== The Blow Monkeys ==

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 1970’s, and Robert’s first musical experiences were as a busker at Sydney Harbour’s 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 band’s 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 band’s 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 album’s 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 Doesn’t 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 band’s third album, She Was Only A Grocer's 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 band’s next album, Whoops! There Goes The Neighbourhood , was a thematically linked collection written in response to the aforementioned prime minister’s notorious pronouncement “. . . there’s no such as society”. Contained within its grooves was another collaboration, this time with soul diva Kym Mazelle, entitled Wait. This earmarked the band’s 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 band’s last album, Springtime For The World. In the meantime, RCA released the band’s “greatest hits” collection, Choices , in 1989 – the album going “gold” on release.

Springtime For The World 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 Algeria’s 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.

Starjuice

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.

Solo Recording

Realms Of Gold, Robert’s 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 Robert’s 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 collector’s 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 Beth’s 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: “It’s 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 – it’s our deep south, Mississippi, Louisiana, Spalding, Boston! Its got magic – and we all need our myths and magic.” The album was Robert’s 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 Raven’s 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 (Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci) and David Wrench (Bubblegun).



Keep On Digging For The Gold – rarities and unreleased songs, Robert’s latest release is a revealing trawl through his very own back pages. A massively strong collection of ageless songs, it is an album’s 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 it’s lunatic beat and Abbey Rd string section plus the previously unreleased Walt Whitman … recorded way back in 1991 when a man named Bush was in the White House and waging war in the Gulf. Déjà vu anyone?

From the beginnings of his solo career, the fantastic rush of the early ‘hard to find’ singles like I’ve Learned To Live With Love, right up to outtakes from his last LP … 2001’s 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 track record and great critical acclaim has certainly placed Dr Robert firmly in the league of great songwriters.

External Links

Fencat Online - Dr Robert's Official Website