Tom Robinson
Template:Short description Template:About Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox person
Thomas Giles Robinson (born 1 June 1950) is a British singer, bassist, radio presenter and long-time LGBT rights activist, best known for the hits "Glad to Be Gay", "2-4-6-8 Motorway", and "Don't Take No for an Answer", with his Tom Robinson Band. He later peaked at No. 6 in the UK singles chart with his solo single "War Baby".<ref name=occ>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Early lifeEdit
Tom Robinson was born into a middle-class family in Cambridge on 1 June 1950.<ref name="Rapp">Rapp, Linda (2004). "Robinson, Tom (b. 1950)" Template:Webarchive. GLBTQ: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture.</ref> He attended Friends' School, Saffron Walden, a co-ed privately funded Quaker school, between 1961 and 1967. He played guitar in a trio at school called The Inquisition. Robinson has two brothers, Matthew (a former BBC executive producer) and George, and a sister, Sophy.
At the age of 13, Robinson realised that he was gay when he fell in love with another boy at school.<ref name="Sylvie">Simmonds, Sylvie. "A Brief History Of Tom" Template:Webarchive. TomRobinson.com.</ref> Until 1967, male homosexual activity was a crime in England, punishable by prison.<ref name="Rapp" /> He had a nervous breakdown and attempted suicide at 16.<ref name="Rapp" /><ref name="Sylvie" /> A head teacher got him transferred to Finchden Manor, a therapeutic community, in Kent, for teenagers with emotional difficulties,<ref name="Sylvie" /> where he spent his following six years.<ref name="Rapp" /> At the community, Robinson was inspired by John Peel's The Perfumed Garden on pirate Radio London, and by a visit from Alexis Korner.<ref name="Sylvie" /> The blues musician and broadcaster transfixed a roomful of people, using nothing but his voice and an acoustic guitar. The whole direction of Robinson's life and career became suddenly clear to him.<ref name="Sylvie" />
CareerEdit
{{#invoke:Listen|main}} In 1973, Robinson moved to London and joined the acoustic trio Café Society.<ref name="Rapp" /><ref name="Sylvie" /> They impressed Ray Davies, of The Kinks, enough for him to sign them to his Konk label and produce their debut album. According to Robinson, Davies's other commitments made the recording a lengthy process and, after it sold only 600 copies,<ref name="Sylvie" /> he left the band.
Subsequently, when the Tom Robinson Band were playing at the Nashville Rooms in London, Robinson saw Davies enter and sarcastically performed The Kinks' hit "Tired of Waiting for You". Davies retaliated with a mocking Kinks song "Prince of the Punks" (released as a B-side of "Father Christmas") about Robinson. Robinson, in turn, wrote "Don't Take No For An Answer" about Davies's hindering his career, later released on the Rising Free EP.Template:Cn
In London, Robinson became involved in the emerging gay scene and embraced the politics of gay liberation, which linked gay rights to wider issues of social justice.<ref name="Sylvie" /> Inspired by an early Sex Pistols gig,<ref name="Sylvie" /> he founded the more political Tom Robinson Band in 1976.<ref name="Rapp" /> The following year the group released the single "2-4-6-8 Motorway",<ref name="Rapp" /> which peaked at No. 5 in the UK singles chart for two weeks.<ref name="occ"/> The song alludes obliquely to a gay truck driver.<ref name="Rapp" /> In February 1978, the band released the live extended play Rising Free, which peaked at No. 18 in the UK singles chart and included his anthemic song "Glad to Be Gay", originally written for a 1976 London gay pride parade.<ref name="Both">"Sing If You're Glad To be Gay" on BothWays.com.</ref> The song was banned by the BBC. It did receive extensive daytime play on Capital Radio.<ref name="Rapp" /><ref name="Sylvie" /><ref name="Both" /> In May 1978, the band released their debut album, Power in the Darkness, which was very well received, peaking at No. 4 in the UK Albums Chart, and receiving a gold certification by the BPI.<ref name="occ"/><ref name="Sylvie" /> Their second album, TRB Two (1979), however, was a commercial and critical failure, and the band broke up four months after its release.<ref name="Rapp" />
In 1979, Robinson co-wrote several songs with Elton John, including his minor hit "Sartorial Eloquence (Don't Ya Wanna Play This Game No More?)", which peaked at No. 39 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and a song about a young boy in boarding school who has a crush on an older student called "Elton's Song".<ref>"His song" by Elizabeth Rosenthal</ref> It was recorded, but not released until 1981 on the album The Fox. He played two songs live— "Glad to Be Gay" and "1967 (So Long Ago)" — during June of that year at The Secret Policeman's Ball (1979).
