Robin Trower - an Ography

Last update: Jun 25, 1997

What's here?

  1. Biography
  2. Brief discography
  3. Detailed discography
  4. Other Inet resources
  5. What's the connection?
  6. Who am i to say?

Biography

b. March 9, 1945, London

Formed the Paramounts (Gary Brooker, piano/vocal; BJ Wilson, drums; Chris Copping, bass) in 61, scoring a minor hit with one of their singles (sorry, don't know the name -- anyone?). The run ended in the fall of '66, and Trower formed The Jam, a local Southend band. Meanwhile, Gary Brooker and lyricist Keith Reid cowrote and recorded the single "A Whiter Shade of Pale", which scored huge. The Paramounts reformed (minus Copping, who was replaced by David Knights (bass) and Matthew Fisher (organ) from the recording session), and they were off to the races once more.

Their next 3 albums did reasonably well in the US, but nothing in the UK. Knights and Fisher both left (the latter into ex-Lord Sutch, and thence into running his recording studio, eventually producing, among other things, Robin's first few LPs), and the original bass player came back. 2 more albums followed, still only doing good business in the US (mid '30s, on US chart). In July 1971 Trower decided to follow his power-rock heart, and left Procul Harum.

He first formed Jude (Clive Bunker, drums; James Dewar, bass), but "it just wasn't happening" (Peter Frame). Keeping Dewar, he recruited drummer Reg Isadore to form a power trio and went after the US with a will, making it to US#7 with "Bridge Of Sighs". Replacing Isadore with Bill Lordan, they released 2 more succesful LPs which also got noticed in the UK, (US#5 for "For Earth Below", US#10 for the LP from the supporting tour), and then just cracked the top 25 with "Long Misty Days". This version of the band featured strong guitar, riff-heavy songs that earned Robin many comparisons to Hendrix (although i personally think that's not really fair; Trower's music was much more structured, sharper and pop-oriented than Hendrix's; the comparison was probably made more due to his flurries of notes, and heavy distortion).

Perhaps the poorer showing of the last LP worried him, but in 1977 they added Rustee Allen, a new, funkier bass player (moving Dewar to vocals only), and took a dramatic 180 degree turn. The next 2 LPs were silky-smooth, lushly produced oeuvres. The distortion was still there, but gone was the razor-sharp edge to the sound, replaced instead by layers of chorus and delay (a sound that had been hinted at by the title songs from "Bridge Of Sighs" and "Long Misty Days"). The melodies were much more soulful and dreamy (and remain my favorite two LPs). Alas, my two purchases weren't enough, and they only made the lower half of the US Top 40. The next album was a return to the form of old (although tempered somewhat by the previous two), but it didn't fare any better.

Robin then kept his drummer and formed a trio with Jack Bruce of Cream fame, releasing two LPs of tight rock tunes distinguished by Jack's busy playing and familiar voice. Robin was clearly enjoying himself, his playing seemingly revitalized by the energy from Bruce; however, the romance came to an end all too soon. For the next few releases he surrounded himself with an often-changing cast of supporting musicians (Dave Bronze, bass and vocals, and Davey Pattison, vocals, staying the longest), but the albums were somewhat unmemorable, although each contains the occasional nugget to justify their purchase (the live version of "Bridge Of Sighs" included on "Beyond The Mist" is worth the price of the CD alone, and "Passion" is exceedingly re-listenable). The majority of the songs, however, mine the same familiar 'general-rock-guitar' vein that characterized so much of the decade. By the late '80s he was reduced from playing arenas to working the "A" bar circuit (which in some ways is a blessing -- imagine getting to sit 10 feet away from your favorite guitarist for a concert, as i did when i finally saw him in person in Toronto :).

The 90's signaled a change of direction. While he turned his hand to producing other people, the inevitable "best-of" releases appeared in the absence of new work, as well as a radio concert originally broadcast during the mid '70s. Following this hiatus, he formed a new trio (Mayuyu, drums; Livingstone Brown, bass, kybds, vocals) and in 1994 released a new recording on his own label, featuring straight-forward rock songs with a harder-edged sound than the '80s (and a couple of haunting guitar plaints reminiscent of the late '70s style). Trower then did another 'A' bar tour to support the new album, and i happened to see him on David Letterman in Bryan Ferry's backing band during 1995 (he produced the release Ferry was promoting). He also performed on a Procol Harum reunion album, and by year's end another '70s radio concert was released. 1996 saw him producing another Brian Ferry record and playing on the supporting tour, and also recording an album of blues songs with some old friends. This was released in 1997, along with a supporting tour (backed by his 1994 musicians).

Discography

Paramounts

Procol Harum

Solo

Compilations

Discography - detailed

Paramounts

Procol Harum

Solo

Compilations

Other Trower resources on the net

Why is this on the DP-WWW pages?

It's actually a very tenuous link. Trond Strom (the main force behind alt.music.deep_purple) mentioned to Roger Glover (the main force behind Deep Purple) that.. 

From: basec5@aol.com (BAsec5)
Newsgroups: alt.music.deep-purple
Subject: Re: QUESTION regarding 1985/87 tour Outro music
Date: 16 Jul 1995 04:10:48 -0400
Trond wrote:
>I've heard the Outro music used on these tours both at the end of the gig
>in Oslo in 1987 (where I suddenly thougt "Hell isn't that Ritchie?!") and
>on the "Hungary Days" bootleg from the same tour, where it is complete, and
>I became SURE that its Ritchie playing, and almost sure that its Jon on the
>piano. Its an instrumental piece, with a piano dominating the sound, and
>there's strings and a choir there as well. In the middle Ritchie's guitar
>suddenly breaks through for a short burst. What is this? A leftover from
>early days?

I believe what you are hearing is by Procol Harum, I can't recall its
title at the moment (probably due to a misspent youth) but if I had to
guess, it would be found on the album Shine On Brightly.    The whole
album is a masterpiece IMHO, and well worth listening to if you've not
heard it.   This particular song is beautiful, I love the melody and the
arrangement, and marred only by a lousy guitar solo, which incongrously
invades the atmosphere.    I'd loved it for years and was pleasantly
surprised to find that Ritchie did too.

Good luck,
RG

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  "I'm looking at the river, but I'm thinking of the sea"
                       - Randy Newman.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now, in response to Roger's message I mentioned that Robin Trower was the mystery guitarist, and this elicited a lively discussion about him which culminated in requests for details about his work. Being the ardent admirer of Trower that I am, I put together this short bio and posted it to the amd-p newsgroup. To my surprise it was met with thunderous applause, and shortly thereafter honoured with a place in the DP-WWW pages. So there it is, another piece of the Deep Purple picture -- the growth of which is yet another excellent reason to vist one of the better electronic Tupperware parties in the cyburbs.

A final word...

As one might expect, the opinions expressed in this document reflect only my own views; please feel free to contact the author, Wolf Schneider, at lonewolf@thehighwaystar.com to express your own.