Thomas Rees: Where is he now?

Last year, Thomas Rees was a nobody. This year he’s a celebrity-mingler, radio-regular and almost BNOC champion. 

In case you’ve been living under a rock, here’s a quick history of Thomas’ rise to stardom.

Before moving to UEA last year, Thomas posted an introductory video on a freshers’ Facebook page. The video quickly gained thousands of views. It was featured by us in The Tab, got him an invite onto BBC Radio Norfolk and more than doubled his Twitter following. It now has nearly 40,000 views.

Thinking back on the video, Thomas says: “It still feels very odd that it happened at all and that it got so successful.

“I think back then I was excited by the sheer quantity of people I reached but now I’m more content with the quality of connection I made with some people.

“Quite a few of my friends here can quote most of the video word for word (as they delight in doing often when I’m around).”

Still fly

Most importantly it made Thomas a campus celeb and all round BNOC.

Earlier this year, Thomas came second in our momentous BNOC Of The Year competition, graciously losing out to “that rice chap”

And Thomas’ fame shows no signs of slowing down

He says: “I still get ‘Hey! You’re that guy from that video!’, which I find bemusing – I mean, my name is in the title of the video and it’s the first thing I say, but whatever, I’ll be that guy.”

Since the video, Thomas has had a lot going on. He’s producing music under his pseudonym Ash Meteors and recently got played on BBC Introducing.

The one and only Ash Meteors

He even managed to blag behind the scenes tickets to Big Weekend.

He says: “It was completely surreal. I was hanging out backstage trying not to run over Rita Ora’s tiny dog with a golf buggy.

“I bonded with over free jam doughnuts with the hero of all our childhoods that is Barney Harwood”

Sadly, Tom didn’t make friends with Snoop Dogg.

The viral star knows this year he’s got a lot to live up to, but Thomas has got big plans for his second year at UEA.

The video clearly worked

He says: “I’m hoping for a nomination at this year’s National Student Radio Awards, I’m in the midst of plotting a crazily ambitious Livewire show for this year and I’d like to get somewhat established playing music.

“This time last year I had no notion of what I might end up doing so hopefully there’ll be some nice surprises too.

“It’ll take a lot of hard work and even more luck.”

Becoming King of the Freshers was light work for Tom but it’s not so easy for everyone else. When asked his advice to UEA newbies, he said: “Don’t steal my idea and do a video.

“It’s all I’ve got.”