In 1980, Robinson organised Sector 27, a less political rock band that released a critically acclaimed but unsuccessful album, Sector 27, produced by Steve Lillywhite.<ref name="Rapp" /><ref name="Sylvie" /> The band nevertheless received an enthusiastic reception at a Madison Square Garden concert with The Police.<ref name="Rapp"/> However, their management company went bankrupt, the band disintegrated, and Robinson suffered another nervous breakdown.<ref name="Rapp" /> Desolate, in debt, and sorrowing from a breakup with a beau, Robinson fled to Hamburg, Germany, much like his idol David Bowie, who had escaped to Berlin at a low point in his life.<ref name="Sylvie" /> Living in a friend's spare room, he began writing again and ended up working in East Berlin with local band NO55.<ref name="Rapp" /><ref name="Sylvie" /> He also released a German-language single, "Tango an der Wand" ("Tango at the Wall"), with lyrics by Horst Königstein, a director and screenwriter who had also written the lyrics to Peter Gabriel's German albums. However, the single failed to have a commercial impact.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 1982, Robinson penned the song "War Baby" about divisions between East and West Germany,<ref name="Rapp" /> and recorded his first solo album North by Northwest with producer Richard Mazda. "War Baby" peaked at No. 6 in the UK singles chart<ref name="occ" /> and at No. 1 in the UK Indie Chart for three weeks,<ref>List of UK Indie Chart number-ones from the 1980s Template:Webarchive at Cherry Red Records</ref> reviving his career.<ref name="Rapp" /><ref name="Sylvie" /> His following single, "Listen to the Radio: Atmospherics", co-written with Peter Gabriel, peaked at No. 39 in the UK singles chart, and provided him further income when it was covered by Pukka Orchestra in 1984.<ref name="occ"/> The Pukkas' version was a top 20 hit in Canada under the title "Listen to the Radio".
Robinson's return to Britain led to late-night performances in cabarets at the Edinburgh Fringe, some of which later surfaced on the live album Midnight at the Fringe (1988).<ref name="Rapp" /><ref name="Sylvie"/> His career enjoyed a resurgence in the mid-1990s with a trio of albums for the respected folk/roots label Cooking Vinyl and a Glastonbury performance in 1994.<ref name="Sylvie" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 1986, a BBC producer offered him his own radio show on the BBC World Service.<ref name="Rapp"/> Since then Robinson has, unusually, presented programmes on all the BBC's national stations: Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 3, Radio 4, 5 Live and 6 Music.<ref name="Sylvie" /> He presented The Locker Room, a long-running series about men and masculinity, for Radio 4 in the early 1990s. In 1994 he wrote and presented Surviving Suicide, about his suicide attempt.<ref name="Rapp" /> In 1997, he won a Sony Academy Award for You've Got to Hide Your Love Away, a radio documentary about gay music, produced by Benjamin Mepsted,<ref name="Sylvie" /> and later hosted the Home Truths tribute to John Peel a year after his death in 2004.<ref name="Sylvie" /> As of April 2024, Robinson presents Now Playing @6Music, a show that plays songs based on a certain theme and listeners' input.
In his later career Robinson rarely performs live, apart from two annual free concerts, known as the Castaway Parties, for members of his mailing list. These take place in South London and Belgium every January. In the Belgian Castaway shows, he introduces many songs in Dutch. The Castaway Parties invariably feature a wide variety of established and unknown artists and groups who have included Show of Hands, Philip Jeays, Jan Allain, Jakko Jakszyk, Stoney, Roddy Frame, Martyn Joseph, the Bewley Brothers and Paleday alongside personal friends such as Lee Griffiths and T. V. Smith.
