Customer Reviews

Power in the Darkness-2 lp's

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I loved this album when it came out, and I love it even more nearly thirty years later. It is a good-rockin', tour de force by a bunch of English guys with political points to make. The lyrics are good, and at times dark and foreboding, but they bring out the turbulence of Great Britain in the late 70s. The propulsive power of politicized songs like "Long Hot Summer", "Winter of '79" and "Better Decide Which Side Your're On" is matched by the hard-drivin' rockers like "Grey Cortina" and "2-4-6-8 Motorway" (a big hit in England in early '78).

This was an important album when released in 1978. Tom Robinson Band's "Power In The Darkness" was a clarion call to oppressed people everywhere to stand and be counted. This struck a chord with young listeners in England during that tumultuous time. Unemployment was sky-high, the government was nearly bankrupt, and the whole country seemed on the verge of going belly-up.

It's sad that near identical circumstances have now besieged America (and by extension, the world). When this record reached our then-comfortable shores, it didn't make nearly the impact it did in Robinson's homeland.

Gays in the U.S. were heartened to finally have an out-and-proud rocker speaking on their behalf - if they heard him at all. Remember, it was the disco era. Likewise, punk had difficulty gaining a foothold. The happier American punks (luv ya Ramones) couldn't even make it, what to speak of these angry sounds emanating from the Sex Pistols, Clash, and TRB. Sure, they found an underground following and could fill small clubs or medium-sized halls - but it was nothing compared to the disco phenomenon (or the reaction these bands elicited in Britain).

Guess you had to be there. Now that we are, this record finally resonates meaningfully for us in the states - and warrants a close listen with fresh ears. In addition to its current timeliness, it also holds up remarkably well musically. With passionate lyrics delivered in a voice that's part Ray Davies/part Joe Strummer, Tom Robinson came up with a batch of songs that easily equal the great Clash debut.

If you're a Clash fan, then this CD purchase is a no-brainer for you, and a must to own. If you're gay, the tracks "Right On Sister" and the anthemic "Glad To Be Gay" will speak to you. Fans of songs about cars and driving will enjoy "Grey Cortina" and their British hit single "2-4-6-8 Motorway", which for my money is almost as good as the Modern Lovers' "Roadrunner". Robinson adopts a cockney accent reminiscent of Ian Dury for the endearing "Martin", an hilarious ode to a friend. The remaining tracks have mostly political overtones, such as the title song, which exhorts all to "stand up and fight for your rights" - and Robinson sings them stridently and with confidence. The band is great, especially the guitar and keyboards.

This is something of a forgotten classic waiting to be re-discovered. It might have been better remembered if his star hadn't fallen so fast. They disbanded after releasing "TRB TWO", which wasn't nearly as strong as Power. It already seemed like a weak re-hash of their debut, and the songs weren't as good. The usually astute Todd Rundgren mixed Tom's voice too low, and his production imparted an ill-fitting Utopia sheen. In retrospect, they may have been better served had they stuck with legendary Power producer Chris Thomas. Robinson then went "new wave" for a one-off with his new band Sector 27, which he bankrolled to the point of personal bankruptcy.

Since 1986, Robinson has found greater renown as a BBC radio DJ and talk host. He still releases an occasional record, though it's been some time now. I haven't kept up with them, but they're supposed to be folk/roots records. He married, settled down and had kids, and now describes himself as "a gay man who happened to fall in love with a woman". Addressing this, he humorously titled one of his later albums "Having It Both Ways".

But for one shining moment, Tom Robinson was one of the best and brightest. "Power In The Darkness" deserves to find a new audience. It was - and should be again - an enduring classic.

Tom Robinson Band are a gem among gems when it comes to punk or rock n roll in general. Their 1978 debut album Power In The Darkness is a qualifer for one of the best rock albums ever. A furious blend of political/social rock mixed with working class anthems, cooking guitar, forceful vocals, and a perfectally stable drum/bass combo, musically they are a great rock n roll band, fitting to the anthems they are singing. Robinson himself on bass/vocals, Dolphin Taylor on drums, Danny Kustow on guitar and Mark Ambler on the keyboards, who most notably give the band a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers sense with the stabs of organ here and there.

