Robyn Hitchcock
Encyclopedia
Robyn Rowan Hitchcock (born 3 March 1953) is an English singer-songwriter
and guitarist. While primarily a vocalist and guitar
ist, he also plays harmonica
, piano
and bass guitar
.
Coming to prominence in the late 1970s with The Soft Boys
, Hitchcock afterward launched a prolific solo career. Hitchcock's musical and lyrical styles have been influenced by the likes of Bob Dylan
, John Lennon
and Syd Barrett
. Hitchcock's lyrics tend to include surrealism
, comedic elements, characterisations of English eccentrics, and melancholy depictions of everyday life.
He was signed to two major American labels (A&M Records
, then Warner Brothers) over the course of the 1980s and '90s, but mainstream success has been limited. Still, he has maintained a loyal cult following
and has often earned strong critical reviews over a steady stream of album releases and live performances.
, 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.
in 1981, which more or less replicated the sound of his previous band, as it featured instrumental backing by several former Soft Boys. He followed it in 1982 with the generally critically maligned Groovy Decay
, a record which he would ultimately disown. Following his solo acoustic album I Often Dream Of Trains
in 1984, he formed a new band, The Egyptians
, comprising former members of The Soft Boys (Andy Metcalfe
and Morris Windsor, supplemented at first by early keyboardist Roger Jackson), resulting in their 1985 debut Fegmania!
, which featured typically surrealist Hitchcock songs such as "My Wife and My Dead Wife" and "The Man with the Lightbulb Head". (A live album, Gotta Let This Hen Out!
, was released at the end of that year.) Their popularity grew with the 1986 album Element of Light
and they were subsequently signed to A&M Records
in the U.S. The album Globe of Frogs
, released in 1988, further expanded their reach, as the single "Balloon Man" became a college radio
and MTV
hit, followed in 1989 by "Madonna Of The Wasps" from their Queen Elvis
album. In 1989 they also teamed up with Peter Buck
of R.E.M.
and Peter Holsapple
of The dB's
, playing two gigs as Nigel and the Crosses, mostly covers. The Crosses also had their cover of "Wild Mountain Thyme
" included on a Byrds tribute album, though Hitchcock always alluded to the Bryan Ferry
version when performing it live with the Egyptians.
, then resumed with the band's Perspex Island
release in 1991. 1993's Respect
, 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, after disbanding the Egyptians, he embarked 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 United States 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 guitarist Tim Keegan
), and the soundtrack from the Jonathan Demme
-directed concert film Storefront Hitchcock
in 1998. The 1999 release Jewels for Sophia
, also on Warner, featured cameos from Southern California-based musicians Jon Brion
and Grant-Lee Phillips
, both of whom often shared the stage with Hitchcock when he played Los Angeles nightclub Largo
. An album of outtakes from the Sophia sessions called A Star For Bram
, released on Hitchcock's own label, followed, and his subsequent albums appeared on a variety of independent labels.
, bassist Matthew Seligman, and Morris Windsor for the Soft Boys' re-release of their best-known album, 1980's 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 reunion proved to be short-lived, although they did re-form again in 2006 to perform a live concert of Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd covers in London, benefiting Médecins Sans Frontières
.
During a short tour with Grant-Lee Phillips
of Grant Lee Buffalo
, Hitchcock co-produced and co-starred in a concert film of the tour shot in Seattle titled Elixirs & Remedies.
The 2002 double album Robyn Sings comprised cover version
s of Bob Dylan
songs, including a live re-creation (performed in 1996) of Dylan's so-called Live at the Royal Albert Hall 1966 concert. Hitchcock celebrated his 50th birthday in 2003 with a concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London at which his then-new solo acoustic album Luxor
was given away as a gift to all those attending, and an original poem of his was read by actor Alan Rickman
.
He continued collaborating with a series of different musicians, as on the album Spooked, which was recorded with country/folk duo (and longtime Hitchcock fans) Gillian Welch
and David Rawlings
. In 2006 Olé! Tarantula
was released with The Venus 3, a band which consisted of longtime friends and collaborators R.E.M.
's Peter Buck
and Young Fresh Fellows
' frontman Scott McCaughey
, as well as Ministry
's Bill Rieflin (by then also R.E.M.'s full-time drummer). The song "'Cause It's Love (Saint Parallelogram)" was written with Andy Partridge
of XTC
.
