27 Facts About Tom Robinson

Tom Robinson was born into a middle-class family in Cambridge on 1 June 1950.

Tom Robinson attended Friends' School, Saffron Walden, a co-ed privately funded Quaker school, between 1961 and 1967.

Tom Robinson played guitar in a trio at school called The Inquisition.

At the age of 13, Tom Robinson realised that he was gay when he fell in love with another boy at school.

Tom Robinson had a nervous breakdown and attempted suicide at 16.

At the community, Tom Robinson was inspired by John Peel's The Perfumed Garden on pirate Radio London, and by a visit from Alexis Korner.

In 1973, Tom Robinson moved to London and joined the acoustic trio Cafe Society.

Subsequently, when the Tom Robinson Band were playing at the Nashville Rooms in London, Robinson saw Davies enter and sarcastically performed The Kinks' hit "Tired of Waiting for You".

Tom Robinson, in turn, wrote "Don't Take No For An Answer" about Davies' hindering his career, later released on the Rising Free EP.

In London, Tom Robinson became involved in the emerging gay scene and embraced the politics of gay liberation, which linked gay rights to wider issues of social justice.

In 1980, Tom Robinson organised Sector 27, a less political rock band that released a critically acclaimed but unsuccessful album, Sector 27, produced by Steve Lillywhite.

However, their management company went bankrupt, the band disintegrated, and Tom Robinson suffered another nervous breakdown.

Desolate, in debt, and sorrowing from a breakup with a beau, Tom Robinson fled to Hamburg, Germany, much like his idol David Bowie had escaped to Berlin at a low point in his life.

Tom Robinson released a German-language single, "Tango an der Wand", with lyrics by Horst Konigstein, a director and screenwriter who had written the lyrics to Peter Gabriel's German albums.

In 1982, Tom Robinson penned the song "War Baby" about divisions between East and West Germany, and recorded his first solo album North by Northwest with producer Richard Mazda.

Since then Tom Robinson has, unusually, presented programmes on all the BBC's national stations: Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 3, Radio 4,5 Live and 6 Music.

Tom Robinson presented The Locker Room, a long-running series about men and masculinity, for Radio 4 in the early 1990s.

In 2009, Tom Robinson founded "Fresh on the Net", a showcase website for upcoming bands and artists whose aim is "to help independent musicians find new listeners, and independent listeners find new music".

Tom Robinson supported the album by playing many festivals that summer including Glastonbury, Latitude, Wickham and Green Man.

Tom Robinson received a BASCA Gold Badge award in the same month.

In late 2018 and early 2019 Tom Robinson deputised for Radio 2 DJ Johnnie Walker on his Sunday show Sounds of the 70s.

In 2020, Tom Robinson embarked on a four-night solo acoustic tour prior to beginning a 22-date UK "70th Birthday Tour" featuring a 5-piece band.

Tom Robinson has had past experiences with women and has said that he has always made it clear that he liked both men and women.

In 1996 Tom Robinson released an album Having It Both Ways.

The scene supposedly takes place on 9 October 1981, precisely fourteen months before the real Tom Robinson met his future bride.

Over his career, Tom Robinson has released more than twenty albums either as a solo performer or as a member of a group.

Tom Robinson has released fanclub-only bootlegs known as the Castaway Club series.