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Robyn Hitchcock

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Robyn Hitchcock
Live @ Iron Horse., Northampton, MA 3/28/2005
Background information
Born	March 3 1953 (1953-03-03) (age 55)
Genre(s)	Indie rock, folk
Occupation(s)	Musician, actor
Instrument(s)	Guitar, piano
Associated acts	Soft Boys, Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians
Website	http://robynhitchcock.com

Robyn Raymond Hitchcock (born March 3, 1953) is an English singer-songwriter and psych folk guitarist who also dabbles in most forms of art, in particular painting and poetry, and has occasionally shown an interest in acting. While primarily a vocalist and guitarist, he also plays harmonica, piano and bass guitar.

1 Style
2 Biography
3 Album discography
4 References
5 External links

Style

Hitchcock's musical and lyrical styles have been influenced by his appreciation of Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Syd Barrett. Hitchcock's lyrics are an essential component of his work and tend to include surrealism, comedic songs, characterizations of English eccentrics and melancholy depictions of everyday life. His themes include what many psychologists view as the roots of modern neurosis - namely, death, sex and eating. (Recognising this theme, he released an EP in 2007 called "Sex, Food, Death and Tarantulas".)

Biography

Early life & recording career

Born in London, England, he began his recording career in 1976 with the Cambridge-based punk/New Wave band The Soft Boys, a local group with an interest in the odd concept of 'psychedelic punk'. After the group broke up in 1981, Hitchcock began recording as a solo artist.

1980s

Hitchcock released his highly regarded solo debut, Black Snake Diamond Role in 1981, featuring backing by his former Soft Boys bandmates and other guests. He followed it in 1982 with the nearly as strong Groovy Decay. During the 1980s, Hitchcock swung between solo releases and group efforts with his next band. The Egyptians, comprising former members of The Soft Boys (Andy Metcalfe and Morris Windsor) and early keyboardist Roger Jackson, began playing in 1984. Although mainstream success largely eluded them, The Egyptians achieved moderate success in the U.S. via college radio and MTV in the latter half of the 1980s and early 1990s with their singles "Balloon Man" in 1988, "Madonna Of The Wasps" in 1989 and "So You Think You're In Love" in 1991.

1990s

During the 1990s, Hitchcock continued his pattern of recording solo albums between releases by the Egyptians. 1993's Respect (a record influenced a great deal by his father's death) marked the last Egyptians release, and the end of his association with A&M Records. Early in 1994, he disbanded the Egyptians before embarking on a short reunion tour with The Soft Boys. His work received a slight boost in 1995 when his back catalogue (including both solo releases and Egyptians albums) were re-packaged and re-issued in the U.S. by the respected Rhino Records label. For the rest of the decade he continued recording and performing as a solo artist, releasing several albums on Warner Brothers Records, such as 1996's Moss Elixir (which featured the contributions of violinist Deni Bonet), and the soundtrack from the Jonathan Demme-directed concert film Storefront Hitchcock in 1998.

2000s

In 2001, Hitchcock re-united and toured with Kimberley Rew, bassist Matthew Seligman, and Morris Windsor for The Soft Boys re release of their best-known album, 1980s Underwater Moonlight. The following year they recorded and released a new album Nextdoorland which was accompanied by a short album of outtakes, Side Three. The Soft Boys disbanded once more in 2003. In 2002 he released a double album Robyn Sings, comprised of cover versions of Bob Dylan songs, including a live recreation of Dylan's Live at the Royal Albert Hall 1966 concert. In 2003 Hitchcock celebrated his 50th birthday with a concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London at which his new solo acoustic album Luxor was given away as a party favour to all those attending. In 2004 he released Spooked, which was recorded with country/folk duo Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. This included another Dylan cover and a love song to his television set amongst its twelve titles. In 2006 Olé! Tarantula was released with The Venus 3, a band which consists of R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, Young Fresh Fellows' frontman Scott McCaughey, and Ministry's Bill Rieflin. In 2007 he was the subject of a new documentary directed by John Edginton,^[1] shown in US on the Sundance Channel and in the UK on BBC4. “Food, sex and death are all corridors to life if you like. You need sex to get you here, you need food to keep you here and you need death to get you out and they’re the entry and exit signs.” The filmmaker eavesdrops on Hitchcock at work on his latest collection of songs with contributors including Nick Lowe, former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones, R.E.M.'s Peter Buck and Gillian Welch. The film culminates with Hitchcock and the band taking the songs on the road in America. A Live EP with The Venus 3, Sex, Food, Death... and Tarantulas, was released in 2007 in conjunction with the documentary. The film also includes candid interviews with Hitchcock, who reveals much about the source of his work: “At heart I’m a frightened angry person. That’s probably why my stuff isn’t totally insubstantial. I’m constantly, deep down inside, in a kind of rage.”

Interests

Additionally, Hitchcock has an interest in acting, literature and art. He writes short stories, paints (often in a whimsical, surrealist style) and draws in the cartoon-strip mode. Many of Hitchcock's album covers bear his paintings or drawings, and his albums' liner notes sometimes include a printed short story. His live concerts usually include a considerable amount of story-telling, in the form of imaginative and surreal ad-libbed monologues in his lyrical style. Hitchcock collaborated with director Jonathan Demme in 1998 for a live concert and film Storefront Hitchcock, and later appeared in Demme's 2004 remake of The Manchurian Candidate, in which he played double agent Laurent Tokar. Robyn is the son of novelist Raymond Hitchcock and the brother of artist Lal Hitchcock. He is not related to Alfred Hitchcock.