In 2007, he was the subject of a documentary Robyn Hitchcock: Sex, Food, Death... and Insects directed by John Edginton, shown on the U.S. Sundance Channel and in the UK on BBC Four (and later released on DVD). "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
, 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 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."
Late in 2007, Hitchcock's music was again re-packaged and re-released in the U.S., as Yep Roc Records
began an extensive reissue campaign with three early solo releases and a double-CD compilation of rarities, which would be available separately or as part of a new boxed set release, I Wanna Go Backwards
.
In 2008, that boxed set was followed up with Luminous Groove
, a boxed set of three early Egyptians releases and two further discs of rarities. In 2009, the electro-pop artist and remixer Pocket
released an EP featuring Hitchcock called "Surround Him With Love", while Hitchcock released an entirely separate new album, Goodnight Oslo
, with the Venus 3. At the end of the year, a live album called I Often Dream Of Trains In New York documented the late-2008 onstage re-creation of his acclaimed 1984 acoustic album (a limited-edition deluxe version also included the materials to construct a kind of moving-image generator called a phenokistoscope).
album, containing new material partially based on the "Sex, Food, Death" sessions shown in the 2007 documentary, but mainly featuring the Venus 3. In 2011, he released Tromsø, Kaptein
, an album of songs written in Norway, and released physically only in that country. Robyn was chosen by Jeff Mangum
of Neutral Milk Hotel
to perform "I Often Dream Of Trains" at the All Tomorrow's Parties
festival, to be curated by Mangum in December 2011 in Minehead, England.
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. He also appeared in Demme's Rachel Getting Married
in 2008, singing and playing guitar in the wedding-party band.
In September 2008 Hitchcock joined the Disko Bay Cape Farewell expedition to the West Coast of Greenland. Cape Farewell
is a UK based arts organisation that brings artists, scientists and communicators together to instigate a cultural response to climate change. Other voyagers on the trip included musicians Jarvis Cocker
, KT Tunstall
and Martha Wainwright
.
.
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
and guitarist. While primarily a vocalist and guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
ist, he also plays harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
, piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
and bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
.
Coming to prominence in the late 1970s with The Soft Boys
The Soft Boys
The Soft Boys were a pop band during the punk era led by Robyn Hitchcock, whose initially old fashioned music style of psychedelic/folk-rock became part of the neo-psychedelia scene with the release of Underwater Moonlight...
, Hitchcock afterward launched a prolific solo career. Hitchcock's musical and lyrical styles have been influenced by the likes of Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
and Syd Barrett
Syd Barrett
Syd Barrett , born Roger Keith Barrett, was an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and painter, best remembered as a founding member of the band Pink Floyd. He was the lead vocalist, guitarist and primary songwriter during the band's psychedelic years, providing major musical and stylistic...
. Hitchcock's lyrics tend to include surrealism
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
, comedic elements, characterisations of English eccentrics, and melancholy depictions of everyday life.
He was signed to two major American labels (A&M Records
A&M Records
A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that operates under the mantle of its Interscope-Geffen-A&M division.-Beginnings:...
, then Warner Brothers) over the course of the 1980s and '90s, but mainstream success has been limited. Still, he has maintained a loyal cult following
Cult following
A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture. A film, book, band, or video game, among other things, will be said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fan base...
and has often earned strong critical reviews over a steady stream of album releases and live performances.
Biography
Early life and recording career
Born Robyn Hitchcock in London, England and educated at Winchester CollegeWinchester College
Winchester College is an independent school for boys in the British public school tradition, situated in Winchester, Hampshire, the former capital of England. It has existed in its present location for over 600 years and claims the longest unbroken history of any school in England...
, he began his recording career in 1976 with the Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
-based punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
/New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
band The Soft Boys
The Soft Boys
The Soft Boys were a pop band during the punk era led by Robyn Hitchcock, whose initially old fashioned music style of psychedelic/folk-rock became part of the neo-psychedelia scene with the release of Underwater Moonlight...
