Gig Review Tom Robinson Band - What a Show! (9 replies)
Yesterday evening was Tom Robinson at the Phoenix Exeter. I went with a couple of friends, Paul and Laura. Tom is a family friend of Laura’s family. On the way up she said she’d been in touch and he was happy to meet us.
We’d just got a drink, and Tom came out to meet us. We had a brief exchange of pleasantries, before he invited us into the sound check.
He explained what was happening, and told us they were doing tracks from 1977-79. Absolutely fine by me!
Tom joined the band on stage, before doing Let My People Free, Take No For an Answer and Power in the Darkness for the sound check. The thumbs up was given to the desk. The band sounded fantastic.
Tom came back over to us and had a chat.
I saw the band at Birmingham Odeon in 1978 on the Power in the Darkness tour. I remembered that there were no effects, just white lights on the stage. I mentioned this to Tom and he said, we still do. Partly because coloured lights changing can be distracting but also it can be expensive! The gig in Brum was not deterred by the “lack” of special effects, and I had no doubt that this gig would be any different!
I got a selfie with Tom, and had took a few photos of the Sound check. He is a thoroughly nice bloke.
I was now really looking forward to it. However before TRB, we had Rob Green. Rob is a singer songwriter with an incredible voice. I really enjoyed his music.
The band came on stage and we had All Night All Right to get us going. This was followed be another off TRB 2, the single Bully for You. The track was co-written with Peter Gabriel.
The band was set up as a five piece drums, keys, Tom on the bass, plus acoustic guitar and finally lead guitar.
Tom took the opportunity at this point to introduce him. Adam Phillips heralds as a local lad, as he is from Exeter. It was his job to start Too Good to be True. He is an excellent guitarist.
However not before he gave a short tribute to the late Danny Kustow, the original lead guitarist in the band. Danny’s style was punchy, powerful and choppy, his guitar drove the majority of the tracks, especially on the first album. I always thought he was really underrated. You only have to listen to his lead breaks to realise how good he was.
After Too Good, Tom continued to talk about how the band was formed. He and Danny went to centre for young people with difficult backgrounds. He said there were many that got into trouble and there were lots of stories. It was that experience that inspired the track Martin.
The track was on the Rising Free EP. A 33 1/3 speed EP featuring 4 tracks. The only one off the EP not performed was Right on Sister. I’ll come to the others later.
Martin involves audience participation, and Tom wasn’t let down!
We were back to TRB 2 for the next two tracks. Firstly the brilliant anthem Let My People Be. Lee Forsyth Griffiths was introduced at this point. His acoustic guitar gave a breadth to the sound, he’s got a great voice too.
Leading into the tour Tom had asked for fans to vote for their favourite tracks. The next track, Days of Rage, was voted 2nd for TRB 2. Tom explained they were only given 4 months to record the album and Todd Rundgren, who produced it, only had 7 days! As a result Tom was still writing lyrics when they went into the studio! He also took the opportunity to introduce Tim Simmons on keys at the beginning of this song.
Tom explained that Days of Rage was difficult to perform live because of the track’s speed. As a result of the vote, they had to find a way to do it. It was played really well with a slower groove.
Back to Power in the Darkness for the next three tracks. Firstly Ain’t Gonna Take it. Staying with the same album, Tom explained the next track was about lust! He also admitted it was probably the silliest track in their repertoire, however Grey Cortina IS a favourite, and it went down really well.
The first set was completed with Long Hot Summer.
Tom returned for the second set on his own, and while playing an acoustic guitar, sang Hold Out off TRB 2. Absolutely nailed it too!
The full band returned and The Winter of 79 was next off Power in the Darkness. We returned to TRB 2 for the powerful Blue Murder. The track is about a man who died in police custody in appalling circumstances.
We now returned to the Rising Free EP. Firstly Don’t Take no For an Answer before the singalong TRB with Glad to be Gay.
It was quite funny watching a room full of people of a certain age singing along to the chorus. It wouldn’t surprise me if most of them were heterosexual!
Tom told the story of him playing the song in Ireland and that a straight guy who got questioned over him singing along said, it’s too catchy not to! That’s certainly true!
Next, we were back to power in the darkness and the track Up Against the Wall. This is easily my favourite track of the band.
Tom did an up-to-date verse for this song, as he did for a number of the others. Actually of course all these songs were written in the late 70’s, so doing some up-to-date lyrics for today’s society - was very clever and worked really well.
Actually it was funny, because he talked about his age, (74), and admitted to having printouts in large print of the new verses so he didn’t forget them. He even showed us the sheets. There’s a man who’s comfortable in who he is, rather than a pretentious performer who hides these things!
The second set was completed by 2-4-6-8 Motorway. This was of course, the band’s biggest hit. The track went down really well, and finished the set with a bang.
Instead of going off, Tom said shall we pretend that you’ve pleaded for us to return and we just do the extra tracks now?
The encore started with the title track off Power in the Darkness, again with updated lyrics.
The support artist Rob Green returned to the stage, and provided support vocals for Never Gonna Fall in Love Again, written by Elton John and Tom.
The popular War Baby finished the performance. This was the only track not recorded in the late 70’s with it being a hit for Tom in 1983 with a number 6 place in the charts.
