MUSIC was never far from the forefront of Tomas Lowe’s mind.

When he went on holiday with Birchwood High on a school skiing trip to Austria his mum Ruth worried that he would injure himself while out on the slopes.

While he did return home to Cinnamon Brow on crutches, it was not a skiing accident that put him in hospital.

Ruth said: “He loved going on the ski trips with school but one time he dislocated his left knee.

“You would think he was out skiing but he actually did it while playing the air guitar.

“He twisted his knee the wrong way and it popped out.”

This is just one of the hilarious memories his family will treasure as they come to terms with his sudden death.

Tom, who was 27 but would joke that his band age was 22, grew up in Warrington and attended Cinnamon Brown Primary before moving to Birchwood High School.

Ruth added: “He only started playing an instrument at school.

“He started playing the drums at 14. His dad died and his friends had taken music so he would just go at lunchtime and mess about on the drums.

“Before he knew it he was in a group called the Stocks.”

He went on to further his studies at Priestley College where he sat a BTEC in sports science before completing his degree in sport rehabilitation at Bolton University.

After college he went travelling, but his hometown called and he returned to the job he had started as a teenager at The Lounge.

By this time his fellow bandmates from the Stocks had moved in different directions and the opportunity to join Viola Beach arose and he grabbed on to it with both hands.

Ruth said: “He was living his dream. It’s such a tragedy what has happened.

“I would always say why won’t you go and get a proper job and he used to say if I can go all around the world playing music and only earn a penny mother I will be the happiest person alive.

“He was fun. What you see is what you get with Tom. There were never any airs or graces.

“He was very down to earth and he had so many friends. He was so loveable.

“When he came to see me he would have me laughing in seconds.

“He always had this close relationship with his grandad so he was able to talk to anyone and put them at ease.”

When he wasn’t joking about his 34-year-old sister Rebecca’s ‘Stir-Fry Queen’ title, doting on his nieces and nephews or eating his older brother Matthew, 31, out of house and home, he was making fun of his mum for her ‘uncool ways’.

Rebecca said: “We listened to the Radio One tribute show and they included bits from mum’s interview.

“She said Tom would be so mortified that she was on Radio One.”

“She used write Tom will you ring me on Facebook. If he didn’t answer his phone she would comment on Facebook and he would call her back within seconds.”

Ruth added: “He would tell me I was not very cool.

“When he was on the road he would always text me when he got there and when he got back.

“He texted me on Friday when he got to Sweden and that was the last text.

“It’s been hard but the support we have had has just been mind-blowing.”