TRB (Tom Robinson Band)

Tom Robinson’s journey into music started from a darker place than most.

Robinson’s background includes several years at a grammar school plus a spell at the Finchley Manor School for Maladjusted Children. “I was sent there when I was 16 years old after suicide attempts and a nervous breakdown.” He explains matter-of-factly. “It was just an unspectacular nervous breakdown brought on by ‘A’ levels.” James Johnson, LONDON EVENING NEWS, December 1977

After three years they had got nowhere. Tom’s journey to being more politicised came from initially working on the Gay Switchboard and hearing stories of police repression and queer bashing.

His current political preoccupations were brought on because, he frankly admits, he is homosexual. “I was never a political animal until things started happening close to home. Quite ordinary people I knew who went out for a drink got beaten up or picked up by the police. I then realised that freedom is indivisible and that it covers several other areas as well.” James Johnson, LONDON EVENING NEWS, December 1977

When he did a jingle for Gay Switchboard and featured it in Café Society’s set it got an immediate reaction. He also did ….. and wrote the song Glad To Be Gay and Long Hot Summer (about the Stonewall Riots in America) and got great reaction and write ups.

This then coincided with Tom catching the Sex Pistols in May 1976 at the 100 Club and like so many others was energised by their liberating attitude, approach and impact.

Seeing this more militant way of approaching repression Tom split Cafe Society and in January 1977 pulled together a band. First off Danny Kustow showed that he’d developed into a great guitarist, and then they picked up from ads musical prodigy Mark Ambler who’d barely left school. He was originally to play bass, but was taken on for keyboards. Seventeen year old Brian ‘Dolphin’ Taylor on drums was found by accident when he gave a friend a lift to similarly audition on bass.

Each member was critical to the band, whether it was Taylor’s powerhouse drumming or Ambler’s keyboard flourishes but it was Kustow’s guitar that gave the politics the bite.

TRB was never purely about the message, though, and that was Danny’s doing. Without him, TRB might have been just another protest band. With him, they were the Godzilla of the left…He played the guitar like he was kicking a wall, subtle as a flying wildebeest, and all the more virtuosic for the sheer understatement of what he was doing. He riffed and you wanted, more than anything, to riff alongside him. Dave Thompson, Goldminemag.com

Tom Robinson Band’s first TV appearance was as an unknown unsigned band on Janet Street-Porter’s lunchtime LWT show in mid 1977. Features extract from 2-4-6-8 Motorway and Glad To Be Gay.

The band signed to EMI in August 1977. It’s ironic given the history of EMI with punk that they still had Sex Pistols posters all around the offices.

They debuted with the single and popular stage favourite 2-4-6-8 Motorway which was a massive hit selling some 250,000 copies. While the song might have been MOR rock, the b side and picture cover were pure agit prop setting out the band’s stall as a politically orientated group supporting various activist causes from Rock Against Racism to Release to well everything!

The second single Glad To Be Gay was straight to the point. Supremely catchy, it was a sing along anthem that loudly celebrated being gay while denouncing the hypocrisy and homophobia of the establishment. It also took some balls for Robinson and the rest of his straight band to visit towns outside of London and risk life and limb to sing this message.

The band was an instant hit with the public, rock critics and fanzines getting numerous front covers and interviews. The songs caught the zeitgeist of the time as people began to fight back against the emerging National Front menace and general crackdown on minorities. The band meshed perfectly; Kustow’s riffs and solos, Taylor’s powerhouse drumming, Ambler’s keyboards and Tom’s eloquent songwriting and singing. Even the terrible duo Burchill & Parsons praised the band!

The band’s high profile and support for minority causes and championing Rock Against Racism made them obvious headliners for the Carnival Against The Nazis in Hyde Park in April 1978. While The Clash posed in Belfast and Brigade Rosse t shirts and sat on the fence with RAR (that’s why they aren’t on the posters) and apparently piqued that they weren’t headlining deliberately delayed their set to sabotage TRB’s. TRB didn’t pose; they lived it.

