Tom Robinson had a bit of a bumpy ride on the music scene in the late 70’s and early 80’s.

His song (Sing if You’re) Glad to Be Gay certainly helped him and his Tom Robinson Band (TRB) reach a much wider audience (even though it was banned by the BBC). And their first album Power in the Darkness – even managed to go gold, despite its radical political content.

But then it all seemed to go a bit pear-shaped. His second album was a flop and TRB broke up shortly thereafter. Robinson then formed a new band – Sector 27 – in which he was just another band member, rather than the front man.

They also had some early success but then disbanded after their management company went bankrupt. This triggered a nervous breakdown and Robinson moved to East Germany to recover. His experiences there prompted him to write War Baby, about the ongoing tension between East and West Europe. (He and I had an interesting ‘debate’ on this when I interviewed him for my gay newspaper in 1983.)

Robinson recorded War Baby with his next band, ‘Tom Robinson and Crew’ and it reached Number 6 in the UK charts. Unlike Glad to be Gay it wasn’t banned by the BBC, even though it was still a very political song. The song, and a subsequent album, helped to set both his health and his musical career back on the road to recovery.

He looks remarkably young and cute in this clip, from the BBC’s ‘Top of the Pops’ – which goes a long way towards explaining why I used to fancy the pants off him back then!

https://youtu.be/jcmM1BWlodA