Back in the late 1970’s, the tough economic climate of the time helped to fuel an exciting music scene with many bands emerging that combined powerful anthems with a strong emphasis on social justice.
One of those bands was the Tom Robinson Band and they had a huge hit with ‘2-4-6-8 Motorway’ followed by a classic album ‘Power in the Darkness’ and an excellent EP, ‘Rising Free’ both of which really echoed the prevailing mood with lyrics addressing the issues of the time. The album still stands up today, partly because much of the subject matter is still relevant, but mainly it’s due to the quality of the melodic, anthemic songs performed by the group of excellent musicians led by front person, Tom Robinson.
Tom led the band as a charismatic front person and he still does now, with the latest incarnation of the band. It’s not all serious stuff though. There is also a lot of wit and humour in Tom’s inbetween song chat and of course there’s fun in some of the songs such as the wonderful sing along, ‘Martin’ and the ode to that classic car that many aspired to owning, ‘Grey Cortina’.
I first saw the band back in 1978 in front of a huge crowd of around 80,000 in London’s Victoria Park at an amazing Rock Against Racism event that I believe actually helped to change the country….but that’s another story! I’ve also seen the band a few times since, including a great Heavy Pop show last year in Reading. They were as good as ever with Tom being on his usual entertaining and inspiring form throughput.
Fast forward to 2025 and, having helped put together the line up for Wokingham Festival over recent years, head honcho, Dean Nelson, asked me what I thought of the idea of the Tom Robinson Band headlining Day 3 of the event. Day 3 is on August Bank Holiday Monday, 25th and has traditionally been a day of classic rock and Prog. I thought it was a brilliant idea and so immediately said yes and then Dean made it happen! Since the announcement of the line up it has been wonderful to hear how many people out there are excited and looking forward to the band coming here.
So, what will the band play? Will they perform any of those classics? Well, the good news is that they certainly will. The band are doing a select series of dates this summer which include Wokingham and they have recently announced that at these shows they will be playing ‘2-4-6-8 Motorway’ (the huge hit – reached No 5 in the UK singles chart), ‘Glad To Be Gay’ (one of the best singalong songs ever!), ‘Atmospherics – Listen to the Radio’ (a Tom solo hit), ‘Too Good To Be True’ (classic from The ‘Power in the Darkness’ album), ‘War Baby’ (another Tom solo hit that reached No. 6 in the UK singles chart) and ‘Up Against The Wall’ (anthemic opening track from ‘The Power in the Darkness’). That’s great news and if that isn’t enough, the band also asked fans to pick other songs that they would like to hear at these dates so you can be sure the set will be packed with even more classics.
Info on all three days of Wokingham Festival, August 23rd to 25th at https://www.wokinghamfestival.co.uk
Have a listen to a selection of Tom Robinson Band and Tom Robinson classics at https://bit.ly/TRBclassics
Have a listen to songs from artists playing at Wokingham Festival at https://bit.ly/WokinghamFestival2025
