No Time For Lockdown
Muirsical Conversation with Robin George
Muirsical Conversation with Robin George
Spain based British rock guitarist-singer-songwriter Robin George is, to this day, best known for the 1985 single 'Heartline' and its host album Dangerous Music.
But there’s a lot more to Robin George than an ear-catching single and an impacting debut album.
This is a musician and producer who has written and/ or performed with some serious names in pop and rock including Daniel Boone, David Byron, Roy Wood, Phil Lynott, Robert Plant, Ruby Turner, John Wetton, Pete Way and Glenn Hughes.
Robin George has also released a clutch of entertaining solo albums over the years including the aptly named Rock of Ageists, the cool vibe'd Bluesongs, Dangerous Music II, Rogue Angels and, this year alone, four new offerings – Wilderness, Heartlines, Feed the Wolf and Surreal Six String (the latter is the musician's first ever all-instrumental album while Heartlines is his first acoustic based album).
Add in a number of other project releases and a couple of remastered reissues and you have the most productive recording artist during the recent lockdowns (by some musical way).
Robin George sat in with FabricationsHQ to talk about those latest solo albums as well as discuss a few of the many, and notable, collaborative projects he has been involved in over the years.
But there’s a lot more to Robin George than an ear-catching single and an impacting debut album.
This is a musician and producer who has written and/ or performed with some serious names in pop and rock including Daniel Boone, David Byron, Roy Wood, Phil Lynott, Robert Plant, Ruby Turner, John Wetton, Pete Way and Glenn Hughes.
Robin George has also released a clutch of entertaining solo albums over the years including the aptly named Rock of Ageists, the cool vibe'd Bluesongs, Dangerous Music II, Rogue Angels and, this year alone, four new offerings – Wilderness, Heartlines, Feed the Wolf and Surreal Six String (the latter is the musician's first ever all-instrumental album while Heartlines is his first acoustic based album).
Add in a number of other project releases and a couple of remastered reissues and you have the most productive recording artist during the recent lockdowns (by some musical way).
Robin George sat in with FabricationsHQ to talk about those latest solo albums as well as discuss a few of the many, and notable, collaborative projects he has been involved in over the years.
Ross Muir: Latest solo album Feed The Wolf showcase every facet of Robin George – for example Summertime Rocking and Funky Rock Groove do exactly as they are titled while Savage Song is full on, no nonsense Robin George rock; to name but three.
Is that multi-faceted approach just what comes out of you or is there any pre-determined plan?
Robin George: It’s what comes out of me, really; I write everything on acoustic guitar, which is why I did the Heartlines acoustic album earlier this year, and from there it starts to flow in the studio.
And of course, there's Charlie Morgan, the best drummer in the world for me; he is just fantastic.
Charlie has played on my last seven or eight albums, which is incredible!
So it just flows from there; I bring in any other guys who might contribute – Nibor Salches plays bass on the last album, Wilderness, for example, but on Feed The Wolf I play most of the bass myself.
In fact, nearly everything I do now is myself on acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass and vocals, with Charlie on drums. That saves a lot of agro, I must say! [laughs]
RM: Yes, you are very much a solo artist, in its truest sense, in the studio – including production, engineering and arrangements.
All of which collectively produce what is a very distinct and identifiably Robin George sound.
RG: Well, somehow, over the years, I’ve managed to develop the skills to be able to do everything in the studio; that seems to be why I have that sound.
RM: And that’s been evident from 1985 and the much-acclaimed album Dangerous Music.
There are a number of iconic bands with an equally iconic sound or style – AC/DC is an obvious example – but you are much the same in solo artistry terms; there’s a distinct sonic identity to your albums and sound.
RG: I’ve always followed the process of everything I do, from the first notes through to the mixing and the mastering process.
I was introduced to a German sound engineer called Klaus Bohlamm; he’s mixed loads of my old stuff and mixed and mastered Feed The Wolf. Klaus is in a different league for me; I don’t know how he does some of the stuff he does – he’s got great gear, but he’s got great ears as well.
What you hear from me – the recording, playing and production – I do here in Spain; Charlie adds his drums over in Nashville and then Klaus mixes and masters the album over in Hamburg.
There’s also, obviously, been loads of other musicians on other albums over the years, mostly from the UK.
RM: Yes, as I mentioned in the introduction, there's been a fair few notable collaborations...
RG: Yeah, and some are still willing to sing for me [laughs], which is wonderful.
In fact I’ve been doing some work with Ruby Turner again, which is great, because with Ruby it’s like pouring melted chocolate into the vocals! I've been playing rockier guitars, rearranging and remastering for the RoxStar Legends album we have just released and, boy, Ruby rocks with the right band behind her!
