To mark the 40th anniversary of ‘2-4-6-8 Motorway’, in October 2017 Tom Robinson pays tribute to the original Tom Robinson Band by performing his entire Power In The Darkness album at select venues across the country. Taking in 15 dates in total, the tour will also see Tom back at London's legendary 100 Club for a three night residency with a classic four piece lineup. His incendiary live quartet features Faithless drummer Andy Treacey, Richard Ashcroft guitarist Adam Phillips and keyboard virtuoso Jim Simmons plus Tom himself on bass and lead vocals. Full dates listed below.

Born in Cambridge in 1950, Tom Robinson first became known in the late 1970s as a musician and LGBT activist with the Tom Robinson Band (TRB) who were early supporters of Rock Against Racism and Amnesty International. In 1977 their Top Five debut release ‘2-4-6-8 Motorway’ became one of the landmark singles of the UK punk era. Other hits included ‘Glad To Be Gay’, ‘Up Against The Wall’ and the band's debut album Power In The Darkness which went gold in the UK and Japan.

As a solo artist Tom had further solo hits in 1983 with War Baby and Atmospherics: Listen To The Radio, and co-wrote songs with Peter Gabriel, Elton John and Dan Hartman.  His 14th studio album Only The Now was released in 2015 featuring guests such as Billy Bragg, John Grant and Ian McKellen. Recent festival dates include Latitude, Green Man and headlining the Left Field stage at Glastonbury 2016.

As a radio broadcaster Tom hosts three shows a week on BBC Radio 6 Music, is a member of the Ivor Novello Awards committee and in 2016 was awarded a fellowship of LIPA to recognition his support for new music artists through BBC Introducing.

OCTOBER TOUR 2017

10 - Cardiff, The Globe

11 - Milton Keynes, The Stables

12 - Cambridge, The Portland

13 - Bewdley Festival

14 - Nantwich, Words & Music

17 - Wakefiled, Unity Works

18 - York, The Crescent

19 - Nottingham Rescue Rooms

20 - Sheffield, Leadmill

21 - Manchester Home

24 - London 100 Club

25 - London 100 Club

26 - London 100 Club

28 - Newcastle, Riverside 

29 - Glasgow, King Tut’s

To a soul-infused alt-rock groove, as cool as midnight in Reykjavik and performed by a band as intuitive and tight-knit as sometimes only a three-piece can be, vocalist/guitarist Anna Tosh tells of her recurring dream. In it, she walks across a beach into the sea and is swept away, to a place of aquatic mystery and uncertain companionship.  “It’s about returning to the unconscious realm and drifting underwater to meet with lost figures from the past and future”, says Anna. “It’s about magical transformation.”

Underpinning Anna’s emphatic vocal, the trio meld the rhythmic pulse of Talking Heads and the dynamics of The Stooges, turning the song inside out on a chorus bursting with pop harmonics. All the while Anna liberally sprinkles those melodic guitar embellishments familiar to anyone who’s previously witnessed her playing. As an introduction to her solo material, it would be difficult to imagine a more complete statement of destined-for-success intent than the pulsing indie-rock  of ‘Weightless’, produced by Anna and bassist Herman Stephens, and recorded at Cafe Music Studio in Bow, East London, by Mark Sutherland.  

London born and bred, Anna Tosh has been lending her considerable six-string skills to a varied roster of bands since she was a teenager, among them Wildhood, Love Nor Money, Hey Gravity and Shotgun Venus. But with her own collection of striking self-penned songs demanding attention, and the assistance of a red-hot rhythm section in waiting – Herman Stephens (bass) and Jeremy JayJay (drums) – Anna decided it was high time to make her mark as a solo artist. 

 “My intention for my solo project was simply to write some songs for myself, with no boundaries or expectations,” she says. “I was deliberately trying not to think of what anyone else might expect me to do, and chucked the idea of seeming cool out of the window.”

As a musician who has turned her hand to a whole host of styles when performing with others, it was inevitable that disparate influences would shape her songwriting. “My roots are in punk, rock and blues,” says Anna, “but I have been playing and listening to hip hop, drum and bass, funk, psychedelia, dream pop, experimental electronica…” Anna’s decision to take more control over her musical output was part of a general reappraisal of her life direction following a relationship break-up. She emerged galvanised and positive, reflected in the songs that comprise her debut EP, One Big Fire, which deal with friends, lovers and an acceptance of the capriciousness of these relationships. “They come and go from one moment to the next,” says Anna. “It’s a never ending source of inspiration how weird life is.”