the most recent offering and the album opener: “I was all in a feeling of connection and I was reminiscing on a time when I really needed to sort my stuff out before I could do anything about the relationship I had with my missus, basically. I wanted to take this song to a place where I sing about how important connection is and I needed it to be a feeling of that and how beautiful intimacy is and just how when you are back in that mode of ‘Let’s meet up again and relight the fire’ kind of thing, and how exciting that is. When I was writing ‘How Does It Feel?’, I was in this mode of just, I’ve got everything I want, I’ve got the girl I want, I’ve got fucking everything.”

“Psychedelic Kisses,” an obvious standout that has already started to become a favorite with fans: “This song happened really late during the album process. I didn’t want to let the fans down who have been with me from the get-go, so I was like, ‘I need to kind of go back to what I was doing years ago, but make it better.’ And ‘Psychedelic Kisses’ happened and I dunno, it was a quick song and it just felt like it was a banger from the get-go.”

The soulful “Love Don’t Cost A Thing” (Funnily, Jennifer Lopez’s song of the same name starts to play in the background when discussing this one): “This one happened early on. I wanted to recreate that Rihanna song with Kanye West and Paul McCartney, ‘FourFiveSeconds.’ It’s one of my favourite songs. I was like, ‘How do we do that song? I want that feeling that that song gives.’”

“Sleeping Rough,” a signature Tom Grennan anthem with a lot of passion: “One of my favorites on the album. We wrote this song with the intention of just telling a story of going, I will literally stay in the cold until you come back and I’ve learned my lesson. Do you know what I mean? We’ve got the album title in the lyrics of that song and it’s one of those songs with a big chorus and it’s just happy.”

The sentimental “Before You” : “‘Before You’ was actually made at the beginning of the record. We went away to Suffolk and I was like, ‘I really want to go in a different direction. I need the DNA of what this record’s gonna be.’ And ‘Before You’ was the blueprint of the whole album for sure.”

After keeping the album under wraps for so long, Grennan isn’t manifesting much that is out of reach. “I’m manifesting a number one album, for sure,” he says. Given that he achieved that with the previous, that seems more than likely. He would also like to see himself headlining stadiums at one point, which for any seasoned live performer is the ultimate goal.

“All I want is for this album to live in people’s lives. I want people to take this album and go, ‘This is the best album that I’ve ever done.’ Because it is. I want it to be one of the best albums of 2023,” Grennan adds. “I don’t like to look too forward. But right now, that’s how I’m feeling about what I want.” As a previous acting student at St. Mary’s University in Twickenham, Grennan still has hope that he will be able to put that degree to use in the near future once his diary clears up a little. For right now though, he appears more than happy to focus solely on his career in music.

The biggest lesson Grennan has learned along the way? “Not to be a dickhead,” he replies. “Always just be polite, kind, and have manners as they cost nothing. It’s not just about the music. For me, it’s all of the above. Being able to just be sweet and not take this whole thing for advantage, you know? I’m grateful to be here and I’m grateful for the team and fans that I have.”

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Tom Grennan: 'My family is from Offaly. It was like going to fairyland'

Tom Grennan has a new album, What Ifs & Maybes, and an upcoming Irish gig. 

Tom Grennan is looking forward to an Offaly big adventure. The English singer is in Dublin to promote new album, What Ifs & Maybes, but can’t wait to get back to his family’s spiritual home in Ballycumber, 16 kilometres from Tullamore.

“My family is from Offaly. It was like going to fairyland,” he says. “I loved it. It was another world. It’s a place that I call home. I know Offaly like the back of my hand. I sort of grew up there too.” 

With a mass of tousled hair and a face pleated in scruff, Brennan has the aura of someone who has just fallen out of bed as he shoots the breeze at his record label’s Ballsbridge headquarters. This is the persona with which he has conquered the charts: that of a sleep-eyed guy next door whose music is full of heartache yet also has a lived-in and approachable quality. Think of him as a super-laid-back Ed Sheeran, the Harry Styles who doesn’t look like he might secretly be an alien on a mission to collect all the earth’s feather boas.