, 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 solo debut, Black Snake Diamond RöleBlack Snake Diamond Role
Black Snake Dîamond Röle was the debut solo album by former Soft Boys frontman Robyn Hitchcock.Backed on various tracks by his former Soft Boy mates Kimberley Rew, Matthew Seligman and Morris Windsor, Hitchcock confessed satisfaction at being able to record an album with only his own artistic goals...
in 1981, which more or less replicated the sound of his previous band, as it featured instrumental backing by several former Soft Boys. He followed it in 1982 with the generally critically maligned Groovy Decay
Groovy Decay
Groovy Decay was the second solo album by Robyn Hitchcock, released in 1982. His backing band for the record featured Sara Lee of Gang of Four on bass and Anthony Thistlethwaite of the Waterboys on sax....
, a record which he would ultimately disown. Following his solo acoustic album I Often Dream Of Trains
I Often Dream of Trains
I Often Dream of Trains is the third album by Robyn Hitchcock, released in 1984.After the break-up of The Soft Boys, Hitchcock recorded two solo albums — Black Snake Diamond Role and the experimental Groovy Decay — before hitting an artistic slump mitigated only by some collaborations...
in 1984, he formed a new band, The Egyptians
Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians
Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians was a band led by Robyn Hitchcock. It was formed in 1984 and split in 1994, and was famous for college-radio hits like "Balloon Man" , Madonna Of The Wasps and "So You Think You're In Love" .-Members:...
, comprising former members of The Soft Boys (Andy Metcalfe
Andy Metcalfe
Andy Metcalfe is an English bassist, keyboardist and producer, who played mainly with The Soft Boys , Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians , and with Squeeze off and on during the period 1985-1994.He co-produced several of the Egyptians albums Andy Metcalfe (born 1956, Bristol, England) is an...
and Morris Windsor, supplemented at first by early keyboardist Roger Jackson), resulting in their 1985 debut Fegmania!
Fegmania!
Fegmania! is a 1985 album by Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians.Fegmania! was Robyn Hitchcock's first album with his new backing group, the Egyptians, which included former Soft Boys Andy Metcalfe and Morris Windsor....
, which featured typically surrealist Hitchcock songs such as "My Wife and My Dead Wife" and "The Man with the Lightbulb Head". (A live album, Gotta Let This Hen Out!
Gotta Let This Hen Out!
Gotta Let This Hen Out! is a live recording of Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians recorded in April 1985, shortly after the group had come together for Fegmania!....
, was released at the end of that year.) Their popularity grew with the 1986 album Element of Light
Element of Light
Element of Light is the sixth album by singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock and his third with his backing band, the Egyptians.Most of the album was recorded at Alaska Studios and Berry Street, but two tracks, "The President" and "Lady Waters & The Hooded One", were live recordings made for the BBC,...
and they were subsequently signed to A&M Records
A&M Records
A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that operates under the mantle of its Interscope-Geffen-A&M division.-Beginnings:...
in the U.S. The album Globe of Frogs
Globe of Frogs
Globe of Frogs is an album released by Robyn Hitchcock and The Egyptians on A&M Records in 1988. Made in London, it was recorded by the Egyptians along with Pat Collier, and emerged as the group's debut after signing to major label A&M.The album is densely produced, most of the tracks shying away...
, released in 1988, further expanded their reach, as the single "Balloon Man" became a college radio
Campus radio
Campus radio is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively by students, or may include programmers from the wider community in which the radio station is based...
and MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
hit, followed in 1989 by "Madonna Of The Wasps" from their Queen Elvis
Queen Elvis
Queen Elvis is an album released by Robyn Hitchcock and The Egyptians on A&M Records in 1989.Having signed to A&M in 1988, this second set for the label was unreleased in Hitchcock's home country the UK. The album's cover depicts Hitchcock in a red telephone box, illuminated from the inside...
album. In 1989 they also teamed up with Peter Buck
Peter Buck
Peter Lawrence Buck , is an American rock guitarist who is best known for playing in and co-founding alternative rock band R.E.M....
of R.E.M.
R.E.M.
R.E.M. was an American rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry. One of the first popular alternative rock bands, R.E.M. gained early attention due to Buck's ringing, arpeggiated guitar style and Stipe's...
and Peter Holsapple
Peter Holsapple
Peter Holsapple formed, along with Chris Stamey, the singing, songwriting, and guitar-playing core of the dB's, a jangle-pop band from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He became the band's principal songwriter and singer after Stamey's departure. The dB's were at the forefront of the guitar bands...
of The dB's
The dB's
The dB's are a jangle pop/power pop group who came into prominence in the late 1970s and 1980s. The bandmembers were Peter Holsapple, Chris Stamey, Will Rigby and Gene Holder, all of whom were from Winston-Salem, North Carolina...
