Tom Robinson

Tom Robinson (b. 1st June 1950) is an English musician. Born in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, Robinson was the founding member of the Tom Robinson Band, an overtly political band with several hits in the 1970s, such as "2-4-6-8 Motorway" and "Power in the Darkness". Robinson's other best known song is "Glad to be Gay", and he was an outspoken hero of the gay movement in the 1970s. In the 1980s he fronted Sector 27, another highly political rock band, which released one album and left Robinson virtually bankrupt. He fled to Hamburg to escape his creditors, where he wrote his 1983 hit "War Baby" and released his first solo album North by Northwest. His return to the U.K. led to late-night performances at the Edinburgh Fringe, some of which later surfaced on the live album Midnight at the Fringe. In 1985 he found a new career as a D.J. for a variety of radio stations, including BBC Radio 1 (standing in for Janice Long), BBC Radio 4 (The Locker Room from 1992-1995), and the BBC World Service. He has become an advocate for a wider sexuality than his earlier potrayal as only a homosexual campaigner allowed - marrying a woman and starting a family. Robinson maintains that he suffered abuse from Homosexual Activists as a result. Robinson rarely performs nowadays, save for two annual parties for his fan-base "The Castaway Club", which take place in South London and Belgium in January every year. In the Belgian Castaway concerts, he introduces many songs in Flemish. The Castaway Parties invariably feature a wide variety of established and unknown artists and groups such as Paleday and T.V. Smith.