Tom Robinson, British
musician and gay
icon, was born on 1st June 1950. His musical background during his
childhood was confined to singing as a boy
soprano in local
choirs until his voice broke – and this sign of
adolescence was swiftly followed by an awareness that he was gay. That's a troublesome realisation, even today, in 1960's Britain, at a
Quaker boarding school, it was devastating.
At the time,
homosexuality was still a
crime, and punishable by prison – the
sexual revolution was only just finding its feet and hadn't got as far as embracing acceptance of non-standard
sexuality. Gays were unnatural,
sinful, objects of hatred – so Tom, took that
hatred on board and applied it to himself. Hopelessly and unrequitedly in love with a schoolmate, he attempted
suicide by taking an overdose of pills at the age of 16.
Luckily for him, the Friends School at
Saffron Waldon was run by an understanding and
tolerant headmaster, Kenneth Nicholson. So, instead of being expelled in disgrace, he was transferred to Finchden Manor in Kent, a
therapeutic community in a rambling
Elizabethan house run for "disturbed adolescents", by what Tom describes as
"a formidable 75-year-old" called George Lyward. There he was, at least, amongst people who shared his sense of
alienation, and he stayed for 6 years. Therapy consisted simply of communal living – fifty boys and ten staff - chores and so on, and boys stayed until they were ready to leave and face the outside world. During his time there, blues singer
Alexis Korner, himself a Finchden old boy, visited to perform an 'unplugged' set for the residents. It proved to be an
inspirational performance for Tom – it's what he puts his own decision to pursue a career in music down to.
Together with two friends, Hereward Kaye and Raphael Doyle, he formed an
acoustic band called
Café Society in the early 70's in London, and became part of the emerging gay scene. The band was discovered by
Ray Davies of
the Kinks who produced their self-titled first album, which sold an
abysmal 600 or so copies. The
trio didn't last much longer, but Tom wasn't disheartened – he was too busy finding love and getting involved with campaigning movements for
gay rights and various other
left-wing causes concerned with
equality and
social justice.
In 1977, he formed the
Tom Robinson Band (Tom on vocals and bass, Danny Kustow on guitar, Mark Ambler on keyboards and Dolphin Tayor on drums), an
overtly political group, that hit the scene just at the right time – amongst the anger and rebellion of
punk. His first hit
2-4-6-8 Motorway was an
apolitical rock track, a stomping kind of thing that appears on CDs of music to drive to, but he followed it up with
Glad to be Gay, which the BBC banned instantly, and which equally instantly became an
anthem for the gay rights movement, as the music press latched onto it with fervour.
It's a
bitter, biting and occasionally humorous number, which is incredibly singable and remains THE Tom Robinson song – indeed, it has evolved constantly, starting as a
commentary on
police,
press and
public attitudes to homosexuals, and, over time, covering celebrated prosecutions,
AIDS,
in-fighting within the gay community, police
entrapment of politicians and celebrities, press treatment of protesters
at Greenham Common,
paranoia about
paedophilia and the internet, The
Matthew Shepherd case, the gay community's attacks on Tom personally – of which more later – and often included a
triumphant statement of position
"We're lesbian women, we're men who are gay/We're here and we're human and... won't go away". It incidentally also made him the first musician in the UK to openly '
come out'.
The band's 1978
debut album
Power In The Darkness was a
massive success, going gold, but the follow up, 1979's
TRB2 failed to
impress, the members of TRB started fighting, and the band fell apart.
In the early 80's, Tom formed
Sector 27 with Jo Burt, and released an eponymous album produced by
Steve Lillywhite (one-time husband of singer
Kirsty MacColl) which was received well by critics, but only got a
lukewarm reception from the buying public, although the band played to
enthusiastic audiences in
America, on a tour which included a gig at
Madison Square Gardens on the same bill as
The Police. Immediately afterwards, however, Robinson and Burt went their separate ways, leaving Tom pretty much broke.
