Part of an irregular series of bite-sized posts about 7″ singles I own – shameless nostalgia from the days of vinyl. (Search ‘Backtracking’ to collect the set!)
TOM ROBINSON BAND – Rising Free TRB (EMI Records, 1978)
Don't Take No For An Answer /(Sing If You're) Glad To Be Gay /Martin / Right On Sister (Recorded live at High Wycombe Town Hall, Sussex University and The Lyceum London).
Barbarella’s Club in Birmingham was packed to see the Tom Robinson Band in 1977 mainly, I think, because he had just appeared on Top of the Tops playing his catchy apolitical hit 2-4-6-8 Motorway. For that appearance, he looked cute and cheeky – a bit like an overgrown schoolboy : shaggy hair in no particular style, not long, not short; a striped tie loosened as if he’d just arrived late for class. Above all, he looked approachable and not an enemy of the state. This didn’t stop the BBC from banning his next single despite the fact that it contained no offensive language or explicit sexist or racist terminology. Its ‘crime’ was to assert that gay men both existed and were deserving of respect. Continue reading
