A remarkable man lives behind a piano in Baan Rim Pa, a famous restaurant just outside Patong. An unassuming, genuinely modest local legend, even now ? 18 years after his initial three-month contract ran out ? Tommy Doyle wonders why people come to see him. Despite the pointers along the way, he remains unaware of his gift.

Born in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1936, he was soon on the move as his family moved from place to place. He was a diminutive, sensitive boy, and other kids realized this, bullying him, and his self-confidence took a beating.

His family eventually moved to Boston, where h grew up much like most other boys, except that it soon became evident Tommy had more than a passing interest in music. His second-grade teacher remarked to his parents that, whenever she played the piano, Tommy would run up to her, excited, and join in enthusiastically with the singing. She suggested music lessons, and Tommy made amazing progress.

When he was 8 years old, his father bought him a cheap upright piano, and that was the start of a love affair that has lasted more than 60 years.

They had the piano renovated and tuned, and Tommy took to it instinctively. Music was obviously his first love and, at high school, although he still played the piano, he majored on the tuba.

?I loved the tuba,? he said.

?It was definitely my favourite instrument. After I graduated I looked around a while trying to find a suitable job. I knew that pretty soon I was going to get drafted into the army so, before they put me somewhere I didn?t want to be, I enlisted in the navy as a musician. There they made me learn the double bass as well. This was a personnel limitation exercise. It saved them having to hire two people instead of one.? To augment his repertoire, Tommy taught himself to play the trumpet in his spare time.

He spent most of his service time at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. There he met and married his first wife, and they had two children. ?I took a test once, and the commanding officer said my scores indicated I?d be ideal as a trainee pilot. I didn?t want any of that, though. I just wanted to play music.

?They always used to find other things for musicians to do,? he said.

?They?d make us serve as stretcher bearers or, bizarrely, they?d make us write backwards on glass partitions so that it made sense on the other side.?

When off duty, Tommy would play Dixieland music in a bar on Bourbon Street, Pensacola. It was around this time that he started enjoying the drinking as much as the music, and the two were becoming inextricably linked. With problems at home getting worse, Tommy decided that 14 years in the navy was enough, and left. To escape this depressing situation, he took a cheap flight to Luxembourg.

He made his way up to Amsterdam and, with every intention of finding himself a job, spent two days in a bar getting drunker and drunker. Realizing he was wasting time, he made his way back to the US and settled in Watertown, a city in New York State near the Canadian border.

He called an old navy friend who was a keen saxophone player, and they began playing together at the Hearth and Kettle Bar and restaurant, in Cape Cod. He did this every year for nearly 10 years and the pair are still close friends.

Back then, Dave McKenna, a famous piano player Tommy idolized, played across the road. After Tommy finished at the Hearth and Kettle, he?d wander over and listen to McKenna all night. But what Tommy couldn?t understand was why there was always a queue outside the restaurant when he was tuning and playing the piano. In fact, his talent was already making him an attraction.

Eventually another attack of restless feet took Tommy off to Los Angeles where, not even bothering to find a proper place to stay, he lived in his car for three years.

?Occasionally, when I?d saved enough, I would rent a room in the Holiday Inn because they?d do a special deal for $350 a month. I could shower every day and watch TV. It was great.? When he wasn?t in the hotel, he?d tune pianos in a shopping mall in Santa Monica. ?They had a huge bathroom there, and I?d use that to keep clean.?

Never one for staying still, Tommy contacted an old girlfriend and asked her to join him in Las Vegas, where he made a name for himself working in a cinema, eventually rising to assistant manager. The only time he played piano in Vegas was when he helped a young dancer audition for a job. By 1984, Tommy decided he?d been drinking hard for too long and abruptly turned his back on the demon drink.

Yet again, he got itchy feet, this time heading back to Maine, where he got a job in a bar playing piano for a man called Jeddy.

Jeddy had a boat that he?d run aground a short time before and, as it happened, a man named Tom McNamara helped Jeddy retrieve his boat. In the course of events, Tom asked Jeddy if he knew of a piano player he could use for a new restaurant and bar he was opening on Phuket. (Many readers will recognize McNamara as the man behind Phuket?s Baan Rim Pa restaurant group, which also currently features Joe?s Downstairs, Joe South, Da Maurizio and Hung Fat?s.)

McNamara offered Tommy a three-month contract, and the two of them flew to Phuket.
?I came here for three months.? Tommy said. ?That was 18 years ago. Now I have a wife, two daughters, a house, three pianos and a good job.?

So long as he has this job, he says, he isn?t going anywhere. ?Tom saved my life. I had chest pains and he sorted out the medical for me. I eventually had to have a quadruple heart-bypass operation. He paid for the lot. I owe him.?

Tommy loves Phuket. He loves the lifestyle here, and he feels at home. ?Another good thing is I am still learning on the piano. I?m finding new doors to open all the time.?
Tommy Doyle

Solo pianist who delivers classical chordings drawn from Debussey and Chopin over standards from the great American songbook. Performs nightly.

Baan Rim Pa, 223 Prabaramee Rd., Kalim.
076-340-789.
baanrimpa.com.
Baan Rim Pa restaurant group consists of Baan Rim Pa Restaurant, Da Maurizio Bar Ristorante, Joe?s Downstairs, Joe?s South, Hung Fat?s and the Phuket Has Been Good To Us Foundation.