Gearing up with Up Against The Wall, a White Riot style opening rocker that gives you a glimpse of what youre up for here. Grey Cortina another short punchy number that is a small highlight no thanks in part to how catchy it is. The band slows it down for Too Good To Be True a keyboard driven number which features a sizzling guitar solo from Kustow. The album really peaks with its mid section in 3 in your face rockers. Ain't Gonna Take It, a stomping Clash style rocker with an unforgettable chorus and that awesome gang like backing vocal the band provides that really brings it all together. Long Hot Summer, a sort of Graham Parker and the Rumor style tune thats verse sung phrasing really gives it a rocking drive that stands out. And then there's Winter of 79, one of those great slice of life social anthems this band does so well. It's hooky, melodic, yet a blistering rocker all the same and has to be one of the best songs of the late 70's British rock/punk/new wave era. When Tom starts singing, you automatically listen, this is in no short the kind of epic classic Springsten never wrote for Born To Run. Of course the other masterpiece cut here is Better Decide Which Side Youre On, a slow paced but brutally grooving rocker that really gets in your face with its chorus lyrics. The tone is angry and forceful and you can feel the boiling thought provoking attitude in this song. It breaths with rock n roll attitude. The Man You Never Saw is a cool fast punk style number that also works like Grey Cortina in how catchy it is, its simple but youll find yourself moving to this one for sure. Along With You Gotta Survive another pub rock style organ/guitar style tune with plenty of swagger. The record ends with the title track, complete with cowbell!, this mid paced anthemic rocker rounds everything out well. Another stand up and fight style song, (talking about your freedom) it shouldnt be missed. The grinding guitar underneath Toms sneering vocals gives it that edgy sound which makes it a song you dont wanna skip.

The new remastered/special edition adds on the singles the band released an EP which includes Don't Take No For An Answer, Martin and his gay/womens rights anthems Glad To Be Gay and Right On Sister. Some feel the last 2 tracks sort of undermine Tom's more deep and sincere form of songwriting slip into shock rock somehow? The bottom line is if you enjoy in your face rock n roll that has something to say, this album is a MUST. If you dont like politics mixed with your music, you might wanna avoid it. However if youre in the middle and enjoy music for what it is, PITD is still a must have. Any self respecting punk fan need it. The bands energetic and hugely inspired and passionate mix of pub rock, Punk, rock n roll and slight new wave leanings musically alone make it a jewel, but its really Tom's lyrics and his infused singing that backs it up and makes it work. The songs have something to say and even if youre just listening to the tunes at a distance for the music, a lyric or 2 will catch your ear and make you realize this is powerful stuff.

While sacrificing political rage for rock n roll grandoise the most famous cut here is the bands top 20 single 2-4-6-8 Motorway. An immensely catchy commercial rock tune thats so good if you dont get up and dance you're just dead. The guitar leads in it so good, they burn with a purpose that prevents this song from being a "pop" number. In amongst the angry social rockers, this kinda song works brilliantly, the anthem is fist pumping and infectious as hell. Anyone with a ear for truely passionate and note for note rock n roll that never lets up for any of its cuts including the bonus ones, this album is an essential. Up there with London Calling, The Ramones, Nevermind The Bollocks but not just for punks. It can resonate with anyone with a thirst for real songwriting and rock poetry

TRB was a cornerstone band of English punk (though they're really more like
pop/punk), and maybe the most seriously politically committed group as well.

The Clash were better--than just about anybody, of course--but more than the Clash's incisive brilliance, TRB brought to the music the messages and language of real down-in-the-trenches movement committedness. They didn't just play a few benefit gigs--they were out in the streets marchin' and shoutin'. See smart, furious, fantastic tunes like "Up Against the Wall" (a punk hit in the UK), "Ain't Gonna Take It," and "Better Decide Which Side You're On"-- all on this record, TRB's first U.K. LP release. (As Tom Robinson later observed, the band went from signing onto the dole to fronting the cover of New Musical Express in nine months time.)

"Power" also includes the finest, most stirring version of Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released" I've ever heard--yes, including the Band's and maybe even Dylan's own versions. And "Glad to be Gay," included on TRB's second British release, a four-song EP that was bundled into "Power" when it was released in the U.S. on LP and remains part of this CD package, was notable as the first out-there pro-gay rights anthem to hit British pop radio (where, memory is failing me, it may have run into trouble with the BBC.)

TRB was one of the very best of the first generation of UK punk bands, and "Power in the Darkness" is a subversive classic that remains a hell of a lot of fun to listen to.

This reissue of Power In The Darkness contains many extra tracks making it in effect a Best Of or Greatest Hits collection of the Tom Robinson Band. The sound is aggressive rock straight out of the heyday of punk when the Sex Pistols, The Clash and Siouxsie & The Banshees were making waves in the UK. Of the new tracks, the cover of the VU's Waiting For My Man is the most impressive.