Combining activism and self-promotion, they produced and distributed free badges and their own newsletter with news about the band and info about protest and support groups for information. They also replied to every letter sent in. This was also great marketing spreading the band’s name.

But the seeds of a split were already there. They were called Tom Robinson Band, i.e. his backing band.  He was the figurehead and the one interviewed. Already by the time of the finest album in March 1978 there were some questions over whether the sloganeering was genuine.

The band itself wanted to be more like a rock band. While Robinson admitted in a Record Mirror interview of May 1978 that their first hit showed they could make it as a rock band, their image was predominantly political and centered around him and often publicising his gay orientation. The band felt that they were being backed into a corner.

The only thing that bothers them about it is… “We never get any females coming back to see us.” moans Danny. “All we get is loads and loads of guys. Frustrating for the others in the band who, they’d like all interested girls to know, they are not gay.

To counter that though

When I asked Danny Kustow how he felt about singing such an overtly gay song and by extension, being in a band with a gay singer, he admitted that it pissed him (and the others) off that the papers always concentrated on the gay angle, especially as how he was personally more interested in women. But, living up to his Jewish middle-class street urchin vibe, he added, “When I sing ‘GTBG’ I get a vague feeling that I could be singing “Sing if you’re glad to be Jewish”. I don’t know what it’s like to be gay but thinking about it that way helps it make sense for me.”

From that mega rush of the first six months from signing cracks had already began to appear. The first to go was Mark Ambler. He was the real musical one and was hardly challenged by the music and pushed into the background by the politics and Robinson.

The band was an immensely popular live act and their late 1978 tour was given a massive boost when they added an up and coming band called Stiff Little Fingers. SLF were an incendiary live act and they too had a set list that though nonpolitical, spoke about the troubles and life back home in Northern Ireland. It was a fantastic pairing that without a doubt helped SLF.

Then Tom was faced with the second album syndrome of writing new songs quickly for the second album. The first album’s songs had been written over 2 years. The second required in months. Robinson co-wrote songs with Elton John and Peter Gabriel They wanted Bill Thomas again but he was busy with Wings. By the time they began recording with Tod Rundgren, Taylor had also left over the songs and there more disagreements..

Dolphin Taylor Not enough decent songs, splits in the ranks had cost us the services of one member who disappeared into a vat of acid tabs, too much too soon and a whole unstable situation. I just threw my dolly out the pram and left in a fit of pique. The group was so dysfunctional it seemed like the only way to go. Mike Dolbear

The album was released in March 1979 to lukewarm reviews on the more understated direction and less bombastic songs. Even Kustow and Robinson were unconvinced by it and the title  – TRB2 – arguably reflects a feeling of not being sure quite what it represented.

A tour to America saw them on a week after week grind of having to win disinterested people over. In the UK it had been easy and for some bands the US challenge worked. For TRB it was soul destroying and the fragile mental states that seen both Kustow and Robinson have breakdowns in their early life led the band to split some 4 months later under the weight of pressure and expectations. It’s no surprise that both had breakdowns again post-split.

Paradoxically the finest thing to come out of punk…They are the first band not to shrug off their political stance as soon as they walk out of a recording studio. The first band with sufficient pure, undiluted unrepentant bottle to keep their crooning necks firmly on the uncompromising line of commitment when life would be infinitely easier – and no less of a commercial success – if they made their excuses and left before the riot. Compared to The Tom Robinson Band, every other rock musician is wanking in the wind.

But the seeds of a split were already there. They were called Tom Robinson Band, i.e. his backing band.  He was the figurehead and the one interviewed. Already by the time of the first album in March 1978 there were some questions over whether the sloganeering was genuine.

The band itself wanted to be more like a rock band. While Robinson admitted in a Record Mirror interview of May 1978 that their first hit showed they could make it as a rock band, their image was predominantly political and centered around him and often publicising his gay orientation. The band felt that they were being backed into a corner.