Is that multi-faceted approach just what comes out of you or is there any pre-determined plan?
Robin George: It’s what comes out of me, really; I write everything on acoustic guitar, which is why I did the Heartlines acoustic album earlier this year, and from there it starts to flow in the studio.
And of course, there's Charlie Morgan, the best drummer in the world for me; he is just fantastic.
Charlie has played on my last seven or eight albums, which is incredible!
So it just flows from there; I bring in any other guys who might contribute – Nibor Salches plays bass on the last album, Wilderness, for example, but on Feed The Wolf I play most of the bass myself.
In fact, nearly everything I do now is myself on acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass and vocals, with Charlie on drums. That saves a lot of agro, I must say! [laughs]
RM: Yes, you are very much a solo artist, in its truest sense, in the studio – including production, engineering and arrangements.
All of which collectively produce what is a very distinct and identifiably Robin George sound.
RG: Well, somehow, over the years, I’ve managed to develop the skills to be able to do everything in the studio; that seems to be why I have that sound.
RM: And that’s been evident from 1985 and the much-acclaimed album Dangerous Music.
There are a number of iconic bands with an equally iconic sound or style – AC/DC is an obvious example – but you are much the same in solo artistry terms; there’s a distinct sonic identity to your albums and sound.
RG: I’ve always followed the process of everything I do, from the first notes through to the mixing and the mastering process.
I was introduced to a German sound engineer called Klaus Bohlamm; he’s mixed loads of my old stuff and mixed and mastered Feed The Wolf. Klaus is in a different league for me; I don’t know how he does some of the stuff he does – he’s got great gear, but he’s got great ears as well.
What you hear from me – the recording, playing and production – I do here in Spain; Charlie adds his drums over in Nashville and then Klaus mixes and masters the album over in Hamburg.
There’s also, obviously, been loads of other musicians on other albums over the years, mostly from the UK.
RM: Yes, as I mentioned in the introduction, there's been a fair few notable collaborations...
RG: Yeah, and some are still willing to sing for me [laughs], which is wonderful.
In fact I’ve been doing some work with Ruby Turner again, which is great, because with Ruby it’s like pouring melted chocolate into the vocals! I've been playing rockier guitars, rearranging and remastering for the RoxStar Legends album we have just released and, boy, Ruby rocks with the right band behind her!
Feed the Wolf, the latest solo album from Robin George and the RoxStar Legends compilation,
which features many of the star artists Robin George has worked & performed with over the years.
which features many of the star artists Robin George has worked & performed with over the years.
RM: You are not just studio savvy but studio prolific – in fact, through lockdown, you've delivered four solo albums in around the same number of months, plus a number of remastered projects…
RG: Well what else am I gonna do! [laughs] I wasn’t going to sit and look at the walls; I’ve got all this stuff around me, I’ve got my studio, I’ve got loads of ideas – so I just do it!
It started with the acoustic idea, which became Heartlines, then I thought "well, I’ve never done an instrumental album either," so I did Surreal Six String.
I also found, not that long ago, Robin George & Dangerous Music live recordings from 1985; they sounded really good so we’ve put that out as the Euro Tour Live CD.
I’ve also got some fabulous, older stuff, featuring so many greats; that's what became RoxStar Legends.
That was bittersweet though because so many of those fabulous, beautiful friends and artists are no longer with us; so it can hurt at times to hear those artists giving it their all.
But, keeping the memories of them alive is important – and they worked with me, or did those recordings with me, because they wanted them to be heard.
But often, with Phil Lynott for example, when I talk about my time with him some people imply that I’m trying to hang on his coattails – absolutely not; it’s absolutely the opposite.
I’m just so pleased we had the chance to work together and he was my friend.
I’m privileged more than I could ever say to have worked with all those guys – Phil, John Wetton, Dave Byron… [pauses] I’ll stop because it goes on beyond there and… it’s too sad, really.
RM: In response to that coattails nonsense, there’s no shame in citing all the people you’ve produced, worked, written or performed with; it’s part of your career history.
Your reputation, and respect earned, means it’s no surprise associations include those you’ve mentioned and other luminaries such as Roy Wood, Glenn Hughes and Robert Plant, to name but three more.
RG: Oh it’s not shame; but let’s just say there’s a lot of trolls out there – but I can take the rough with the smooth, I promise you!
RM: You mentioned Surreal Six String – how did you choose what songs to instrumentalise, or to do acoustically for Heartlines?
RG: It was basically what I had up in the studio to be honest; I thought "hang on, I could work this song instrumentally, and that one will work well acoustically." I just work my way through stuff.
