Updates: 8/12/08 - The Blow Monkeys new single "The Bullet Train" will be available for download at various sites including iTunes on August 18! The new Blow Monkeys album "Devil's Tavern" will be released on September 8! Dr Robert will play a solo spot as part of the "Heavenly Forever" on September 15! Check out www.heavenly100.com for more information!
5/12/08 - Apologies for those who booked, since the new Blow Monkeys LP release "Devil's Tavern" has been delayed as well in order to coincide with their reunion gigs. New gigs posted, check the new dates!
3/6/08 - Be the first to hear a new cracking version of "The Man From Russia" from their recording sessions in the south of Spain! Please visit www.theblowmonkeys.com for the download!
2/25/08 - New Blow Monkeys gigs have been announced! Check the gigs section!
1/22/08 - Recording has now started with The Blow Monkeys in Spain! Go to www.theblowmonkeys.com for a quick view of their sessions!
1/15/08 - Demand The Blow Monkeys in your city! Click on Demand it and open an Eventful account!
12/23/07 - Please forward all messages to fencatonline@mac.com For any live bookings regarding Dr Robert/The Blow Monkeys please contact info@freetradeagency.co.uk or www.freetradeagency.co.uk or ring 020 7739 8872
11/22/07 - The Blow Monkeys official website is now up and running! View www.theblowmonkeys.com regularly on the band's progress of their new album in the photo section!
11/18/07 - NEWSFLASH The Blow Monkeys have reunited and are planning some gigs, new recordings, and the whole scene again! Please visit www.drrobert.net for further details!
05/10/07 - Some live dates have been confirmed for the summer with P.P. Arnold, watch the upcoming show section. Also, the album "Five In The Afternoon" will be released in the UK on Curb records in September. In addition, Dr. Robert albums will soon be available for download on amazon, i-tunes, etc. Also watch www.drrobert.net for more activity.
11/14/06 - Dr Robert will be releasing the long awaited full 10 track album "Five in the Afternoon" next year, and word has it that it's something quite special. A proper tour with P.P. Arnold is also planned for early next year, however nothing is yet confirmed. More to follow soon.
11/04/06 - Dr Robert has released a new track entitled "I Saw Something" featuring the legendary P.P. Arnold
Dr Robert first came to international prominence as singer/songwriter with eighties pop band The Blow Monkeys. He was born Bruce Robert Howard on May 2nd 1961 in Haddington, Scotland, and misspent his teenage years in Australia. This was the late 1970s, and Roberts first musical experiences were as a busker at Sydney Harbours Circular Quay. From there, he escaped to Darwin, enlisting with local punk band Exhibit A.
A return to Britain in 1981 saw the formation of The Blow Monkeys. The band made their recorded debut on the tiny independent imprint, Parasol, in January 1982 and supported its release with extensive gigging in London, eventually securing a residency at the dearly departed Moonlight Club in Hampstead. The bands idiosyncratic pop songs secured a record deal with RCA,, inked in July 1983. The Blow Monkeys debut LP Limping For A Generation was released the following year, produced by Jam/Style Council sound manicurist Pete Wilson.
Animal Magic was the bands second album, released in May 1986, and achieved the much sought after breakthrough. It contained the massive world wide hit Digging Your Scene, which burst into the top ten singles listings both Europe and the USA. Amongst the albums many gems was a duet with bizarre Jamaican toaster Eek-A-Mouse, entitled Sweet Murder. Such duets were a portent of things to come.
By January 1987, the band considerably consolidated their status with the irresistible single, It Doesnt Have to Be This Way, which peaked at the number five position in the UK top ten. March of that year saw the release of the bands third album, She Was Only A Grocers Daughter, and achieved silver sales status on release. Produced by American Michael Baker, it featured Celebrate (The Day After You), a glorious duet with Chicago soul/funk legend Curtis Mayfield.
If the album title was a thinly veiled reference to the then British Leaderene, Margaret Hilda Thatcher, the duet made explicit what much of the UK would have felt had she been ousted from power in the 1987 election. However, the BBC banned the single from broadcast because of a perceived anti-Conservative lyrical theme. Undeterred, the band further underscored their political affiliations by joining the Red Wedge tour later that year.
The bands next album, Whoops! There Goes The Neighbourhood, was a thematically linked collection written in response to the aforementioned prime ministers notorious pronouncement . . . theres no such as society. Contained within its grooves was another collaboration, this time with soul diva Kym Mazelle, entitled Wait. This earmarked the bands status as pop innovators, not only by embracing political themes but also by seeing the potential in the dance/pop experimentation crossover at a time when the whole dance scene had yet to go overground. This experimentation would achieve its full fruition on the bands last album, Springtime For The World. In the meantime, RCA released the bands greatest hits collection, Choices, in 1989 the album going gold on release.