The only thing that bothers them about it is… “We never get any females coming back to see us.” moans Danny. “All we get is loads and loads of guys. Frustrating for the others in the band who, they’d like all interested girls to know, they are not gay.

To counter that though

When I asked Danny Kustow how he felt about singing such an overtly gay song and by extension, being in a band with a gay singer, he admitted that it pissed him (and the others) off that the papers always concentrated on the gay angle, especially as how he was personally more interested in women. But, living up to his Jewish middle-class street urchin vibe, he added, “When I sing ‘GTBG’ I get a vague feeling that I could be singing “Sing if you’re glad to be Jewish”. I don’t know what it’s like to be gay but thinking about it that way helps it make sense for me.”

From that mega rush of the first six months from signing cracks had already began to appear. The first to go was Mark Ambler. He was the real musical one and was hardly challenged by the music and pushed into the background by the politics and Robinson.

The band was an immensely popular live act and their late 1978 tour was given a massive boost when they added an up and coming band called Stiff Little Fingers. SLF were an incendiary live act and they too had a set list that though nonpolitical, spoke about the troubles and life back home in Northern Ireland. It was a fantastic pairing that without a doubt helped SLF.

Dolphin Taylor Not enough decent songs, splits in the ranks had cost us the services of one member who disappeared into a vat of acid tabs, too much too soon and a whole unstable situation. I just threw my dolly out the pram and left in a fit of pique. The group was so dysfunctional it seemed like the only way to go. Mike Dolbear

Tom says: “”However levelheaded you start out, if enough people flatter you for long enough, some part of you ends up believing it. Overnight we all turned into experts. I began telling Dolphin how to play drums, and he started telling me how to write songs. Everyone’s ego ran out of control – especially mine.” Tom Robinson.com

The album was released in March 1979 to lukewarm reviews on the more understated direction and less bombastic songs. Even Kustow and Robinson were unconvinced by it and the title  – TRB2 – arguably reflects a feeling of not being sure quite what it represented.

A tour to America saw them on a week after week grind of having to win disinterested people over. In the UK it had been easy and for some bands the US challenge worked. For TRB it was soul-destroying and the fragile mental states that saw both Kustow and Robinson have breakdowns in their early life led the band to split some four months later under the weight of pressure and expectations. It’s no surprise that both had breakdowns again post-split.

And just as soon as they were front page of the music papers and winning polls

Tom Robinson By the end of 1978 our picture had been on the front cover of Melody Maker seven times… A year later they ran a month-long review of The Seventies In Perspective in which TRB was not mentioned once, anywhere, not even in passing. But hey, it’s just showbiz. Things coulda been better but they coulda been a damn sight worse. Tom Robinson.com

2-4-6-8 Motorway / I Shall Be Released
(EMI September 1977)

The band were propelled into the charts and success by this rather strange single. It’s either genius or luck. Let’s face it on the surface it’s a straightforward rock song with an earworm football-style chorus and it’s featured on numerous dad rock compilations. But look again. Clenched fist cover

The raised fist is famously associated with the black power movement; but it has a long history as a global symbol of solidarity and the fight against oppression, it’s been used by socialists, republicans, anti-fascists, feminists, and really any oppressed group or revolutionary social cause around the world. Nicola Green

The B Side is dedicated to George Ince who was wrongly convicted. The details to protest were on the back of the single and would have made it into some 250,000 homes based on sales.

Then check out the Top Of The Pops performance, Rock Against Racism stickers on Tom’s bass guitar and pink triangle badge. The pink triangle badge was a reference to the cloth badges that prisoners were forced to wear in Nazi concentration camps identifying them as gay.

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Rising Free EP
(EMI February 1978)

Their second single made the top 20 and is arguably their most radical. It feels almost medieval that the World Heath Organisation considered homosexuality as a disease as late as 1977. Sing If You’re Glad To Be Gay had Daily Mail readers absolutely incandescent with rage because we were all singing it. A band at our school did this at one of their gigs in our assembly hall and every kid from 10 upwards was singing it. The subversion of the song is absolutely fucking priceless. Slogans and football choruses work best when simple and direct and this is one.