“I’m just a normal fella whose got himself into a position that is unusual,” he says. “I’ve found this thing where I’m pretty good at in writing songs. I’m also good at navigating the way I’m feeling. That’s what some people aren’t good at. And then they listen to music and they think, ‘oh that’s actually how I’m feeling too’.” 

He lays his feelings once again on What Ifs & Maybes – a “post pandemic” LP written in early 2021 and inspired by his relationship with girlfriend Daniella Curraturo.

It’s big-hearted pop, full of hooks and heart-and-sleeve lyrics. And it also brims with the self-doubt that is Grennan trademark: he’s happy to admit to vulnerability and to scrapping and scraping his way through life.

“I don’t know what to tell you, I don’t know what to say,” he sings on the single How Does It Feel, a weepy mid-tempo number that cuts to the heart of what he’s about musically. It’s emotive – if never quite drippy – and features production so polished you can almost catch your reflection in its contours.

“I started the album in the countryside,” he says. “I wanted to get away from London. Take a breath – the album is doing exactly that. It’s taking a deep breath and jumping into unknown water. I’ve always made records in the hustle and bustle of London. It was like, no no, no – I need too to be away. Really knuckled down and make a record in a different away.” 

Grennan grew up in Bedford, a town of 170,000 on the distant fringes of London. He was a useful soccer player and was signed by Luton Town and Aston Villa at various points. But injury cut short his career, and he poured his work ethic and ambition into music instead.

“I feel like I’ve grown up,” he says of moving from soccer to music. “Every year, in my understanding that this is what I good at, this is what I do.”

 Grennan is a pop star signed to a major label. But he is also a grass-roots musician with a young fanbase. For that reason, he has gone where other artists are sometimes unwilling to venture by putting a cap on his ticket prices.

“We’ve worked hard to pull the cost of ticket down, and dismissed all VIP and platinum ticket options as it’s just bollox in the middle of a cost of living crisis,” he tweeted when ticket prices for his latest tour went o sale. “The pinch is real, and I take it very seriously. Others should take note.”

 “I saw a lot of artists ripping your fans off , doing stupid VIP meet and greet for a hundred quid. It’s out of order – especially when we’re living in a time of crisis when people can’t afford to turn their heating on. It’s hard for people to say, if I want to go to this gig... then I can’t pay my electric gig’. That’s not on. How do I make it possible that people can do both? I’ve put my ticket prices as low as they can go. At the moment, that’s where it will stay.” 

• What Ifs & Maybes is released Friday, June 16. Grennan plays Fairview Park, Dublin, on Friday, June 30

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Launceston run away with gala

