Tom Robinson

Tom Robinson (born 1 June 1950) is a British singer-songwriter, bassist and radio presenter, best known for the hits "Glad to Be Gay", "2-4-6-8 Motorway", and "Don't Take No for an Answer", with his Tom Robinson Band. He later peaked at No. 6 in the UK Singles Chart with his solo single "War Baby" in 1983. Apart from his Tom Robinson band (1976-1979) and his solo music career, Tom also does radio presenting, including programmes on all the BBC's national stations: Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 3, Radio 4, 5 Live and 6 Music. He presented The Locker Room, a long-running series about men and masculinity, for Radio 4 in the early 1990s, and later hosted the Home Truths tribute to John Peel a year after his death in 2004. In 1997, he won a Sony Academy Award for You've Got to Hide Your Love Away, a radio documentary about gay music, produced by Benjamin Mepsted. He currently presents his own show on 6 Music, featuring live music sessions, on Monday and Tuesday nights, and freelances on Radio 2's Mark Radcliffe Show and Radio 4's Something Understood, and Pick of the Week. In 1994 he wrote and presented Surviving Suicide, about his suicide attempt.

Links To Peel
Robinson was a regular listener of Peel when he was young and would send correspondence to Peel and also demo tapes, which he had written for. On 22 July 1980, after coming back from America, Tom Robinson gave a selection of singles for Peel to play.After Peel's death, Tom Robinson paid tribute to the man by visiting his family in 2005 for the Home Truths tribute. Peel's sons William and Tom also visited Tom Robinson on his show on 6 Music in 2009 to present their favourite tracks of 2008 and be interviewed.

Festive Fifty Entries

 * 1983 Festive Fifty: War Baby #50

Sessions
1. Recorded: 1977-11-01. Broadcast: 07 November 1977. Repeated: 21 December 1977 2. Recorded: 1979-03-05. Broadcast: 12 March 1979. Repeated: 23 April 1979*Black Angel / Blue Murder / All Right All Night / Crossing Over The Road / Law And Order
 * Long Hot Summer / Don't Take No For An Answer / We Ain't Gonna Take It

Other Shows Played
(The database is incomplete. Please add further information if known)

1978 1983 Others
 * 21 April 1978: Up Against The Wall
 * Karl's Tape - June 1983: Martin
 * 21 December 1983: 'War Baby (7 inch)' (Panic Records) FF #50 (JP: 'I was very pleased to see this get in, because I like Tom, he's a good bloke.')
 * Tom Robinson 1984: Live performances