And that was it. What a great night. If you get the chance, go and see them. You’ll get a great show.
We’d just got a drink, and Tom came out to meet us. We had a brief exchange of pleasantries, before he invited us into the sound check.
He explained what was happening, and told us they were doing tracks from 1977-79. Absolutely fine by me!
Tom joined the band on stage, before doing Let My People Free, Take No For an Answer and Power in the Darkness for the sound check. The thumbs up was given to the desk. The band sounded fantastic.
Tom came back over to us and had a chat.
I saw the band at Birmingham Odeon in 1978 on the Power in the Darkness tour. I remembered that there were no effects, just white lights on the stage. I mentioned this to Tom and he said, we still do. Partly because coloured lights changing can be distracting but also it can be expensive! The gig in Brum was not deterred by the “lack” of special effects, and I had no doubt that this gig would be any different!
I got a selfie with Tom, and had took a few photos of the Sound check. He is a thoroughly nice bloke.
I was now really looking forward to it. However before TRB, we had Rob Green. Rob is a singer songwriter with an incredible voice. I really enjoyed his music.
The band came on stage and we had All Night All Right to get us going. This was followed be another off TRB 2, the single Bully for You. The track was co-written with Peter Gabriel.
The band was set up as a five piece drums, keys, Tom on the bass, plus acoustic guitar and finally lead guitar.
Tom took the opportunity at this point to introduce him. Adam Phillips heralds as a local lad, as he is from Exeter. It was his job to start Too Good to be True. He is an excellent guitarist.
However not before he gave a short tribute to the late Danny Kustow, the original lead guitarist in the band. Danny’s style was punchy, powerful and choppy, his guitar drove the majority of the tracks, especially on the first album. I always thought he was really underrated. You only have to listen to his lead breaks to realise how good he was.
After Too Good, Tom continued to talk about how the band was formed. He and Danny went to centre for young people with difficult backgrounds. He said there were many that got into trouble and there were lots of stories. It was that experience that inspired the track Martin.
The track was on the Rising Free EP. A 33 1/3 speed EP featuring 4 tracks. The only one off the EP not performed was Right on Sister. I’ll come to the others later.
Martin involves audience participation, and Tom wasn’t let down!
We were back to TRB 2 for the next two tracks. Firstly the brilliant anthem Let My People Be. Lee Forsyth Griffiths was introduced at this point. His acoustic guitar gave a breadth to the sound, he’s got a great voice too.
Leading into the tour Tom had asked for fans to vote for their favourite tracks. The next track, Days of Rage, was voted 2nd for TRB 2. Tom explained they were only given 4 months to record the album and Todd Rundgren, who produced it, only had 7 days! As a result Tom was still writing lyrics when they went into the studio! He also took the opportunity to introduce Tim Simmons on keys at the beginning of this song.
Tom explained that Days of Rage was difficult to perform live because of the track’s speed. As a result of the vote, they had to find a way to do it. It was played really well with a slower groove.
Back to Power in the Darkness for the next three tracks. Firstly Ain’t Gonna Take it. Staying with the same album, Tom explained the next track was about lust! He also admitted it was probably the silliest track in their repertoire, however Grey Cortina IS a favourite, and it went down really well.
The first set was completed with Long Hot Summer.
Tom returned for the second set on his own, and while playing an acoustic guitar, sang Hold Out off TRB 2. Absolutely nailed it too!
The full band returned and The Winter of 79 was next off Power in the Darkness. We returned to TRB 2 for the powerful Blue Murder. The track is about a man who died in police custody in appalling circumstances.
We now returned to the Rising Free EP. Firstly Don’t Take no For an Answer before the singalong TRB with Glad to be Gay.
It was quite funny watching a room full of people of a certain age singing along to the chorus. It wouldn’t surprise me if most of them were heterosexual!
Tom told the story of him playing the song in Ireland and that a straight guy who got questioned over him singing along said, it’s too catchy not to! That’s certainly true!
Next, we were back to power in the darkness and the track Up Against the Wall. This is easily my favourite track of the band.
Tom did an up-to-date verse for this song, as he did for a number of the others. Actually of course all these songs were written in the late 70’s, so doing some up-to-date lyrics for today’s society - was very clever and worked really well.
Actually it was funny, because he talked about his age, (74), and admitted to having printouts in large print of the new verses so he didn’t forget them. He even showed us the sheets. There’s a man who’s comfortable in who he is, rather than a pretentious performer who hides these things!
The second set was completed by 2-4-6-8 Motorway. This was of course, the band’s biggest hit. The track went down really well, and finished the set with a bang.
Instead of going off, Tom said shall we pretend that you’ve pleaded for us to return and we just do the extra tracks now?
The encore started with the title track off Power in the Darkness, again with updated lyrics.
The support artist Rob Green returned to the stage, and provided support vocals for Never Gonna Fall in Love Again, written by Elton John and Tom.
The popular War Baby finished the performance. This was the only track not recorded in the late 70’s with it being a hit for Tom in 1983 with a number 6 place in the charts.
And that was it. What a great night. If you get the chance, go and see them. You’ll get a great show.