Some of the original acoustic recordings for the Wilderness album are on Heartlines and obviously I had to do the song Heartline, as one does! [laughs].
There are also a couple on the acoustic album where I thought they should be heard as they were originally written, because people are interested, in fact very interested, to hear those.
I must have a listen to them myself sometime! [laughs].
RM: You’re a get it in the can and move on musician, I take it?
RG: Very much so. Once an album is out I don’t listen to it. I only ever hear it again if someone else is playing it or, and this is very occasionally nowadays, if radio is playing it.
Then it becomes a kind of trip down memory lane for me.
RM: That’s interesting about you picking out whatever you have around to revisit or rework because throughout your career you’ve done just that – for example Savage Song, a highlight of Feed The Wolf, goes back further to 2007 and Damage Control, a supergroup album featuring you, Spike, Chris Slade and the late Pete Way...
RG: We did do it with Damage Control, yes. I did it first, but then Spike sang along to my version – he literally had my voice in his headphones – and that came out really well because when Spike goes for it, he goes for it! It turned out great.
I remember my daughter saying to him "how do you make that noise?" and he said [impersonates Spike]
"I dunno, I just open my mouth and out it comes!" [laughter]. Then he sang at her and she nearly fell over!
It was fantastic! [laughs]
RM: That first Damage Control album is probably the most individualistic album you’ve ever been on, primarily because of who was on it and how it sounded – raw, honest and earthy.
RG: Yes. And that version of Savage Song was totally dry; no effects or echoes on anything; it was recorded just as we performed it.
And to have Chris Slade just pop over and do the sessions with me, Pete and Spike was great.
RM: A seriously tidy little band. You, Pete and Chris did a second album as a trio a couple of years later, which included revisiting some of the songs form the first album.
You took the majority of the lead vocals but a couple were handled by Pete.
RG: That was Raw. Yeah, Pete did take lead on a couple of songs. There was one in particular, Victim, where Pete took lead on the verses and I helped out on the choruses – on that song he sounds like he’s shivering in a doorway with a bottle of wine; as he always used to have! He just had a certain magic about him.
In fact, when we went to a studio in Birmingham to record a couple of his vocals on the louder tracks, like the song Damage Control, the studio engineer said "he should be giving lessons to people in how to sing punk, let alone this stuff; he’s really got it."
RM: I caught up with Pete on a couple of his Pete Way Band shows in late 2019; your shivering in a doorway line and the punk vocal comments were never more prominent than when he sang his song Crazy, which was a darker rework of the Damage Control song Alice.
RG: "There ain’t no Alice here, this ain’t no Wonderland!" Yeah, great song.
Actually we’ve just remastered and reissued the Charity album LovePower and Peace, that I did about ten years ago, as a Sharing album. It's now called RockinG LovePower, with many different tracks and mostly new mixes. That album includes a version of Alice, with Spike and I sharing the lead vocals; it worked out great.
But Pete was wonderful to work with, and a very good friend – I played with Pete on Waysted’s Back From the Dead UK tour in 2006 but I couldn’t do the Scottish dates, unfortunately.
I did get to play some of those great little club venues though, like JB’s in Dudley and Stairways, which is still going strong.
RM: That's interesting to hear you have re-issued an updated version of the LovePower and Peace charity album; can you explain what you mean by RockinG LovePower being a sharing album?
RG: I call it a Sharing album because the idea behind it is that we retail it at our cost price, in this case five pounds, plus postage, then people who buy a copy choose to support the causes closest to their own hearts with the five pound difference – or more if they can afford to, or less if needs must.
I realised that sending all the loot to the excellent charities who helped our families and friends was limiting the scope and width of the donations, so this is freedom of helping – you're not being painted into a corner of having to support X, or donate to Y, that the artists support.
And, if you can’t donate right now, just enjoy the music from these awesome musicians ‘till you can donate my friends – because every penny counts!
RM: Fantastic; great value for money, a fabulous idea and such a worthy paying-it-forward cause.
I know you mentioned earlier how sad it can be to recall or recount stories of those we have lost, but you'll forgive me for mentioning, and showcasing, what would have been a reformed Thin Lizzy featuring Phil Lynott, Brian Downey and your good self if not for the tragic death of Phil in January 1986…
RG: Yes. And that version of Savage Song was totally dry; no effects or echoes on anything; it was recorded just as we performed it.
And to have Chris Slade just pop over and do the sessions with me, Pete and Spike was great.
RM: A seriously tidy little band. You, Pete and Chris did a second album as a trio a couple of years later, which included revisiting some of the songs form the first album.