, playing two gigs as Nigel and the Crosses, mostly covers. The Crosses also had their cover of "Wild Mountain Thyme
Wild Mountain Thyme
"Wild Mountain Thyme", also known as "Purple Heather" and "Will You Go Lassie, Go", is a folk song, rewritten by Francis McPeake, a native of Belfast, Northern Ireland...
" included on a Byrds tribute album, though Hitchcock always alluded to the Bryan Ferry
Bryan Ferry
Bryan Ferry, CBE is an English singer, musician, and songwriter. Ferry came to public prominence in the early 1970s as lead vocalist and principal songwriter with the band Roxy Music, who enjoyed a highly successful career with three number one albums and ten singles entering the top ten charts in...
version when performing it live with the Egyptians.
1990s
At the beginning of the decade, Hitchcock took a break from the Egyptians and A&M Records to release another solo acoustic album, EyeEye (album)
Eye is an album released by Robyn Hitchcock in 1990 on Glass Fish and Twin/Tone Records and is his fourth solo album, and eighth including his work with The Egyptians...
, then resumed with the band's Perspex Island
Perspex Island
Perspex Island is the title of an album by Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians, released on Go! Discs in 1991.The group's third under their contract to A&M Records, it contains eleven Hitchcock originals. It was recorded in Los Angeles in 1991, and features guest appearances by Hitchcock fans Michael...
release in 1991. 1993's Respect
Respect (Robyn Hitchcock album)
Respect is the title of an album by Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians, released on A&M in 1993.-Background:"Respect" is the group's fourth and final studio album under contract to A&M, and Hitchcock's last record with the Egyptians...
, influenced a great deal by his father's death, marked the last Egyptians release and the end of his association with A&M Records
A&M Records
A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that operates under the mantle of its Interscope-Geffen-A&M division.-Beginnings:...
. Early in 1994, after disbanding the Egyptians, he embarked 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 United States 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
Moss Elixir
Moss Elixir is a 1996 album by Robyn Hitchcock, containing twelve original compositions, predominantly acoustic, and released by Warner Music.Following the traumatic loss of his father, Hitchcock had recorded little in the preceding five years...
(which featured the contributions of violinist Deni Bonet and guitarist Tim Keegan
Tim Keegan
Tim Keegan is an English singer, songwriter and guitarist.Keegan has recorded and performed with various bands and as a solo artist. He has worked with a number of noted musicians including Robyn Hitchcock – he can be seen in Jonathan Demme's film about Hitchcock, Storefront Hitchcock – and...
), and the soundtrack from the Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme
Robert Jonathan Demme is an American filmmaker, producer and screenwriter. Best known for directing The Silence of the Lambs, which won him the Academy Award for Best Director, he has also directed the acclaimed movies Philadelphia, Rachel Getting Married, the Talking Heads concert movie Stop...
-directed concert film Storefront Hitchcock
Storefront Hitchcock
Storefront Hitchcock is the title of a soundtrack album by Robyn Hitchcock, released in support of a film of the same name, which was directed by Jonathan Demme....
in 1998. The 1999 release Jewels for Sophia
Jewels for Sophia
Jewels For Sophia is a 1999 album by Robyn Hitchcock, released on Warner Records.Since Respect , the hitherto prolific Hitchcock had released just one full studio album , the rest of his recent output consisting largely of repackages and live recordings...
, also on Warner, featured cameos from Southern California-based musicians Jon Brion
Jon Brion
Jon Brion is an American rock and pop multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, composer and record producer.-Early life:...
and Grant-Lee Phillips
Grant-Lee Phillips
Grant-Lee Phillips is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist known for his versatile voice, intense lyrical narratives and dexterity on the acoustic twelve-string guitar, a style that often sees him compared to Neil Young, Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan.- Background :Born in...
, both of whom often shared the stage with Hitchcock when he played Los Angeles nightclub Largo
Largo (nightclub)
Largo is a nightclub and cabaret in Los Angeles, CA, known informally as Café Largo or Club Largo, known for its retinue of musical and comedic performers and for the Friday night "residency" of singer-songwriter Jon Brion, which has made the club a must-visit for fans and professional...