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AN enthusiastic, though somewhat depleted Tavistock Swimming Club squad, took third place in the friendly gala against Bude , Devonport Royal and Launceston on Saturday at their home pool, Meadowlands. Launceston were the worthy winners with a runaway total of 204 points with Devonport Royal 147, Tavistock 139 and Bude 127. Tavistock?s vice-president Sue Dunstan attended and supplied welcome refreshments to the officials on a hot poolside. Felix Davies, Sam Campbell, Ross Williams, Michael Best, Tom Grennan-Cruise, Jake Broome and William Carter all achieved first places for Tavistock . There were some close finishes in the relay events but Tavistock could only manage one first place, a convincing win by the 11/under 4x50m medley relay team of Tom Grennan-Cruise, Sam Campbell, Felix Davies and Kameron Brimble. The 13/under team of Tom Waddington, Chris Mills, Tom Crocker and Joshua Stephens came close to winning 4x50m medley events but were just beaten on the touch. With Amy Warnett the only swimmer in the girls? open category, Laura Radgick, Kirsty Best, Catriona Smith and Laura Aspen all swam up age groups, with Kirsty taking a second place in the open 50m breaststroke. Coach Wendy Stephens nominated Laura Aspen as Swimmer of the Gala. Full squad (personal best times achieved): Laura Radgick (3), Michael Best, Jake Chinn (1), Catriona Smith (1), Amy Warnett (2), Felix Davies (1), Kirsty Best (1), Rebecca Windemer (1), Kirsty Smith, Sam Broome (1), Will Crocker, Rebecca Tansey (1), Sam Campbell (1), Tom Grennan-Cruise (2), Charlotte Mellor, Cathrine O?Boyle, Leonnie Isaacs, Katie Stephens (1), Peter Jarman (2), Ross Williams (1), Joshua Stephens (1), Tom Grennan-Cruise (1), Laura Aspen (1), Tom Waddington, Chris Mills, Tom Crocker, Felix Davies, Kameron Brimble, William Carter and Jake Broome. Representing Tavistock for the first time were Sally Carter, Lily Edwards, Kieron Rookes, Hannah Robson, Sam O?Boyle and Peter Jarman. In the Development Galas held at Tiverton recently there were some excellent swims and personal best times recorded by Tavistock swimmers. Sam Campbell took gold in the 200m breaststroke in the 10 years category and the silver in the 100m IM and the 200m IM. The butterfly events was successful for Tavistock with Ross taking gold in the 14 years 100m butterfly and silver in the 200m butterfly and Rebecca Windemer silver in the 12 years 200m butterfly. Joshua Stephens won bronze in the 12 years 200m butterfly.

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Rhys Jones | Wednesday 07 February 2024 22:14 GMT

Prince William rubs elbows with Tom Cruise at charity gala amid King Charles’ cancer diagnosis

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Tom Cruise was a fellow guest at the event, and the pair spoke and posed together for photos.

William later thanked “fellow pilot” Cruise for attending and made a lighthearted joke about the A-lister, saying “Tom, if you wouldn’t mind not borrowing either of the new helicopters for the next Mission Impossible, it would be appreciated.”

The 75-year-old monarch’s cancer diagnosis was announced on 5 February, after undergoing a procedure for benign prostate enlargement.

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Tom Grennan, Blossoms + Special Guests

Gunnersbury Park will play host to a series of concerts offering a vibrant mix of music genres in August 2024.

Tom Grennan, the unstoppable force of British music, is gearing up for his most EPIC show yet! Following the incredible success of his chart-topping #1 third album, "What Ifs & Maybes", and a completely sold out UK arena tour, the star is set to headline Gunnersbury Park the 10th of August 2024 for his biggest-ever headline show.

This open-air spectacle will be a testament to a year that has seen Grennan soar to unprecedented heights, with indie favourites Blossoms joining and even more special guests yet to be revealed.

Book your tickets today! 

For more information for ticket holders and local residents please scroll down. There is also a dedicated residents page from the event organiser which you can access here .

Information for ticket holders

There is no parking at Gunnersbury Park for concert goers. For pick up / drop off please enter through the second entrance on Popes Lane (on the left going west) taking you to the Sports Hub. A one way route will be in operation. 

Got another query?

Please email [email protected]

Information for our neighbours

This series of single stage concerts is hosted by Festival Republic. The concerts will be supported by a number of other ancillary activities including food and drink concessions, merchandise traders, other relevant traders, relevant sponsor activations and a licenced bar.

Hire Period: Thursday 1 August to Saturday 24 August 2024

Operating Hours: Gate opening times will vary for each concert day, live music will finish no later than 10.30pm, with the event being clear of the public by 11pm.

Location:  The Old Cricket Pitch - click here for the map

We are liaising closely with the event organisers to minimise disruption for our neighbours.

RESIDENTS ONLY: To contact the organisers over any issues that occur during the concerts please phone 0203 781 0001 (this number will be live during event set up and event days.)