Opening with the anthem Up Against The Wall, it takes the listener on a rollercoaster ride through the politics of those times, mercifully interspersed with some pure love songs and a dash of humor here and there. Gray Cortina and 2-4-6-8 Motorway are great rocking road songs whilst the protest number Better Decide Which Side You're On sounds dated now and Glad To Be Gay, probably Robinson's most famous anthem, has aged well.

Power In The Darkness is basically a repetitive chant but there's a ver funny speech in the middle which still cracks me up after all these years. The song Now Martin's Gone dates from a couple of years later, in the 1980s, when his sound had changed considerably into a pop direction. The music isn't particularly innovative, it's just good old rock infused with punk fury, but Robinson's contribution is valuable for the great songs he created. Fans of artists like The Clash, The Jam, The Sex Pistols and The Stranglers will appreciate Power In The Darkness.

Rising Free: The Very Best of Tom Robinson Band

Having It Both Ways

This is an album I listened to when growing up in the 70s, so it brings back many memories. I was able to see this awesome band at the Palladium in NYC with two other young gals - we were the only young women in the room, I think! I still love to listen to this music, (TRB truly rocks!) and feel the political topics are still germane - moreso today than ever. I am really grateful to have the album in DVD form! To know what it felt like in the seventies, & to hear a unique sound, I recommend owning all of the TRB tunes!

Tom Robinson Band broke through around 1977-78 alongside punk bands such as the Sex Pistols, The Clash and Jam. Though never really a punk-band themselves the group played some very solid down-to-earth rock-songs, very often with political lyrics.

The line-up was never very stable, and already with the next album, half of the band had left. The band only recorded this, their debut album, and a second album "TRB2", released in 1979.

Really a big shame, because the band had a lot of energy and wrote some brilliant songs. Their big hit "2-4-6-8 Motorway" released in 1977 is probably the song that most people remember, and it's no wonder. Simply one of the catchiest rock songs ever written. The song was included on most versions of the album in 1978, and is obviously also to be found here.

Other great rockers include "Long Hot Hot Summer" and "Winter of 79". The title track also is one of the most memorable tracks.

Among the softer tracks "Too Good to be True" and the cover of Bov Dylan's "I Shall Be Released" are favourites.

A good informative booklet makes the CD an even more attractive investment.

this was the band that left almost all the other so called punks in the dust...clash-fakes...pistols-great idea, not theirs though

Tom Robinson and the rest of his band...all of them:
Mark Ambler playing a Hammond b-3 through a leslie...yeah, that's right in a "punk" band, (can you imagine the poor bloke who had to schlep that gear around!?)
Dolphin Talyor playing the fattest batterie you've ever heard...that's how to make that snare sound like a snare
and,
The incredible Danny Kustow on git...les paul custom through a marshall stack and it sounds like it...turned up to eleven

With Robinson himself singing and playin' bass his band was left to have fun and fun they did have...Kustow's git is feedback drenched and he knows how to make a mess with all the right notes...his playing all through this album...even on the slower tunes, is some of the best emotional playing you will ever hear, barring none...page, clapton, hendrix, allman et al.
I remember reading somewhere at the time that tom met danny while they we're both in some type of mental inst.(?)

on top of that you have these fat organ(!?) fills trading off with him from Ambler. As you listen to the songs you're constantly amazed at how effectivly he uses the instrument.

This band was circa the same time as the pistols and the whole "punk" movement ("punk movement" being a term made up by record co's to sell idle kids stuff) but...this band didn't just adopt a pose...as quoted in the definitive tome on said movement "The Boy Looked At Johnny"...

"They are the first band not to shrug off their political stance as soon as they walk out of the recording studio. The first band with sufficiant, pure undiluted, unrepentant bottle to keep their crooning necks firmly on the uncompromising line of commitment when life would be infinatley easier
-and no less of a commercial success-if they made thier excuses and left before the riot."

They incited riots. They were leaders in the Rock Against Racism movement in England in the late 70's performimg and sponsoring free shows in places that didn't usually have stuff like that along with other politically aware bands like The Slits and Steel Pulse, among others.

Very political lyrics...still relevent today, if not more so...but the git playing and the passion is what makes this album one of my top 5 all time.
That's right top 5 all time. ( I must confess,i'm a sucker for a les paul through a marshall stack!) But I also like lyrics with cohesive thought and ideas.

Produced by the same team that brought you Never Mind the Bollocks & the first Pretenders album.

Sound is spectacular
buy it dig it and learn

No Political correctness here, its as it was released when you could call a spade a spade (literally)!

Not 2 LP's but one beautifully remastered CD.

My Advice, go for it!

FREEDOM! from the likes of you..................