. An album of outtakes from the Sophia sessions called A Star For Bram
A Star for Bram
A Star for Bram is an album released by Robyn Hitchcock in 2000, comprising outtakes from his then recent Jewels for Sophia. It was issued on Hitchcock's own Editions PAF! label...
, released on Hitchcock's own label, followed, and his subsequent albums appeared on a variety of independent labels.
2000s
In 2001, Hitchcock reunited and toured with Kimberley RewKimberley Rew
Kimberley Rew is an English rock and roll singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known as a member of Katrina and the Waves 1981 to 1999 and of Robyn Hitchcock's Soft Boys 1978 to 1981...
, bassist Matthew Seligman, and Morris Windsor for the Soft Boys' re-release of their best-known album, 1980's 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 reunion proved to be short-lived, although they did re-form again in 2006 to perform a live concert of Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd covers in London, benefiting Médecins Sans Frontières
Médecins Sans Frontières
' , or Doctors Without Borders, is a secular humanitarian-aid non-governmental organization best known for its projects in war-torn regions and developing countries facing endemic diseases. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland...
.
During a short tour with Grant-Lee Phillips
Grant-Lee Phillips
Grant-Lee Phillips is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist known for his versatile voice, intense lyrical narratives and dexterity on the acoustic twelve-string guitar, a style that often sees him compared to Neil Young, Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan.- Background :Born in...
of Grant Lee Buffalo
Grant Lee Buffalo
Grant Lee Buffalo is a rock band based in Los Angeles, California, consisting of Grant-Lee Phillips , Paul Kimble and Joey Peters . All three were previously members of another Los Angeles band, Shiva Burlesque.-Career:...
, Hitchcock co-produced and co-starred in a concert film of the tour shot in Seattle titled Elixirs & Remedies.
The 2002 double album Robyn Sings comprised cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
s of Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
songs, including a live re-creation (performed in 1996) of Dylan's so-called Live at the Royal Albert Hall 1966 concert. Hitchcock celebrated his 50th birthday in 2003 with a concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London at which his then-new solo acoustic album Luxor
Luxor (album)
Luxor is a solo album by Robyn Hitchcock, released in March 2003 on Hitchcock's own Editions PAF! label.The album contains thirteen self-composed tracks, including the instrumental title song and several love songs to Hitchcock's partner Michele Noach...
was given away as a gift to all those attending, and an original poem of his was read by actor Alan Rickman
Alan Rickman
Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman is an English actor and theatre director. He is a renowned stage actor in modern and classical productions and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company...
.
He continued collaborating with a series of different musicians, as on the album Spooked, which was recorded with country/folk duo (and longtime Hitchcock fans) Gillian Welch
Gillian Welch
Gillian Welch is an American singer-songwriter. She performs with her musical partner, guitarist David Rawlings. Their sparse and dark musical style, which combines elements of Appalachian music, Bluegrass, and Americana, is described by The New Yorker as "at once innovative and obliquely...
and David Rawlings
David Rawlings
David Todd Rawlings is a professional guitarist and singer. He is best known as the longtime musical partner of bluegrass singer-songwriter Gillian Welch.David attended the Berklee College of Music and studied with guitar professor Lauren Passarelli....
. In 2006 Olé! Tarantula
Olé! Tarantula
Olé! Tarantula is a 2006 album by Robyn Hitchcock, recorded with Peter Buck of R.E.M., Scott McCaughey of Young Fresh Fellows, and Bill Rieflin of Ministry, who are billed collectively as The Venus 3...
was released with The Venus 3, a band which consisted of longtime friends and collaborators R.E.M.
R.E.M.
R.E.M. was an American rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry. One of the first popular alternative rock bands, R.E.M. gained early attention due to Buck's ringing, arpeggiated guitar style and Stipe's...
's Peter Buck
Peter Buck
Peter Lawrence Buck , is an American rock guitarist who is best known for playing in and co-founding alternative rock band R.E.M....
and Young Fresh Fellows
Young Fresh Fellows
The Young Fresh Fellows are an American alternative rock group that was formed in 1981 in Seattle, Washington, by Scott McCaughey and Chuck Carroll; Tad Hutchison, Chuck Carroll's first cousin, joined for the recording of the group's debut album in 1983....
' frontman Scott McCaughey
Scott McCaughey
As a singer and songwriter, Scott McCaughey is the leader of the Seattle and Portland-based bands The Young Fresh Fellows and The Minus 5.He is also bassist for Robyn Hitchcock's most recent touring band, The Venus 3, along with Bill Rieflin and Peter Buck....