In 2009, Robinson founded "Fresh on the Net",<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> a showcase website for upcoming bands and artists whose aim is "to help independent musicians find new listeners, and independent listeners find new music".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Robinson played "2-4-6-8 Motorway" and "Glad to Be Gay" at the BBC introducing stage on the Friday afternoon of the 2011 Glastonbury Festival, after announcing that The Coral would not be showing as they were 'stuck in the mud'. In July 2013, at the Tabernacle on Powis Square in Notting Hill, a new line-up of TRB performed the entire Power in the Darkness album to launch its release on CD. The title track featured a guest appearance by T. V. Smith.
In 2014, he was one of the performers at the opening ceremonies of WorldPride in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, alongside Melissa Etheridge, Deborah Cox and Steve Grand.<ref>"Rise Up" the theme as WorldPride 2014 arrives. Toronto Star, 19 June 2014.</ref>
In October 2015 he released his first new album in 20 years, "Only The Now". It included contributions from Billy Bragg, Ian McKellen and Lee Forsyth Griffiths. It was made with award-winning producer and multi-instrumentalist Gerry Diver and released on his own Castaway Northwest Recordings. Tom supported the album by playing many festivals that summer including Glastonbury, Latitude, Wickham and Green Man. He also played a showcase at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall in September and a 15-date tour throughout October and November.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Robinson also received a BASCA Gold Badge award in the same month. This was for his exceptional contribution to British music.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In late 2018 and early 2019 Robinson deputised for Radio 2 DJ Johnnie Walker on his Sunday show Sounds of the 70s.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 2020, Robinson embarked on a four-night solo acoustic tour prior to beginning a 22-date UK "70th Birthday Tour" featuring a 5-piece band.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Personal lifeEdit
Robinson does not identify exclusively as gay. He has had past experiences with women and has said that he has always made it clear that he liked both men and women.<ref name="Interview with Tom Robinson part 4">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He now identifies as bisexual, but in the past he used the phrase 'gay', synonymous with 'queer', to encompass the entire LGBT community. In an interview, he stated that he used the term "gay" because, "as far as Joe Public is concerned, if you’re interested in other guys you’re a queer… to call ourselves bi-sexual is a cop-out."<ref name="Interview with Tom Robinson part 4"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
A longtime supporter and former volunteer of London's Gay Switchboard help-line, it was at a 1982 benefit party for the organisation that Robinson met Sue Brearley,<ref name="Peter">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> the woman with whom he would eventually live and have two children, and later marry.<ref name="Rapp" />
In the mid-1990s, when Robinson became a father, the tabloids ran stories about what they deemed as a sexual orientation change, running headlines such as "Britain's Number One Gay in Love with Girl Biker!" (The Sunday People).<ref name="Rapp" /> Robinson continued to identify as a gay man, telling an interviewer for The Guardian: "I have much more sympathy with bisexuals now, but I am absolutely not one."<ref name="Rapp" /> He added, "Our enemies do not draw the distinction between gay and bisexual."<ref name="Rapp" />
In a 1994 interview for The Boston Globe newspaper, Robinson said: "We've been fighting for tolerance for the last 20 years, and I've campaigned for people to be able to love whoever the hell they want. That's what we're talking about: tolerance and freedom and liberty—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. So if somebody won't grant me the same tolerance I've been fighting for for them, hey, they've got a problem, not me."<ref name="Rapp" />