The residents website is now live, click here for more information and complimentary ticket updates

Will the park be open while the event is on?

Yes, all entrances in to and out of the park will remain open between Thursday 1 August to Saturday 24 August 2024. The event is based in the Old Cricket Pitch which is in the southern central area of the park but some other areas of the park will contain infrastructure such as barrier, fencing, lighting and toilets to ensure event related traffic or customers can arrive and depart safely and easily. 

The crossing points introduced last year will remain in operation and additional signage will be provided to assist park users in planning their routes.

Approximately 80% of the park will remain open as usual.

Will the park’s other facilities be open while the event is on?

Yes, Gunnersbury Park Museum, the Sports Hub, Putt in the Park, the pedalos and car park will all be open as usual. For safety reason we will be implementing a one way system in the car park. The event organisers will be providing stewards and installing barrier in and near the car park to direct event related traffic and other traffic also using the car park during this time. Your co-operation in following their directions is appreciated.  

Complimentary Tickets

Local residents tickets will be offered from the event organiser, click here for more details . There will also be a number of complimentary tickets to be won, to be eligible make sure to join our e-newsletter .

Will nearby streets, traffic and parking be affected?

The event organisers work closely with local councils, emergency services, key stakeholders and contractors with the aim to cause as little disruption as possible to residents and provide safe access to and exit from the site. Traffic routes will be managed by Offsite Traffic Co-ordinators and marshalled by an experienced traffic management company accordingly.

Event attendees are being encouraged to travel by public transport and it is publicised that there is no parking available at the event or in the local area. The planned taxi pickup and drop-off will be located within Gunnersbury Park with the aim of minimising traffic in the local area.

Whilst ticket holders leave the site, the higher volume of people crossing the A406 to get to Acton Town station will likely result in longer waiting times for traffic at these lights. Details regarding the organisers’ traffic management plans will be agreed upon with the local authority and released in due course.

The organisers are also implementing robust crowd management and dispersal plans to help move customers away from the local area towards public transport hubs as safely, and efficiently as possible.  

Will public transport be affected in the area?

We anticipate that there will be minimal impact on public transport on event days due to phased arrivals, although it is anticipated that the stations will be slightly busier than normal. The train and tube stations closest to the event will be much busier than normal from approximately 20:30 – 00:00 on the August event dates.

Please consider you may need to allow more time for your journey when travelling at these times.

The following stations are expected to be busier than normal:

• Ealing Broadway
• South Ealing

What are the event organisers proposing to do about litter?

The event organisers are implementing a waste management plan which includes regularly collecting and clearing waste from their arena, the other areas in the park being used for the event, and in the surrounding streets being used by their customers who are arriving and departing from nearby transport hubs. The event organisers are also committed to reducing their impact on the environment.

How will noise be managed?

A comprehensive Noise Management Plan has been developed by the event organisers in consultation with competent acousticians and the Council’s Noise Pollution Officers.

No demolition or construction work shall take place on the site except between the hours of 8am to 8pm Monday to Sunday. Noisy works (defined as works which can be heard outside the boundary of the park) shall only take place between 8am to 6pm on Mondays to Sunday. The stage has been positioned to minimise the likelihood of performance noise being intrusive while the concerts are live.

Sound checks will take place on each of the event days prior to opening and on the day before the first event day. No sound checks will take place earlier than 10:00 am.

There will be agreed volume levels monitored by our acoustic consultants and approved by the local authority. All concerts have a 10:30 pm music curfew.

If you have any noise-related issues or queries at any point during a show or the build period, you can get in touch via the community hotline or dedicated resident email address.

How do I find out more about other events in Gunnersbury Park?

Information on the other events taking place in Gunnersbury Park can be found here . The best way to find out about other events taking place in the park is to subscribe to Gunnersbury Park’s mailing list which you can do here . 