, as well as Ministry
Ministry (band)
Ministry is an American industrial metal band founded by lead singer Al Jourgensen in 1981. Originally a synthpop outfit, Ministry changed its style to industrial metal in the late 1980s. Ministry found mainstream success in the early 1990s with its most successful album Psalm 69: The Way to...
's Bill Rieflin (by then also R.E.M.'s full-time drummer). The song "'Cause It's Love (Saint Parallelogram)" was written with Andy Partridge
Andy Partridge
Andrew John "Andy" Partridge is an English singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He has been known as Sir John Johns and Melchior and rose to fame as a founding member, guitarist and chief songwriter of the pop/new wave band, XTC. He lives in Swindon, Wiltshire, where he was raised.Partridge also...
of XTC
XTC
XTC were a New Wave band from Swindon, England, active between 1976 and 2005. The band enjoyed some chart success, including the UK and Canadian hits "Making Plans for Nigel" and "Senses Working Overtime" , but are perhaps even better known for their long-standing critical success.- Early years:...
.
In 2007, he was the subject of a documentary Robyn Hitchcock: Sex, Food, Death... and Insects directed by John Edginton, shown on the U.S. Sundance Channel and in the UK on BBC Four (and later released on DVD). "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
Nick Lowe
Nicholas Drain "Nick" Lowe , is an English singer-songwriter, musician and producer.A pivotal figure in UK pub rock, punk rock and new wave, Lowe has recorded a string of well-reviewed solo albums. Along with vocals, Lowe plays guitar, bass guitar, piano and harmonica...
, former Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
bassist John Paul Jones
John Paul Jones (musician)
John Paul Jones is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, composer, arranger and record producer. Best known as the bassist, mandolinist, and keyboardist for English rock band Led Zeppelin, Jones has since developed a solo career and has gained even more respect as both a musician and a...
, Peter Buck
Peter Buck
Peter Lawrence Buck , is an American rock guitarist who is best known for playing in and co-founding alternative rock band R.E.M....
and Gillian Welch
Gillian Welch
Gillian Welch is an American singer-songwriter. She performs with her musical partner, guitarist David Rawlings. Their sparse and dark musical style, which combines elements of Appalachian music, Bluegrass, and Americana, is described by The New Yorker as "at once innovative and obliquely...
. 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 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."
Late in 2007, Hitchcock's music was again re-packaged and re-released in the U.S., as Yep Roc Records
Yep Roc Records
Yep Roc Records is an independent International record label based in Haw River, North Carolina and owned by Redeye Distribution . The label has put out albums by artists like The Go-Betweens, The Fleshtones, Gang of Four, The Reverend Horton Heat, and The Minus 5, as well as the work of important...
began an extensive reissue campaign with three early solo releases and a double-CD compilation of rarities, which would be available separately or as part of a new boxed set release, I Wanna Go Backwards
I Wanna Go Backwards
I Wanna Go Backwards is a boxed set released in 2007 by Robyn Hitchcock's label, Yep Roc Records. The set reissues three of Hitchcock's albums, each with bonus tracks, and also contains a two-disc rarities set, While Thatcher Mauled Britain...
.
In 2008, that boxed set was followed up with Luminous Groove
Luminous Groove
Luminous Groove is a 2008 compilation box set of the records Fegmania! , Gotta Let This Hen Out and Element of Light by Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians. The versions included are the extended CD reissues from YepRoc...
, a boxed set of three early Egyptians releases and two further discs of rarities. In 2009, the electro-pop artist and remixer Pocket
Pocket (musician)
Pocket is the remixer/producer alias for Richard Jankovich. Since 2005, he has released many "pocket mixes" for artists like Joanna Newsom, Beck, Kristin Hersh, Antony and The Johnsons, Radiohead, Cat Power, Of Montreal and more.-Biography:...
released an EP featuring Hitchcock called "Surround Him With Love", while Hitchcock released an entirely separate new album, Goodnight Oslo
Goodnight Oslo
Goodnight Oslo is a 2009 album by Robyn Hitchcock, recorded with Peter Buck of R.E.M., Scott McCaughey of Young Fresh Fellows and Bill Rieflin of Ministry and R.E.M., who are billed collectively as The Venus 3. Colin Meloy of The Decemberists provided one of the backup vocals in "Saturday...
