Tom Jolly



DOB: 12th July 1987 (24 Years Old)
Roles: Vocals, Guitar
Influences: Ryan Ross Hernandez, Infinite

Tom Jolly was born on the 12th of July 1987 to his wealthy parents in Frimley, Surrey. They were both lawyers, and so had very little time for him when he was a child. This meant that he spent a lot of time with his grandma. He was her only grandchild and thus was spoiled very much.

When he reached the age of 9, he decided that he wanted to learn to play the guitar. With money being no problem for his parents, he was bought a guitar and had lessons once a week. He was a reasonably slow learner, and this frustrated his guitar teacher a lot. Tom was then put under pressure by the teacher to do well, otherwise the teacher would stop the lessons. Surprisingly this encouraged Tom to really buckle down and learn to play properly.

At the age of 15 Tom was the lead guitarist in a local band called 'Bite the Bullet'. They achieved very little local success due to the vocalist being very inconsistant and nobody except Tom being able to play their instruments very well. When the band was performing, the lead vocalist got so annoyed that he stopped singing and just walked off stage. The other members of the band just looked at Tom and sort of prompted him to take over the vocals. He did so and then realised his talent for singing as well.

Now at the age of 24, with no qualifications from school because he dropped out, Tom had the idea to start a band. Music had been the only thing that had kept Tom going in his life of monotonous work in the local supermarket. He put out adverts for guitarists and a drummer and got several responses. Now he is part of the three piece band, Cheating the System.

Ethan Plyth



DOB: 25th December 1988 (23 Years Old)
Roles: Vocals, Guitar, Piano, Drums, Lyrics
Influences: Katie Coyle, The Beatles

On the 25th of December 1988, Ethan was born to his unmarried parents, Helena Drew and Fredrick Plyth. His mother worked as a music teacher at the local school in Woodbridge, Suffolk; whereas his father was an accountant. Ethan is the second of four children; and he is closest in age to his sister Lauren.

Ethan and Lauren got on very well, and he spent a lot of time with her. This meant that he became quite good friends with her friends, and that was where he met Julie. She was a year older than him and was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. He immediately fell in love with her.

From a very young age, Ethan had been taught to play instruments. His mother, being a music teacher, had insisted upon it, as she felt that a young man or woman who could play a musical instrument was a very accomplished young man or woman. She taught him how to play both the guitar and the piano; and with him being a very quick learner, he was very good at them by the time he was 10 years old. He also picked up the drums as well, because they had always interested him. His mother had no complaints with that as long as he didn't give up on the guitar and piano.

He left school with A*s in Music, English and Geography GCSEs, but nothing else, and immediatley took up playing music full time. He recorded several tracks that he had written and gave them away as free copies to a lot of people to help raise hype. By the time he turned 17, his first EP that he had released for free had created a huge amount of local fame, and people would regularly come and watch him play. He was given regularly slots at all of the local music bars, and played them regularly.

Just as he turned 18, the fame became too much for him and he gave up playing music. He loved it, but he just couldn't cope with stress of walking down the street and being recognised by everybody anymore. He wanted to fade back into obscurity. At this sort of time he asked Julie to be his girlfriend, he had loved her for years, and he just hoped that she loved him back. Unfortunately, she turned him down. But this didn't put him down, he soon got back on his feet and had tried again within two months. This time she accepted, and their relationship started.

Two years later, on Julie's 21st birthday, he played her a song that he had written about her on the piano and proposed to her. She accepted and they were due to be married! Four months before the wedding, Julie announced she was pregnant. This made Ethan's year even better; he was going to marry the woman of his dreams and have a child with her!

5 months later, on the 4th of December 2009, Ethan and Julie's first child was born. They named her Daisy Mai Plyth. She was their pride and joy, everything was perfect for Ethan. On the 1st of September 2010, everthing changed in Ethan's life. Julie was involved in a pile-up of cars on a motorway; she was rushed into hospital and unfortunately died 3 days later, leaving Ethan a widdowed father with a 10 month old baby girl.

Ethan spent a lot of time writing after she died, it was his way of coping with the loss. He had loved her since he had been about 10 years old; she had been his everything. Ethan loved her so much, and she had always told him that he should start singing again, she loved his voice. This prompted him to start gigging again.

In 2011, Ethan started up his career again, he was recording an EP but he halted his plans when the band Left of the Dial asked for his services to play the guitar and do backing vocals. Unfortunately, this did not last for very long, as the band was from all over the world. So the band split up, and Ethan released a solo EP entitled The Return. This was another local success and allowed him to sign a recording contract with label Shooting Aces Records.

Unfortunately, the label went under only a few months after he signed to them, thus meaning that he was out of contract and had no way to support his daughter again. Now at 23, with a 2 year old daughter, he thought things would never get better; but he saw an advert for a guitarist or a drummer for a band. He applied for an audition and was immediately accepted based on his history. So now Ethan is the third member of the three piece band, Cheating the System