Why we hold events in Gunnersbury Park

Gunnersbury Estate (2026) CIC was set up for the purpose of opening up the park and museum for education, leisure and recreation for the widest possible audience.

In 2022 we embarked on our biggest programme of events in the park. Tens of thousands of people have visited Gunnersbury: whether bringing the family for a day out with dinosaurs, to listen to award-winning music artists or enjoy immersive cinema, and we’ve loved welcoming new and familiar faces to the park.

 We offer a rich variety of experiences and services to attract the widest possible range of visitors and add value to our community's lives. We welcome thousands of local school students for educational experiences, bring opportunities to local community groups, offer a thriving museum service and continue keeping the park and museum well-maintained and free to access all year. We invest 100% net profit of the income generated from these events back into Gunnersbury, to allow us to continue serving our community. 2022 saw the running cost for the Gunnersbury Estate in excess of £2.3m, and our costs are rising all the time, making this event income ever more vital.

Event details

10 August 2024

2 - 10.30pm

Gunnersbury Park

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More than words: writing the wrongs , alien worlds: outdoor exhibition.

What Tom Cruise thinks about possibly dating Irina Shayk: Report

N ew gossip reports claim that Irina Shayk may be interested in dating Tom Cruise . The supermodel was recently linked to Tom Brady and appears to be considering her options from a short dating pool. According to sources near to Cruise, the actor is aware of the gossip rumors and feels “flattered.”

Suri Cruise looks cool and stylish in new photos in NY

Suri cruise and katie holmes look like sisters on a fashionable coffee date, tom cruise has given dakota fanning a birthday gift every year since she was 11.

The Daily Mail reports that while Cruise is flattered by Shayk’s interest, he’s not interested in dating considering his recent break up from Russian Elsina Khayrova. The publication reports that Cruise and Khayrova’s relationship concluded in February, and that Cruise was taking a break from dating for the time being. He’s also prioritizing his work.

“Tom is flattered that someone as beautiful as Irina would consider him relationship material – but as much as he is flattered, Tom’s first love is making movies, and that is going to take up most of his time,” said the source.

“Whoever he does eventually get involved with will have to deal with that. Would he ever meet Irina and see if sparks were to fly? Anything is possible, but Tom and Irina ever dating would lean towards the impossible.”

More details about Cruise and Khayrova

Cruise and Khayrova only appear to have dated for a couple of months. Reports claim that the relationship concluded due to Khayrova’s ex-husband, Russian olygarch Dmitry Tsvetkov, who had spoken about Cruise and Khayrova’s relationship. “Irrespective of whoever she’s with, Tom Cruise or anybody else, they should be aware that she likes the finer things in life and has expensive and luxurious taste. Tom should keep his eyes and wallet wide open,” said Tsvetkov to The Daily Mail.

“He’s filming and can’t be shooting and have her husband saying stuff every time he is mentioned in the press,” said a source to Page Six . “They just didn’t want to deal with the ex-husband coming up with something nasty to say every few weeks.”

Did Tom Cruise Try To Date Jennifer Garner? Inside The Rumors

Tom Cruise's relationship with Katie Holmes was one of the most popular and talked-about celebrity romances of the aughts and early 2010s. It all fell apart in 2012 when Holmes filed for divorce. However, there have been rumors that Cruise was interested in another brunette actor before linking up with Holmes. In "Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography," author Andrew Morton claims that he tried to woo none other than Jennifer Garner.

After Penélope Cruz and Tom Cruise's Y2K romance came to an end in 2004, and following Garner's divorce from Scott Foley, Morton alleges that rumors began to swirl about Garner and Cruise. Supposedly, the A-lister watched her in "Alias" and fell for Garner instantly. "Legend has it that he left messages on her voicemail asking 'if she knew what freedom was,' sentiments so trite that Garner apparently read them to her girlfriends," Morton wrote.

