The Tom Robinson Band

8pm, Sunday 4th August 2024

The Malthouse and Canterbury Festival are thrilled to present songwriter, radio presenter and rights activist Tom Robinson who will be bringing his band to the Malthouse this summer to help celebrate our 40th birthday.

Tom Robinson enjoyed brief notoriety in late 70s Britain – a time of punk rock, political unrest and economic gloom – as a bandleader and activist.

The Tom Robinson Band (TRB) became known for the hit single 2-4-6-8 Motorway, their vocal support of Rock Against Racism and for the anthem Sing If You’re Glad To Be Gay, which reached the Top Twenty despite a ban by BBC Radio 1. Other hits included Don’t Take No For An Answer, Up Against The Wall and Too Good To Be True while TRB’s debut album Power In The Darkness went gold in the UK & Japan.

As a solo artist Tom had further success in 1983 with War Baby and Atmospherics: Listen To The Radio, and co-wrote songs with Peter Gabriel, Elton John, Dan Hartman and Manu Katché. As a radio presenter, Tom has hosted programmes on all eight of the BBC‘s national radio stations over the last 30 years, and won two Gold Sony Academy Radio Awards.

He served as a member of the Ivor Novello Awards committee for ten years, is a recipient of a BASCA Gold Badge Award, and was awarded a fellowship of LIPA in 2016, in recognition of his support for new music through BBC Introducing.

In 2015 Tom’s crowdfunded studio album Only The Now included guest appearances by Billy Bragg, John Grant, Martin Carthy, Nadine Shah, Sir Ian McKellan, TV Smith, Nitin Sawhney and Lisa Knapp and was a 6 Music album of the day.

The present Tom Robinson Band has been together for 20 years. Alongside Robinson on bass, it features Faithless drummer Andy Treacey, guitarist Adam Phillips from the Richard Ashcroft Band, keyboard virtuoso Jim Simmons and Northern soul singer Lee Forsyth Griffiths on acoustic guitar.

In recent years they’ve built a reputation for storming festival sets in the UK, Japan, Belgium and Germany – and marked Tom’s 70th birthday (two years late because of Covid) with a sold-out show at Shepherds Bush Empire in May 2022.

This Canterbury Festival event is generously sponsored by Lilford Gallery

Event Type: Theatre
Running Time: TBC minutes
Company: Canterbury Festival

Additional Information

The theatre box office and bar will open 1 hour prior to show time for ticket collection, sales and refreshments.

Wheelchairs

Please call the box office – 01227 287234 to book a wheelchair and companion seat.

For blue badge holders parking will be made available.

Parking

The Theatre campus has very limited onsite parking available, any available spaces will be allocated on a first arrival basis.  We recommend you use local car parks such as St Radigund’s (5-7 minute walk), Pound Lane (10 minute walk) Canterbury West (10-12 minute walk) or public transport.

Mask Wearing & Covid-19

Mask wearing is no longer mandatory but we support an individuals choice to wear a mask throughout the building.

The theatre has a fresh air flow system which pumps fresh air from outside into the auditorium – this can mean if the outside air temperature is low the theatre can feel cool.

Refunds & Exchanges

The production company is not offering refunds unless the show is cancelled.  Tickets can be changed for an alternative performance of the same show (subject to availability).  We can endeavour to resell your ticket, if the show is sold out.  If your ticket is sold, we will refund the ticket value to the original payment method.

Dates & Times

Date: 8pm, Sunday 4th August 2024
Price: £30

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