My Denim jacket back panel was immediately painted blood red with a black stencil fist on the back. I was only 14 and did not full recognise the implication until some one asked if I was gay. I said no, paused then said that I still have the right to be if I wanted.

At high school we had an old record player in the common room and we could take records in. I took this and we all (well a lot of us) screamed and shouted along with it. It was a powerful message, whether you were gay or not. Amazon, Henri the Dog

While Martin is a great sing-along tune and beats hands down lyric-wise The Clash’s Stay Free, the latter will always win for its tune.

B&W promo clip by John Pearse for Don’t Take No For An Answer from TRB’s Rising Free EP

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Up Against The Wall
(EMI April 1978)

Absolute killer track using ye olde Sweet Jane chord progression but managing to sound nothing like that song. The song explodes out of the speakers and is like a panzer tank rolling with Chris Thomas’s excellent production with 10 layers of guitar. It’s a classic punk single chock full of angst.

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Power In The Darkness (EMI May 1978)

That the album was produced by Chris Thomas who produced the Sex Pistols Wall of sound for Never Mind The Bollocks and is on EMI the label that dumped the band is nice pair of ironies.

The album is simply one of the best punk-era albums that covers all bases musically – it is punk, dancey, rocky and even gospelly. It still sounds fresh and chillingly the spoken pisstake in the middle of Power In The Darkness still sums up the Conservative and Remain Party and all those dicks like Nigel Farage. The whole history of the band seems to be one of stars aligning at the right time and this album is the same. It’s perfect.

“Today, institutions fundamental to the British system of Government are under attack
the public schools, the house of Lords, the Church of England, the holy institution of Marriage, even our magnificent police force are no longer safe from those who would undermine our society, and it’s about time we said ‘Enough is enough’ and saw a return to the traditional British values of discipline, obedience, morality and freedom.

What we want is

Freedom from the reds and the blacks and the criminals
Prostitutes, pansies and punks
Football hooligans, juvenile delinquents
Lesbians and left wing scum
Freedom from the niggers and the Pakis and the unions
Freedom from the Gipsies and the Jews
Freedom from leftwing layabouts and liberals
Freedom from the likes of YOU!”

Listen to the record and it just roars, with maximum impact for the feeling and nature of the songs. Makes you almost want to man picket lines and burn tyres. It has to be remembered that these songs were largely a document of UK life in the late 70s, a time of social unrest, strikes, unemployment, creeping fascism in politics, feminism, racism, ingrained cultural homophobia, street violence and a push back at the stagnant rock and pop music that didn’t reflect the lives and concerns of so many people, particularly the young and marginalised who yearned for change.

Best tracks? That’s a hard one, as everyone will have favourites subjectively. The most memorable cuts perhaps being anthems like ‘Up Against the Wall’, ‘Long Hot Summer’, ‘The Winter of ’79’, ‘Man You Never Saw’ and title track ‘Power In To he Darkness’ with its spoken parody evening news turning into a right-wing politician’s ridiculous rant at all their hate figures. Less anthem, but still catchy rockers or bluesy numbers like ‘You Gotta Survive’, ‘Grey Cortina’ and ‘Too Good To Be True’ keep up the quality. Secret Scribe – May 2022 Amazon Review

That said the music papers of the time

TRB2
(EMI March 1979)

Look play it yourself and see what you think. A session drummer and a keyboardist not part of the original band. When Rungren pushed Kustow’s guitar down in the mix it also flattened the whole song. Part of the depth and power was because Taylor’s powerful drumming and Kustow’s riffing was an integral part of the TRB sound. But times had moved on as well and they couldn’t very well produce Power In The Darkness part 2.

Funnily enough Stiff Little Fingers, the band on the up that supported them, would have the same problem post Inflammable Material and Dolphin Taylor would later drum for them twice.