In 1996 Robinson released an album Having It Both Ways.<ref name="Sylvie" /> On it, he added a verse to "Glad to Be Gay", in which he sings: "Well if gay liberation means freedom for all, a label is no liberation at all. I'm here and I'm queer and do what I do, I'm not going to wear a straitjacket for you."<ref name="medicoff">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Rebecca Fowler, "National Music Festival: 2-4-6-8 it's never too late: He went in and out of fashion but Tom Robinson is still driven by music. Rebecca Fowler meets the gay activist who became a family man", The Independent, 4 June 1996.</ref> In 1998, his epic album about bisexuality, Blood Brother, won three awards at the Gay & Lesbian American Music Awards in New York.<ref name="Sylvie" /> In the same year, he also performed at the fifth International Conference on Bisexuality at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Peter Tatchell criticised "Glad Not to Be Gay", an article written by Vanessa Thorpe about Robinson in The Independent newspaper, for suggesting the LGBT community would be "shocked and angered" that a gay man would "go straight". Tatchell stated: "Tom Robinson has behaved rather commendably, in my view. Ever since the beginning of his relationship with Sue, he has continued to describe himself as 'a gay man who happens to be in love with a woman'. Who could quarrel with that? I can't."<ref name="Peter" />
ActivismEdit
Robinson is a supporter of Amnesty International and Peter Tatchell's OutRage! human rights organisation. He was also a leader of the Rock Against Racism campaign.<ref name="Rapp"/>
In popular cultureEdit
A fictionalised version of Tom Robinson, portrayed by Mathew Baynton, appears in the last episode of the first series of the BBC One television drama Ashes to Ashes,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> as leader at a Gay Liberation Front protest in London. The character is later incarcerated with other protestors by the time-travelling protagonist, Detective Inspector Alex Drake (played by Keeley Hawes) and dismisses her claims that he will one day marry a woman. The scene supposedly takes place on 9 October 1981, precisely fourteen months before the real Tom Robinson met his future bride.
The character then leads other protestors in singing a round of "Glad to Be Gay" in the confinement facility, much to Sergeant Viv James' annoyance. "2-4-6-8 Motorway" is also used in the soundtrack<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> during the protest after Detective Sergeant Ray Carling sings a few bars to Alex, who then proceeds to drive a pink tank over a parked Ford Escort, which she believes would otherwise have later been used in a car bombing. Robinson's song "War Baby" (which he premiered the night he met his wife) is used in the soundtrack of the third series.
DiscographyEdit
Over his career, Robinson has released more than twenty albums either as a solo performer or as a member of a group.<ref name="Rapp" /> He has also released fanclub-only bootlegs known as the Castaway Club series.
AlbumsEdit
- North by Northwest (1982)
- Hope and Glory (1984) – peaked at No. 21 in the UK Albums Chart<ref name="occ"/>
- Still Loving You (1986)
- The Collection (1987)
- Last Tango: Midnight at the Fringe (1988)
- We Never Had It So Good (1990, with Jakko Jakszyk)
- Winter of '89 (1992, bootlegged as Motorway: Live)
- Living in a Boom Time (1992)
- Love over Rage (1994)
- Having It Both Ways (1996)
- The Undiscovered Tom Robinson (1998)
- Home from Home (1999)
- Smelling Dogs (2001, spoken word album)
- Only the Now (2015)
SinglesEdit
| Year | Song | Peak chart positions | |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK <ref name="occ" /> |
AUS <ref name=aus>Template:Cite book</ref> | ||
| 1980 | "Can't Keep Away" | – | – |
| 1980 | "Not Ready" | – | – |
| 1980 | "Invitation" | – | – |
| 1981 | "Total Recall" | – | – |
| 1982 | "Now Martin's Gone" | – | – |
| 1983 | "War Baby" | 6 | 73 |
| 1983 | "Listen to the Radio: Atmospherics" | 39 | – |
| 1984 | "Back in the Old Country" | 79 | – |
| 1984 | "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" | 58 | – |
| 1985 | "Prison" | – | – |
| 1986 | "Nothing Like the Real Thing" | – | – |
| 1986 | "Still Loving You" | 88 | – |
| 1987 | "Feel So Good" | 93 | – |
| 1987 | "Spain" | – | – |
| 1988 | "Hard Cases" | – | – |
| 1990 | "Blood Brother" | – | – |
| 1992 | "Living in a Boom Time" | – | – |
| 1994 | "Hard" | – | – |
| 1994 | "Days (That Changed The World)" | – | – |
| 1996 | "Connecticut" | – | – |
- Song compositions
- "Elton's Song" (lyrics by Tom Robinson, with music by Elton John)
- "Talk About It In The Morning" (Martyn Joseph/Tom Robinson)
- "He Never Said" (Martyn Joseph/Tom Robinson)
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
- [https://www.imdb.com/{{#if: 0733150
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