Morton also reported another wild story that circulated: Cruise sent Garner a live tiger in a cage once he found out that she loved them. Talk about going wild for love! However, Morton noted that Garner's representatives denied that this happened. The author recounted more about Garner in "Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography" too, even revealing that she was among a handful of actors considered by The Church of Scientology to be Cruise's wife .

Cruise supposedly told Scientology higher-ups that he liked Garner

According to "Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography," former Scientologist Marc Headley detailed the process of finding Tom Cruise a wife in an interview with a British tabloid. It was framed as a casting call and Headley was assigned to film the auditions for the head of the church, David Miscavige. Some Scientologist actors were auditioned but not chosen. According to Andrew Morton's book, "'They had to look outside the herd, so to speak,' Headley told writer Lewis Panther. 'They went for Jennifer Garner, Scarlett Johansson and Jessica Alba, in that order.'" 

Garner reportedly didn't even attend the audition. Neither did Alba, and Johansson got too anxious and left when she saw that it was being held at The Church of Scientology. Naturally, the organization didn't take too kindly to the book, and in a lengthy statement decried it as "a bigoted, defamatory assault replete with lies" (via Today ). However, Morton talked more about the audition situation in a 2012 New York Post article. He also contended that Garner was considered since she was on a list of women Cruise wanted to date that he submitted to Scientology higher-ups. 

Garner and her ex-husband Ben Affleck started dating in 2004 and got engaged the following year. Although the stories about the "Mission Impossible" star's infatuation with Garner remain unconfirmed, it's possible that she turned him down due to already being involved with Affleck (or maybe she found those rumored voicemails strange).

Garner's show helped one of Cruise's biggest movies get made

Even though Tom Cruise and Jennifer Garner seemingly never had any kind of romantic relationship, Garner's hit show "Alias" reportedly helped Cruise's movie "Mission: Impossible III" get made. After several failed attempts to get the threequel into production with different directors, J.J. Abrams and Cruise had a crisis meeting. Abrams, who created "Alias," gave him the Season 1 and Season 2 DVDs, though he didn't expect Cruise to actually watch them.

The "Risky Business" star thoroughly enjoyed the show, subsequently offering Abrams the directing slot for "Mission: Impossible III." It was his first time helming a movie, and as the "Lost" co-creator admitted to  MTV News , in 2004, "The thing about 'Mission: Impossible' is that it is an incredible challenge, it's an incredible opportunity. And I just couldn't feel luckier that I'm gonna get to do that movie, 'cause I think the series is really fun. I'm a huge fan of the TV show."

Even if Cruise didn't really gift Garner a Bengal tiger, they were at least friendly enough to hang out at a pre-BAFTA party in 2013. According to Metro , Ben Affleck was there too and he and the "Top Gun" star happily rubbed elbows with many other celebrities. One thing that hasn't happened yet is a professional collaboration between Garner and Cruise, but considering they both like to do their own stunts, maybe it's only a matter of time.

Whatever Happened to Tom Cruise and Reese Witherspoon’s Rodeo Romance?

We were this close to a Western love story with Witherspoon and Cruise.

The Big Picture

• Tom Cruise's career took a different turn in 2011, as his attempts at branching out into non-action roles were largely unsuccessful.
• Cruise's interest in a romantic Western comedy called Paper Wings suggests a different path his stardom could have taken.
• Cruise's past successes in romantic and comedic roles, such as in Risky Business and Jerry Maguire , highlight his versatility and talent beyond the action genre.

Any discussions about Tom Cruise being “past his prime” are completely ridiculous, as Cruise has proven time and time again why he’s the biggest movie star on the planet. The combined critical and box office success of Top Gun: Maverick and the last few installments within the Mission: Impossible franchise have proven that Cruise is still an immediate box office draw for audiences across the globe. However, Cruise’s career was in a far different place a decade earlier , as his efforts to branch out into non-action roles had been largely unsuccessful. During this brief period of uncertainty, Cruise nearly signed up for a Western romance film that he would have co-starred in with Reese Witherspoon . Although the project never took off, it suggests a very different path that Cruise’s stardom could have taken under different circumstances.

