“PEOPLE under the age of 30 are usually quite surprised that I had this whole other life, they know me as ‘him off the radio’!”
Tom Robinson has had a varied career to say the least. Having broken into the mainstream with the 1977 hit 2-4-6-8 Motorway, followed up by the controversial Glad to be Gay in 1978, which saw him banned from the BBC for six years, Tom has very much carved out his own path, which has eventually led him to this year’s Rewind Festival.
He says: “I am a Rewind virgin, but Mark King from Level 42 tells me it is a really good time.
“The sets are short, but I’m in a very fortunate position in that I only really had three well-known songs to choose from.
“Working for radio you actually get a very realistic idea of just what a career comes down to, if you look at the Radio 2 jukebox and what’s in there for each artist, everyone’s career boils down to a certain number of landmark tracks. It’s humbling, and for singer-songwriters who fancy themselves and say ‘Ooh, I’ve released 20 albums’, that doesn’t really count for anything if the people out there in radioland don’t know most of the songs.
“It’s beautiful that I can always play a handful of tracks whenever I go out and do gigs, and people leave happy. It gives me the freedom with sets and my own shows to do other material as well and introduce people to songs they don’t know and try new things, and not be completely nailed down.
“Someone like Lou Reed could have played nothing but well-known songs for three hours and still not exhaust his catalogue. I quite like the idea of getting on, doing those three songs and getting off again.”
Having never played Rewind before, Tom is throwing himself in the deep end this summer, playing Rewind Scotland this weekend, followed by Rewind North in Cheshire on August 4 to 6, and finally making his way to Rewind South at Henley on August 18 to 20 where he will play on Saturday.
He says: “There’s some great people playing, I’m gutted to be missing the Sunday really because I’ve got a live radio show to do but there is a fantastic line-up, the British Electric Foundation always do something brilliant. Kim Appleby, Jilted John, both of those who I personally know and like a great deal. It’s going to be great.”
Tom has never been one for looking backwards, and prefers to move forward not only with his own music, but with new artists as well.
His radio show on 6Music champions new and up-and-coming artists and music, and he confesses to sitting down and listening to everything he is sent.
He says: “Personally I am much more interested in the new and unknown artists rather than rehashing my old record collection, so I seldom listen to anything made in the last century.
“Mostly I deal with BBC Introducing and listen to about 200 tracks a week by unknown artists which is amazing. Most of them aren’t that great, but you owe it to them to let them be heard, I spent so many years knocking on the doors of Radio 1 and nobody listening. Back then, if you couldn’t get in with Radio 1 you wouldn’t get heard.
“There was no social media, no Soundcloud, no YouTube, things are a lot better for young artists these days because they will get heard, but it also means that competition is that much greater.
“You look around at Ed Sheeran and Adele and they have come up through the same way, Ed Sheeran came up through BBC Introducing, he was touring for four years and burning CDs on his laptop and selling them at his gigs to make a living.
“It’s a combination of a great attitude, a can-do attitude, combined with exceptional musical talent, you can’t get away from that, and an exceptional work ethic, Ed has worked so hard.
“I think that’s the new model, if you get the music right first, the art is the thing, concentrate on getting that right and the other stuff will sort itself out.”
Tickets for Rewind South are on sale now from £59.50. For more information, the full line-up and to buy tickets visit www.rewindfestival.com/tickets.
