Tom Robinson

Tom Robinson (b.1950) is a London-based songwriter and broadcaster.

His first album release was in 1975 as a member of the acoustic harmony trio Café Society. The group were discovered at The Troubadour Folk club by Ray Davies of The Kinks, who produced their debut album.

After seeing an early Sex Pistols gig at The 100 Club in 1976, Tom rapidly changed musical direction and formed his own Tom Robinson Band (TRB) with rock guitarist Danny Kustow. The group were early supporters of Rock Against Racism and enjoyed Top 5 success in 19777 with their debut single for EMI: 2-4-6-8 Motorway. Brief notoriety followed in 1978 with the LGBT anthem Glad To Be Gay, and the band's first album Power In The Darkness entered the charts at No.4. The band recorded one more album in 1979 - TRB TWO, produced by Todd Trundgren - before breaking up acrimonously that Summer.

Between 1975 and 2025 Tom has released a total of 19 albums - both solo and with various bands. He's been mentored by Alexis Korner and Martin Carthy, written songs with Elton John and Peter Gabriel, toured with The Police, Red Wedge and The Undertones, and Rocked Against Racism alongside The Clash, Steel Pulse and X-Ray Spex for a crowd of 80,000. He's also been banned by Radio One, exiled in East Berlin, and hounded by the tabloids for falling in love with a woman.

More recently he gave over ten thousand artists their first national airplay on his BBC Introducing shows for 6 Music and served for ten years on the Ivor Novello Awards committee. At age 75 Tom still enjoys a reputation among his punk contemporaries - and in the world of acoustic/roots music - both as a tireless champion of grassroots music and as a master songsmith in his own right.