He went to Tonbridge school with his friend Tim Rice-Oxley, where they met their future Keane bandmates, Richard Hughes and Dominic Scott (who later left due to slow development of the band) and started as a cover band doing covers of U2, Oasis and The Beatles at Sussex pubs. Tom went to South Africa for his gap year, during which the rest of the band members were preparing themselves for a gig. When Richard went to collect Tom a year later, his first words were, "We've got a gig in ten days."
He was invited to join the band in 1997, and the name "The Lotus Eaters" was changed to "Cherry Keane", a lady who used to look after Tom when he was younger.
When the band moved to London for a much needed success at cracking a record deal, Tom decided to leave his Art History studies at the Edinburgh University in 1999 to join the band. During their stint in London, Tom shared a flat with Tim in Stoke Newington and they tried to get money for rehearsal time. Tom worked at a publishing company where his chief responsibility was to carry boxes.
With Scott in the line-up as the lead guitarist, Tom had to play the acoustic guitar. Since Scott left in 2001, he primarily takes lead vocal, but also plays the keyboard on "Hamburg Song" during some live gigs
He also took part in Band Aid 20's re-recording of Do They Know It's Christmas in November of 2004.
Source: Wikipedia.org