Worth Another Listen - Tom Robinson

Tom Robinson is a British singer/songwriter, best known as a founding member of the Tom Robinson Band, a rather politically active rock/punk band in the 70s and early 80s. He is most likely best known for the song (Sing If You're) Glad To Be Gay, the 1978 hit single. For a long time, it was thought that Robinson was gay sheerly because of his open support of the community, but later he maintained he was bisexual, falling in love and marrying a woman. This upset some gay rights activists, and became a bit of a joke to the press. Too bad, because as far as I knew, there is a 'B' in LGBT. To this day Robinson is still active in promoting tolerance and acceptance for the LGBT community.



Robinson also had a career as a songwriter, including a period of collaboration with Elton John. The Tom Robinson Band had another hit in the UK, called 2-4-6-8 Motorway. During the time they were together, the TRB worked with producers such as Ray Davies [of the Kinks fame] and Steve Lilywhite.



Eventually Robinson went on to be a host/presenter on BBC radio, as well as work on some other projects. One was a radio documentary, You've Got To Hide Your Love Away, examining the LGBT music scene. He also had a series on men and masculinity, entitled The Locker Room. You can find out more about Tom Robinson on his website here.

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Worth Another Listen - The Jam

I had done an earlier post about Paul Weller, the British singer/songwriter whose career I followed from group to group before his solo career. The first I knew of Weller was when he was part of the New Wave/Punk band, The Jam. Weller was joined by Bruce Foxton and Rick Butler to make up The Jam. They were one of several young bands who looked back to the music of the British acts of the late 50s & early sixties, reclaiming the concept of 'mods' and put in their own spin. They seemed to be part early The Who and part Jack Kerouac, part of the 'beat generation,' only on steroids. They blazed strong in the musical sky, amazing considering they released albums for a scant 5 years, from 1977 to 1982.



In those 5 years, they put out 6 albums and went on several tours, which resulted in 3 live albums. And, as the music industry can do so well, there are 14 compilation albums, as well as 3 separate box sets. The music was rich and textured, while maintaining a raw and emotional edge all delivered at a breakneck pace, hallmarks of the punk movement. Here is a clip of The Jam performing Eaton Rifles live.



Later in the run, you could see the direction Weller was taking with the music, and it was in the direction that would later be played by the Style Council. For me, this evolution was evident in A Town Called Malice.



You can find more about The Jam at their official website here.

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Worth Another Listen - The Undertones

God, I loved The Undertones. Hitting the airwaves in the late 70s and hitting their stride in 1980, The Undertones were everything I though Punk music should be about. They were raw, bold, brash, not pretty, taking the best of the 60s rock bands and bringing a drive and beat matched with testosterone. The put out four albums before giving up the ghost in 1983.



Here is another 'live' performance on British television of Here Comes The Summer.

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Worth Another Listen - Feargal Sharkey

You gotta love Irishman Feargal, who rose to frame when it was more important to have a vibrato that could take out a redwood than it was to have lovely tone. He rose to fame as the lead singer for the punk band The Undertones, went on to a solo career that included the hit song A Good Heart, and then settled down to become a record executive. Proved an interesting look and sound and the right promotion could sell just about anything.

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