After spending time living in a friend's spare room in
Hamburg , where he says he had a
nervous breakdown, he returned to the UK, and the Top Ten, in 1983 with the single
War Baby, from the album
North by Northwest. and in 1984, he was offered a show as a broadcaster on the
BBC World Service, following in Alexis Korner's footsteps.
He soon moved to the BBC proper, working on
Radio One occasionally, before becoming an increasingly regular
contributor to
Radio Four, where he fronted his own show
The Locker Room" between 1992 and 1995, a kind of
antithesis to those shows for women that pushed the envelope and let them voice concerns for things outside the emotional and
nurturing – this was a show for and by men, which allowed them to explore their emotions and personal issues openly; it caused something of a stir.
Also for Radio Four, he produced a
Sony Award winning history of gay music, called
You've Got to Hide Your Love Away. There's a certain sweet
irony to that, given the BBC's ban of
Glad to be Gay two decades earlier.
While all this was going on, however, Tom's personal life was developing. He'd struck up a
friendship with a person he'd met and been attracted to at a 1982
Gay Switchboard benefit, friendship had developed into love, the pair had become lovers and moved in together. These things happen, of course – but not usually between a gay man and a woman. The British
tabloids Robinson had
pillioried so often loved it – they had a
positive field day when his partner (whose name has never been revealed to protect her
privacy) had their first child. There were rumours of a m
arriage, that Robinson had "turned
heterosexual", and the gay
establishment were quick to attack him and call him a
traitor – hence that verse from
Glad to be Gay I mentioned earlier. It goes:
For 21 years now I've fought for the right
For people to love just whoever they like
But the right-on and
righteous are out for my blood
Now I live with my kid and a woman I love
Well if
gay liberation means freedom for all
A
label is no liberation at all
I'm here and I'm
queer and I do what I do
And I'm not gonna wear... a
straightjacket for you
Because, despite his love for his partner, Robinson still calls himself gay – not
bisexual. It's men he likes, he says, and the fact that he has fallen in love and sleeps with a single specific woman doesn't change his natural orientation. There's no reason to doubt him either, given the number of men who lived so called "normal family lives" for years before coming out; the main difference between them and Tom Robinson is that his partner already knows he's gay.
The experience of loving a woman did lead to Tom exploring the subject of bisexuality more in his work, with a 1990's album entitled
Having it Both Ways , and the song
Blood Brothers in 1998 which took the awards for
Best Song and
Best Male Artist at the Gay & Lesbian American Music Awards in
New York.
He is still an active campaigner for many of the causes he's embraced all his life, including
Amnesty International, anti-
racist groups and
The Samaritans, has a four-nightly show every week on the BBC
digital network 6 Music, and runs numerous creative workshops for adults and teenagers, when he isn't writing or performing – he also keeps tabs on the doings of his brother, TV
producer and
poet Matthew Robinson, and records them on his
website at www.tomrobinson.com, where he also keeps his
blog, and where the majority of the material for this
biography was sourced.
Discography – Albums
CAFE SOCIETY
Cafe Society
TOM ROBINSON BAND
Power in the Darkness 1978 Reissued 1994
TRB TWO1979 Reissued 1994
Tom Robinson Band 1981 (Compilation)
The Winter Of 89 1992
Rising Free: very best of TRB
SECTOR 27
Sector 27 1980
Sector 27 Complete 1996
TOM ROBINSON
North by Northwest 1982 - Released on CD 1987
Cabaret 79 1982
Hope and Glory 1984
Still Loving You 1986
The Collection1987 (Compilation)
Back in the Old Country 1989 (Compilation UK Only)
Living in a Boom Time 1992
Love Over Rage1994
Having it Both ways 1996
The Undiscovered Tom Robinson 1998
Tom Robinson - the Gold Collection
Home From Home 1999 (+ Band)
Smelling Dogs 2001 A collection of poems, letters, rants, advice and incidental music
TOM ROBINSON & CREW
Midnight at the Fringe 1987
TOM ROBINSON & JAKKO JAKSZYK
We Never Had It So Good 1990