Tom Cruise's Career in 2011 Was Very Different

In early 2011, Game of Thrones director Brian Kirk was reportedly circling a romantic Western comedy that was tentatively titled Paper Wings . The premise felt like a strange cross between Urban Cowboy and Rhinestone , as it followed a rough and tough rodeo star that fell in love with a country singer. The script had been developed by Twilight writer Marty Bohen , and was first sent to New Line Cinema in 2006. Witherspoon first got involved with the project when The Pursuit of Happyness director Gabriele Muccino was attached to helm it. Cruise was reportedly seriously interested in taking on the project. While it now seems unbelievable that Cruise would ever pop up in a Western romance , his career was in a much different state back in 2011.

It had been a rough few years for Cruise. In the aftermath of Mission: Impossible III , Cruise attempted to reestablish himself as a dramatic actor with Robert Redford ’s political drama Lions and Lambs and Bryan Singer ’s World War II thriller Valkyrie . Both films fell flat, indicating that Cruise didn’t quite have the capability to break into any serious award season conversations at this time. Although he scored a surprising Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Tropic Thunder alongside his co-star, Robert Downey Jr. , Downey’s performance was the only one that received any recognition from the Oscars. Cruise tried to trek back into familiar territory in 2010 with James Mangold ’s action comedy Knight and Day , but it became one of the rare critical and financial disasters of his career.

Unfortunately, Paper Wings remained in development hell as Cruise, Witherspoon, and Kirk all began working on other projects. Witherspoon would end up earning a well-deserved Academy award nomination for her performance in Jean-Marc Vallee ’s Wild . She soon became just as popular on television as she was in film thanks to the success of The Morning Show , Big Little Lies , and Little Fires Everywhere . Kirk continued to work in television, directing episodes of Lucifer , Boardwalk Empire , and Dexter . He later made the leap to the big screen when he directed the late, great, Chadwick Boseman in one of his last movies, the 2019 crime thriller 21 Bridges .

'Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol' Was a Box Office Hit

Given that Cruise had failed in just about every genre, signing up for an exciting script alongside a star like Witherspoon would have been a great way for him to show off his versatility. However, no one could anticipate just how successful Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol would be when it hit theaters in December. Cruise proved why Ethan Hunt was still the definitive action hero of a generation, and managed to remain at the center of the franchise, even when it was suggested that Jeremy Renner could take over as its new lead. Within the next few years, it became more clear than ever that Ethan Hunt was the only character that Cruise could rely on.

While it appeared like Cruise might have been able to kickstart another franchise in 2012 with Jack Reacher , the film’s disastrous 2016 sequel Jack Reacher: Never Go Back killed any potential for the franchise. (The character would later be rebooted in the television series Reacher on Amazon Prime Video with Alan Ritchson .) Cruise’s other critical failures included his first musical ( Rock of Ages ), a middling science fiction adventure ( Oblivion ), and his attempt to take part in a cinematic universe (2017’s The Mummy ). Their collective failures indicated that Cruise was best when he was working with familiar material. Perhaps this inspired him to take a nostalgia-heavy look back at one of his most iconic roles with legacy sequel Top Gun: Maverick .

Tom Cruise Needs To Do More Movies Like 'Jerry Maguire' and 'Risky Business'

The failure of Paper Wings to move forward is disappointing , as Cruise is rarely given enough credit for how romantic and funny he could be. Even though he’s now almost exclusively associated with the action genre, it's easy to forget that Cruise’s breakout role was in 1983 with the coming-of-age romantic dramedy Risky Business . The sensitivity and earnestness that Cruise showed at such a young age is largely responsible for the success that he received thereafter. He would also give one of his best performances ever in 1996 with the romantic comedy Jerry Maguire . It was one of the biggest hits of Cruise’s career and earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, even though the role was originally written for Tom Hanks .