Springtime was an eclectic and unusual album which, despite confusing both record company and music critics, has retrospectively become revered as an innovative record perhaps some way ahead of its time. It contained the Balearic classic La Passionara, and Be Not Afraid, a duet with Algerias primo Rai exponent Cheb Khaled. The track gave the band a profile in such rarely-charted pop places as Pakistan and North Africa. The band split in late 1990 after nearly ten years together.
By 1992, Dr Robert had relocated his young family to a remote cottage in Oxfordshire, and set to work on a new project with percussionist Benny Staples, formerly of The Woodentops. He formed his own label, Artbus, and released a limited edition electro folk single under the name Starjuice. Staples returned to his native New Zealand in 1994.
Realms Of Gold, Roberts first album was licensed to the Pony Canyon label in Japan in 1994. Two tracks were released as limited edition 7 singles on the Heavenly label in the UK, before the Permanent Records label picked up the UK licence on the album, releasing it in January 1996. The single taken from the album, The Coming of Grace, received heavy airplay. Realms of Gold featured contributions from the likes of Rhoda Dakar (formerly of The Specials), Marco Nelson (ex Young Disciples) and Paul Weller. Weller returned the favour after Robert had played bass on hits such as Changingman, and contributed to his breakthrough albums Wild Wood and Stanley Road, also accompanying him on bass for one tour.
Dr Roberts second solo album was entitled Bethesda, named after the village in North Wales where it was recorded, and was released exclusively in Japan in October 1995. It was recorded in seven days with Oasis drummer Alan White. It has subsequently become a collectors item. Other Folk, an album of cover versions and three original songs, was released in May 1997. Recorded and mixed in just four days, it includes material by the likes of Tim Hardin, Fred Neil, Bob Dylan and Marc Bolan. The album was released on his own Artbus label after the unfortunately named Permanent Records went bust.
Later that same year, Robert worked as producer on Beth Orton/Terry Callier duet Dolphins, and also the track Pass In Time for Beths Central Reservations album.
After moving back to his childhood home of East Anglia, he set about writing a collection of songs inspired by and based upon his experience of the Flatlands, the vast expanses of horizontal land reclaimed from the sea and marshes a mythic landscape of fen tigers, marsh men and giant skies.
Flatlands was released in May 1999, Robert says of it: Its about a mood as well as a place. There are some things that can be depressing - the homogenised high streets, theme pubs, small town paranoia. But there is also rare beauty there; the magical light, the enormous sky, the bleak magnificence of it all and, of course, the people the fen folk with their ancient tales and stoic resilience. To me, this land has a mythic quality its our deep south, Mississippi, Louisiana, Spalding, Boston! Its got magic and we all need our myths and magic. The album was Roberts most assured solo set thus far, and shows a richness. Although it was recorded at a relatively makeshift studio at his home, it lacks nothing in terms of production values, and the home cooked feel earmarks it as a heartfelt and personal project.
Birds Gotta Fly, his fifth solo album was released in the summer of 2001. Once again returning to the Ravens legendary studio in Bethesda, Wales - this album offers an eclectic collection of largely upbeat songs blending many flavours, genres and styles and peppered with haunting, intelligent violin arrangements. Attracting, as ever, other fine musical talents to the cauldron, Robert has created a unique and lively sound incorporating the soaring violins of Nell Catchpole (Brian Eno/Gogmagogs) and roping in local musicians from bands such as John Lawrence (Gorkys Zygotic Mynci) and David Wrench (Bubblegun).
Keep On Digging For The Gold rarities and unreleased songs, Roberts latest release is a revealing trawl through his very own back pages. A massively strong collection of ageless songs, it is an albums worth of greatest hits that never came out! Spanning his entire solo career to date, it offers a rare glimpse into the workings of an evolving artist. Quite possibly the best LP of his career so far.
Unreleased nuggets and hard to get gems - including the extravagant Realms of Gold (original version) with its lunatic beat and Abbey Rd string section plus the previously unreleased Walt Whitman
From the beginnings of his solo career, the fantastic rush of the early hard to find singles like Ive Learned To Live With Love, right up to outtakes from his last LP 2001s critically lauded Birds Gotta Fly. Check out the acid folk of The Big Come Down or soulfully seductive What In The World later a hit for UK soul outfit Nu-Colors.
Held together by the inimitable songwriting skills and distinctive vocals that have made
Dr Robert such a powerful presence it is music that demands to be heard! In a career into its third decade, this is the sound of a musician at the height of his powers on a journey that shows no signs of slowing.
His almighty track record and great critical acclaim has certainly placed Dr Robert firmly in the league of great songwriters
Hi and thanks for the add i am so looking forward to seeing u again in September the last time i saw u was at Manchester University 20 years ago...not that i look old enough obviously!!! kisses xx
Hi dr Robert We've put a new stompin' song on our profile: 'Boom Boom Soul' ... Thanks for passing by and listening! Bless you! ( (((Maximum Basie))) )
