Tom Robinson

I'm not sure where it came from, but yesterday I had a yearning to hear Tom Robinson's 'War Baby', with its lovely rolling drum and bass lines with the sax wailing in the foreground, a very '80s sound. So I did what anyone does and headed over to iTunes to find it's not there. So I tried Napster and it was there, but only a live version and I wanted to hear the song I recall in my head. So I asked Mr Google and he pointed me to Tom's website, I went *click* and there it was.

Now, Tom was a young radical, a gay and social activist back in the day, and all I know about him now is that he does stuff on the radio for the BBC (he used to fill in for John Peel on things like 'Home Truths' when it was running). It's nice to see that he's still a bit of a radical and his albums from the '80s onwards are available for free download from his site.

He says:

Free Downloads: iTunes downloads cost 79p per track. Writer/publisher get 6p, Performer 6-8p, Visa/Mastercard 7p, Apple 12p, and Record Company almost 50p. Sod that. Help yourself to my songs & share them with your friends: right-click (Mac: ctrl-click) on titles to download. Optional: if you'd like to help with hosting costs, click below [to donate].

There's a button to click to make a donation via PayPal but that's optional. So I downloaded 'War Baby' and others and left a donation in the virtual hat.

His first album as the Tom Robinson Band, 'Power In The Darkness' isn't available on his site but is on iTunes, so I downloaded it. It's good to hear those tracks again for the first time in decades - 'Glad To Be Gay', 'Don't Take No For An Answer', 'Up Against The Wall' - the sound of an angry young man. Where are the angry young men and women these days? Thankfully some middle aged ones are still carrying the flag.

Anyways, why not stroll over to Tom's site, listen to some music and leave something in the virtual hat - there's bound to be something you'll like.