PT. 2: Glitter'n'Glum: Tom Robinson and Jobriath Meet at the Gay Crossroads of Rock & Role
Brad Kyle guides us through two lost icons!
Two notes from Lavender Sound editor-in-chief Max Freedman:
This post is written by the one and only Brad Kyle of the iconic Substack publication Front Row & Backstage. Enjoy!
If you haven’t already, please read Part 1 of this post before diving into the below.
Swish Family Robinson?
“So, it’s 1978, and this recording artist known the world over, just sat down next to me…in my car! I couldn’t get Tom’s recent hit, ‘Sing If You’re (Glad to Be Gay),’ out of my head! ‘Don’t sing! Whatever you do, don’t sing!’ I told myself! ‘He’ll think you’re trying to pick him up!” -The author, downtown Houston, TX, 1978
“At a time when homosexuality was still punishable in Britain by prison, he fell in love with another boy at school. Wracked with shame and self-hatred, Tom attempted suicide at age 16,” wrote Sylvie Simmonds in A Brief History of Tom.
More info about Robinson, right from his Wikipedia page, for some important context:
“Until 1967, male homosexual activity was a crime in England, punishable by prison. He had a nervous breakdown and attempted suicide at 16. An understanding head teacher got him transferred to Finchden Manor, a therapeutic community, in Kent…”
And again, as Simmonds tells it:
“There at Finchden Manor, Tom was inspired by John Peel’s Perfumed Garden on pirate Radio London, and a visit from old boy Alexis Korner. The legendary bluesman and broadcaster transfixed a roomful of people with nothing but his voice and an acoustic guitar. The whole direction of Tom’s future life and career became suddenly clear.”
Hear Tom himself narrate this video documentary on Korner’s life, and discover what made the singer/songwriter so important to Tom:
Robinson moved to London in 1973 and quickly found a home in Café Society, a fairly tame acoustic trio. They impressed The Kinks’ Ray Davies enough to the point where he signed them to his Konk Records and produced their debut album. It sold a paltry 600 copies, prompting Tom to leave the trio, according to Simmonds.
Tom saw a London Sex Pistols show in the autumn of 1976. Most of the people who became the Pistols had seen one of the two early-July shows by America’s Ramones in London and had the band up’n’running by the fall.
Inspiration begets inspiration, so Tom founded The Tom Robinson Band by the first month of 1977, and set about making it a far more “politically gay” outfit than his previous band.
By this time, too, Tom had become fully involved in the newly-emerging gay scene in London, to the point of also embracing the social politics of gay lib.
Newly-signed to EMI Records, Tom and Band released the “2-4-6-8 Motorway” single, which reached #5 in the UK. The song “alludes obliquely to a gay truck driver,” asserts Linda Rapp of GLBTQ (2015).
In February 1978, TRB released “Glad to Be Gay,” on their live EP, Rising Free, which topped out at #18 on the singles chart. According to Bothways.com, the song was written for the 1976 London gay pride parade.
Robinson has said that he’s had experiences with women and does not identify exclusively as gay. Currently, he identifies as bisexual while asserting that he’s used the word “gay” interchangeably with “queer” to embrace the entire LGBT community.
Further, he has made it clear that he used the term “gay” because, “as far as Joe Public is concerned, if you’re interested in other guys, you’re a queer…to call ourselves bisexual is a cop-out.”
Tom met Sue Brearley at a 1982 benefit party for London’s Gay Switchboard help line, an outfit he had long supported and even served as a volunteer. The couple would eventually live together, have two kids, and later marry.
From Rapp: “In the mid-1990s, when Robinson became a father, the tabloid press had a field day, blaring the news with the headline ‘Britain’s Number One Gay in Love with Girl Biker!’ The local gay press avoided him, but Robinson continued to identify as a gay man, telling an interviewer for the Manchester Guardian, ‘I have much more sympathy with bisexuals now, but I am absolutely not one.’ He added that ‘our enemies do not draw the distinction between gay and bisexual.’”
Indeed, Tom’s feelings remain the same today, according to the BBC: “While clear that there are still ‘difficulties for everybody coming out,’ Robinson sees a society where role models and representation are much more visible now.
“He said he believed that those who hate people from the LGBT community are the same as those who are prejudiced against other minority groups.
“‘You’ve got to really stand with your allies against your common enemies,’ he added.”
For more complete coverage of Tom’s ‘70s musical output (and my driving him…and only him….to an undisclosed venue in downtown Houston in 1978!), read here:
Jobriath and Tom: Still heroes…right?
Our heroes have come and gone. Whether they emerged in our childhood, or as we approached young adulthood and even beyond, we’ve far outgrown any usefulness they might have or could have — or should have provided us.
Or have they?
Y’know, we’re still here, and as of this writing, so are Elton and Tom! Whether you “officially” make music or not, or whether you even have an audience you’re aware of, you’ve got a younger generation looking up to you as a likely role model.
And, you’ve still got the vibrant, urgent, pleading and inspired music of them all, including the music of so many artists we didn’t have room to mention here!
Tom Robinson and Jobriath: Listen to them — listen to them now. So few did then. And pass along their collective and respective legacies, musical and otherwise, to younger listeners. They need to be heard. YOU need to be heard, and you deserve to be heard. Sing. Sing if you’re glad. And, keep singing — I am.
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