Eight dates into his current tour that marks the 40th anniversary of his biggest hit “2-4-6-8 Motorway”, Tom Robinson and his band stopped off at the Rescue Rooms to give the Nottingham crowd a rare treat.
When the 67 year old took to the stage bespectacled and wearing a shirt and jacket he looked far removed from the young rocker who broke into the public consciousness back in the late Seventies. However, once the glasses came off, the jacket removed and the sleeves rolled up the crowd were instantly transported back to the time of a Labour minority government, Margaret Thatcher and factory closures.
The band, made up of Andy Treacey on drums, Adam Philips on electric guitar and vocals, Jim Simmons on organ, piano and vocals and of course Robinson himself on bass and lead vocals reprised the biggest selling TRB album, Power in the Darkness, which reached number 4 on the UK Album Chart and 144 in the US. It was also the band’s first release but it didn’t contain the single “2-4-6-8 Motorway” that had been a hit for the group in the previous year. Robinson explained that it was due to the Sex Pistols releasing their “Never Mind The Bollocks” album while they were in the recording studio and being slated in the press for not including any new material. This gave TRB the idea to offer a package of entirely new music, to which the response apparently was, “Where’s the songs we know?”
Playing the tracks in the order they appeared on the original vinyl record, the band paused only to retune Robinson’s bass three tracks in as he’d noticed the A string was a semi-tone off, he quipped that and while he was playing punk music you can only go so far. Throughout the gig Robinson was sipping water, a long way from the heady days of the past, but under doctor’s orders as he explained. He’d been worried about his vocal chords but the Harley Street consultant he’d been to for advice told him simply to stay hydrated and he’d be ok. Robinson harked back to the days of vinyl and at the point where the album would that been removed from the turntable, wiped with a soft cloth, turned over and reinstalled he suggested that we consider ourselves duly flipped.
The band then proceeded to complete the remainder of the album with the energy and dexterity it deserved with Phillips’ guitar solos note perfect to the original versions. Once the 10 tracks had been completed the band took a bow and made to look as though they were about the leave the stage. Of course the rowdy Nottingham audience appreciated the humour and joined in by applauding as if they had and were being recalled. The band, who were joined by Lee Forsyth Griffiths, the opening act for the evening, then kicked of the first of the two “encores” which included the track, Martin, and Robinson’s controversial song “(Sing If Your) Glad To Be Gay” that was banned at the time of its release by Radio 1.
The second encore, for which Robinson encouraged the crowd to assume that the band had left, but in reality “he felt he was too old to mess about with all that” was of course the crowd pleasing “2-4-6-8 Motorway”.
The tour continues on and at the end of October has three sold out gigs in London and characteristically for Robinson a benefit concert in Newcastle on the 28th that will benefit the Motor Neurone Disease Assoc (MNDA). As long as Robinson continues to drink the water and look after his vocal chords the rest of the tour should be as great a success as this gig was.
Tom Robinson presents his own show on BBC 6 Music, check their website for schedules.
Words & Photos by Steve “autoholic” Edwards for NottinghamLIVE
