Posted in 1970s, Music, Reelin' In The Years at 12:00 on 25 June 2021
A song from an age when to be gay in the UK, though not illegal for those aged 21 and above, was still to be vilified.
A bold gesture by Robinson at the time.
The sarcasm drips from the lyric.
Having said that I doubt such an overtly political song would be allowed such prominence (it was a top twenty hit in 1978) today.
Tom Robinson Band: Glad to be Gay
Posted in 1970s, Music, Punk, Reelin' In The Years at 21:22 on 20 April 2012
This is one of the few songs from the latter end of the 70s that will make it here as I never much went for punk and its aftermath.
However Tom Robinson partly surfed the punk wave and I was predisposed to his work as I had actually seen him performing on-stage at the Apollo in Glasgow when he was supporting someone or other – exactly whom I now forget – as part of an acoustic trio named Café Society (not, I think, the South African band Wiki links to.) The Café Society Tom was in were good, very good indeed. I wasn’t surprised when he went on to success.
The Tom Robinson Band was harder edged as this live performance attests.
Tom Robinson Band: 2-4-6-8 Motorway