You took the majority of the lead vocals but a couple were handled by Pete.
RG: That was Raw. Yeah, Pete did take lead on a couple of songs. There was one in particular, Victim, where Pete took lead on the verses and I helped out on the choruses – on that song he sounds like he’s shivering in a doorway with a bottle of wine; as he always used to have! He just had a certain magic about him.
In fact, when we went to a studio in Birmingham to record a couple of his vocals on the louder tracks, like the song Damage Control, the studio engineer said "he should be giving lessons to people in how to sing punk, let alone this stuff; he’s really got it."
RM: I caught up with Pete on a couple of his Pete Way Band shows in late 2019; your shivering in a doorway line and the punk vocal comments were never more prominent than when he sang his song Crazy, which was a darker rework of the Damage Control song Alice.
RG: "There ain’t no Alice here, this ain’t no Wonderland!" Yeah, great song.
Actually we’ve just remastered and reissued the Charity album LovePower and Peace, that I did about ten years ago, as a Sharing album. It's now called RockinG LovePower, with many different tracks and mostly new mixes. That album includes a version of Alice, with Spike and I sharing the lead vocals; it worked out great.
But Pete was wonderful to work with, and a very good friend – I played with Pete on Waysted’s Back From the Dead UK tour in 2006 but I couldn’t do the Scottish dates, unfortunately.
I did get to play some of those great little club venues though, like JB’s in Dudley and Stairways, which is still going strong.
RM: That's interesting to hear you have re-issued an updated version of the LovePower and Peace charity album; can you explain what you mean by RockinG LovePower being a sharing album?
RG: I call it a Sharing album because the idea behind it is that we retail it at our cost price, in this case five pounds, plus postage, then people who buy a copy choose to support the causes closest to their own hearts with the five pound difference – or more if they can afford to, or less if needs must.
I realised that sending all the loot to the excellent charities who helped our families and friends was limiting the scope and width of the donations, so this is freedom of helping – you're not being painted into a corner of having to support X, or donate to Y, that the artists support.
And, if you can’t donate right now, just enjoy the music from these awesome musicians ‘till you can donate my friends – because every penny counts!
RM: Fantastic; great value for money, a fabulous idea and such a worthy paying-it-forward cause.
I know you mentioned earlier how sad it can be to recall or recount stories of those we have lost, but you'll forgive me for mentioning, and showcasing, what would have been a reformed Thin Lizzy featuring Phil Lynott, Brian Downey and your good self if not for the tragic death of Phil in January 1986…
Phil Lynott performing solo single 'Nineteen' on the Razzmatazz Christmas Special in December 1985.
What should also have been a preview of a reformed Thin Lizzy featuring Lynott, Brian Downey and Robin George sadly turned out to be Phil Lynott’s last ever TV performance.
What should also have been a preview of a reformed Thin Lizzy featuring Lynott, Brian Downey and Robin George sadly turned out to be Phil Lynott’s last ever TV performance.
RM: What if? moments such as those with Phil are why I have described you in the past as Rock and Roll’s nearly man; but there’s also a touch of sliding doors about your career because many an unforeseen circumstance led to other opportunities…
RG: Well, I sort of grew up learning to fight back and I pretty much still am – it’s a case of don’t let the bastards grind you down, as the saying and the song says!
RM: Another that we’ve sadly lost, and who you mentioned earlier, John Wetton, can be heard alongside you in the newly remastered version of what has become known as Asia 2, at the Marquee in 1986.
That band featured John, Carl Palmer, Don Airey, Phil Manzanera and yourself.
RG: Yes, we’ve just released that one and, again, it was Klaus who remastered it.
It used to sound like we were playing the Marquee in a tin box but now it sounds like we are playing the Marquee in the Marquee! It was a fantastic gig.
We did three shows; the first one was at JB’s then we did two at the Marquee; the Marquee show we recorded was a great gig; I’ll never forget Cherry Gillespie of Pan’s People dancing right at the front of the stage!
There were so many names and faces there that night and they all loved it.
The one thing I’ve got to say on this though, because we only ever did three nights so we were obviously a little rusty in places, is I’ve edited out a couple of slip-ups but that was easy-peasy; making the audience run as one whole thing though, that was bloody difficult, because you want them to run as one whole thing through the CD.
But, I haven’t touched the audience otherwise – there’s no illusion here to adding a cast of thousands; everybody who was there is on this CD – so to anybody out there, if you were there, then you’re on it!
RM: That’s yet another of those near misses or what-could-have been stories – was it a case of differing schedules that meant it was sadly destined to only ever be three shows?
