Tom Robinson: Up Close and Personal
Tom Robinson
Musician and broadcaster Tom Robinson presents an evening of songs and stories spanning five decades of adventures in the music industry.
Tom's musical journey began in 1974 when his first band was discovered by Ray Davies, and included a BBC ban for being Glad To be Gay, rocking against racism alongside The Clash, headlining Glastonbury with Peter Gabriel, writing lyrics for Elton John, drug smuggling in East Germany, two nervous breakdowns and a period in tabloid hell after falling in love with a woman.
Having made his peace with the BBC, he's presented programmes on all the corporation's national radio networks, and his broadcasting work has won two Sony Radio Academy awards.
Expect intimate versions of classics such as War Baby, Glad To Be Gay and 2-4-6-8 Motorway alongside stories from behind the scenes and a sprinkling of fan favourites from his extensive back catalogue.
This is a fully (unreserved) seated event.
Line Up
Tom Robinson first became known in the 1970s as a musician and LGBT activist. Now a full-time broadcaster with BBC Radio 6 Music, he has just released his first album in 19 years.
Born in 1950, Tom first became known in the late 1970s as a musician and LGBT activist with the Tom Robinson Band. TRB’s best known hits were 2-4-6-8 Motorway, Don’t Take No For An Answer, Glad To Be Gay and Up Against The Wall. The band were also early supporters of Rock Against Racism and Amnesty International, and their debut album Power In The Darkness went gold in the UK and Japan.
Between 1975 and 2001 Tom has released 19 albums with various bands, and co-written songs with Elton John, Dan Hartman and Manu Katché among others. As a solo artist he had further solo UK hits in 1983 with War Baby and Atmospherics: Listen To The Radio (co-written with Peter Gabriel).
Now a full-time broadcaster with BBC Radio 6 Music, he has won two Sony Radio Academy awards and served for 15 years on the Ivor Novello Awards committee. In 2015 he released his first new album in two decades, Only The Now - which featured collaborations with John Grant, Billy Bragg, Nadine Shah, Ian McKellen, Nitin Sawhney, Lisa Knapp, Martin Carthy, Colin FIrth and TV Smith among others and was produced by Gerry Diver.