Tom Cruise Proved the Doubters Wrong with His 'Born on the Fourth of July’ Performance

Cruise also took chances on many different types of romantic films. Vanilla Sky took the rom-com formula into science fiction territory, and Cruise showed a more sensitive version of masculinity with his performances in the arthouse dramas Eyes Wide Shut and Magnolia . Unfortunately, these sorts of projects now seem few and far between for Cruise. 2017’s American Made was the last time that he appeared in a non-action film, and its dismal reviews may have inspired Cruise to narrow his focus on blockbusters even further. The Mission: Impossible franchise is one of the best franchises that is currently running (no pun intended). However, Cruise can only push his physical limits for so long before he is forced to retire from the action genre. Perhaps when Ethan Hunt’s story finally comes to an end, Cruise will circle back to work on something like Paper Wings again. Who doesn’t want to see Cruise play a cowboy?

Rumors Swirled Tom Cruise Was Originally Considered For The Mummy. What The Director Says About Brendan Fraser Being Cast

Was Brendan Fraser the first choice to lead The Mummy?

There are stories all over Hollywood about the major movie roles that famous actors almost took. For instance, it's relatively well known that Will Smith was almost Neo in The Matrix . For his part, Tom Cruise has turned down many big roles over the years that we know of. However, it turns out that reports that he turned down 1999's The Mummy , before he starred in the 2017 reboot, are apparently untrue.

25 years ago, Stephen Sommers' The Mummy premiered in theaters, and it launched a franchise. It also solidified Brenden Fraser as a bonafide action star. Fraser might have seemed an unlikely choice to lead a potential summer blockbuster franchise, but Sommers tells The Daily Beast that he was always the first choice for the role, despite what he himself has read over the years. He explained… 

I read somewhere recently that we originally went to Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt [for the role of Rick O’Connell]—but no. My editor read the first draft and right away said, ‘Your lead guy is Brendan Fraser. We needed a guy who could throw a punch, take a punch, had a wink in his eye and a sense of humor, and there weren’t a lot of actors at that point who did that. Brendan can make fun of himself and goes all out. He was the only one considered from the get-go. [Universal] weren’t looking for a star; the title was the star.

While Tom Cruise has certainly shown his skills as an action hero, it’s hard to imagine anybody other than Brendan Fraser in the role of Rick O’Connell in The Mummy . Fraser certainly had a willingness to have fun with the role and poke some fun at himself, something that was key to the character and a tendency that we don’t often see from Cruise. 

The series' eponymous charactor is one of the classic Universal monsters, so it’s not surprising that the idea at the studio was to let the title be the major selling point. Universal had apparently been trying to make a new Mummy movie for the better part of a decade when Stephen Sommers made his pitch. And the director admits he feels that part of the reason he got the job was simply because the studio wouldn’t have to work on it anymore.

The corporation also helped out with the production of the film by being equally disinterested in it. Stephen Sommers says that due to a changing of the guard at Universal amid the start of filming, the new bosses were largely uninterested in a movie greenlit by the previous leadership. And, based on Sommers' comments, it sounds like he had a lot of creative freedom:

[The new boss’s] attitude was ‘if this movie is a bomb, blame it on the last guys. They never gave me notes—and nobody from the studio ever showed up while shooting. They just let me do my thing.

Of course, Tom Cruise would eventually headline a movie that's part of the brand. It was meant to launch the Dark Universe , which was to be an interconnected universe featuring iconic monsters, with big stars playing them. Needless to say, that didn’t happen. 

Since then, largely thanks to Brendan Fraser's Oscar win in 2023 and increased notoriety, there have been calls for yet another true sequel to the '99 flick. With that, Fraser has indicated he'd be up for such a production. Honestly, if there's any question about who was the right man to lead a Mummy movie, only one of them is in a ride at Universal Studios .

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CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis.  Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.

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