RG: It was just terrible timing. John was saying "let’s do an album!" and we were getting really vibe’d up about it but I was signed to whomever at the time – this was just after Bronze and Dangerous Music so it would have been Warners, probably; there was just no way I could make it happen.
John was just such a lovely, lovely man and, again, like with Phil, we had been writing songs together.
There’s one track, which we did when he came to my house and studio in Wolverhampton, called Wasted Time – that’s on the RoxStar Legends album I mentioned.
I spoke to John not too long before the tragedy of losing him and he said "that song turned out absolutely wonderful; let’s do some more!" But, of course, it wasn’t to be.
But, as I said earlier, their talent is still with us; in our memories and in the recordings.
The fully remastered Asia 2 Marquee gig from 1986 and "Sharing" charity album RockingG LovePower.
RM: A few years after those Asia in all but name shows you recorded an album with Glenn Hughes.
Now, that album leads to yet another what if, given it could have heralded in another great collaborative effort.
But it was never released; at least not officially…
RG: Yes, that was a bootleg; so please don’t buy it folks, because it's terrible.
It was sent to the record company, that I won’t even bother to name, as low-quality MP3s – not even high-quality WAVs or whatever the equivalent would have been back then – and not even the right mixes!
But they put it out anyway, which was a terrible thing to do.
But my next project – and then I’m having a holiday, I hope! [laughter] – is to properly release that album with Glenn. That has to happen.
RM: I’m very glad to hear that because it’s a very good album, quality of the should-never-have-been released version notwithstanding.
Haunted from that album got additional exposure from your both your own re-record of it and its inclusion in the movie Highlander II – the only downside of course being how utterly dreadful that movie was.
RG: That just sort of happened to be honest. My original demo version we eventually did as Trapeze with me, Mel Galley and Dave Holland, but I still don’t know what version is on the movie because I just couldn’t watch the film [laughs]. It was terrible; I actually had to leave the cinema, go to a pub and then race back in just at the end to see my credit [loud laughter]. I just thought "this is crap!"
My father-in-law, bless him, he said to me "I watched it just to hear your song but I just couldn’t watch it!" Everyone I know who did watch it said it was appalling!
RM: I have a very similar story. A few of us got together to see that movie when it came out, having been massive fans of the original. I still remember vividly, when that immortal – pun intended – line "I’m Conner MacLeod... banished from the planet Zeist" line was uttered by Christopher Lambert we all looked at each other, said "pub?" and left en masse. So I’ve yet to see your credit, sorry Robin [laughter]
RG: I’ve never seen the full movie yet and I never will; I ain’t about to rent it or even download it.
Funnily enough, Here We Go by Notorious, the band I formed with Sean Harris in 1990, is in the movie, too!
RM: Dropping back to Glenn himself… to this day he has a fabulous voice but back then he was so mercurial. That album would have been around the time he was, by his own later admission, having problems with his health and looking after himself.
RG: It was a weird one, because we did all the demos at my house and you’re right, Glenn was not in great shape because of all his habits of the time.
But, he would come in, stand in front of the mic and, wham. It just used to blow my mind! Our local shop was a couple of hundred yards down the road from my soundproof studio, but you could hear Glenn from the shop! He was really going for it; he just cut through everything. Talk about traffic noise! [laughs]
But then the suits stepped in. We went in to a very expensive studio – which I’ve got a lot of video of – and even although Glenn was immensely overweight and really not very fit, he just stood up at that mic and there it was. Like Pete, there was a real magic about him. He’s just immense.
RM: To wrap up Robin there’s one final, perhaps obvious question, spurred a little by your song Early Daze.
From those early days to where you are now, through all the twists, turns and what ifs of your career, are you happy with your lot, or is there still that niggle of what might have been?
RG: Honestly, I’m really happy. I’m sitting here, in Spain, in the sun, with a beautiful wife and twelve bloody cats [laughs] – my wife runs a cat sanctuary and some of the cats are always here – and a couple of dogs!
I’ve been through some terrible financial situations because of the state of the industry – well, what industry – but I have my studio, I can still eat, still have a beer still and... [pauses as bells ring right on cue] hear those lovely church bells outside! So we keep trying, man!
RM: And given how much material you have released over the last six months or so there’s every chance another CD is out by the time this is published…
RG: [laughs] Nice one, Ross. This has been great, and thanks so much for all your support!
Ross Muir
Muirsical Conversation with Robin George
November 2021
To purchase CD copies of Feed The Wolf, Surreal Six String and the other releases mentioned in this feature, as well as merch/ T-shirts, visit: https://www.robingeorge.co.uk