, with the Venus 3. At the end of the year, a live album called I Often Dream Of Trains In New York documented the late-2008 onstage re-creation of his acclaimed 1984 acoustic album (a limited-edition deluxe version also included the materials to construct a kind of moving-image generator called a phenokistoscope).
2010s
Concurrent with the redesign of his official website in early 2010, Hitchcock began to offer an occasional series of "Phantom 45s" as downloads, each "45" being two newly-recorded songs that would initially be offered as a free download. He also released the Propellor TimePropellor Time
- Personnel :Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3* Robyn Hitchcock – lead vocals, guitar, harmonica, keyboards* Peter Buck – 12-string electric guitar, 6-string acoustic guitar* Scott McCaughey – bass, vocals* Bill Rieflin – drums...
album, containing new material partially based on the "Sex, Food, Death" sessions shown in the 2007 documentary, but mainly featuring the Venus 3. In 2011, he released Tromsø, Kaptein
Tromsø, Kaptein
Tromsø, Kaptein is a 2011 album by Robyn Hitchcock, released on the Norwegian label Hype City Records.- Track listing :#Light Blue Afternoon#Raining Twilight Coast#Savannah#Dismal City#Old Man Weather#Erasing Your Life#August in Hammersmith...
, an album of songs written in Norway, and released physically only in that country. Robyn was chosen by Jeff Mangum
Jeff Mangum
Jeff Mangum is a musician best known for being the lyricist, vocalist and guitarist of the band Neutral Milk Hotel, as well as being one of the cofounders of The Elephant 6 Recording Company. Mangum, along with the other founding members of the Elephant 6, attended Ruston High School in the late...
of Neutral Milk Hotel
Neutral Milk Hotel
Neutral Milk Hotel was an American indie rock band formed by singer, guitarist and songwriter Jeff Mangum in the early 1990s. The band was noted for its experimental sound, obscure lyrics and eclectic instrumentation....
to perform "I Often Dream Of Trains" at the All Tomorrow's Parties
All Tomorrow's Parties (music festival)
All Tomorrow's Parties is a music festival which takes place at Camber Sands holiday camp in East Sussex and Butlin's holiday camp in Minehead, Somerset, England....
festival, to be curated by Mangum in December 2011 in Minehead, England.
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
Jonathan Demme
Robert Jonathan Demme is an American filmmaker, producer and screenwriter. Best known for directing The Silence of the Lambs, which won him the Academy Award for Best Director, he has also directed the acclaimed movies Philadelphia, Rachel Getting Married, the Talking Heads concert movie Stop...
in 1998 for a live concert and film Storefront Hitchcock
Storefront Hitchcock
Storefront Hitchcock is the title of a soundtrack album by Robyn Hitchcock, released in support of a film of the same name, which was directed by Jonathan Demme....
, and later appeared in Demme's 2004 remake of The Manchurian Candidate, in which he played double agent Laurent Tokar. He also appeared in Demme's Rachel Getting Married
Rachel Getting Married
Rachel Getting Married is a 2008 drama film directed by Jonathan Demme, and starring Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Bill Irwin and Debra Winger. The film was released in the U.S. to select theaters on October 3, 2008. The film opened the 65th Venice International Film Festival. The film also...
in 2008, singing and playing guitar in the wedding-party band.
In September 2008 Hitchcock joined the Disko Bay Cape Farewell expedition to the West Coast of Greenland. Cape Farewell
Cape Farewell
Cape Farewell can mean:* Cape Farewell, New Zealand, northernmost point of the South Island.* Cape Farewell, Greenland, southernmost point in the territory of Greenland....
is a UK based arts organisation that brings artists, scientists and communicators together to instigate a cultural response to climate change. Other voyagers on the trip included musicians Jarvis Cocker
Jarvis Cocker
Jarvis Branson Cocker is an English musician and frontman for the band Pulp. Through his work with the band, Cocker became a figurehead of the Britpop movement of the mid-1990s. Following Pulp's hiatus Cocker has led a successful solo career...
, KT Tunstall
KT Tunstall
Kate Victoria "KT" Tunstall is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist from St Andrews, Scotland. She broke into the public eye with a 2004 live solo performance of her song "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" on Later... with Jools Holland...
and Martha Wainwright
Martha Wainwright
Martha Wainwright is a Canadian-American folk-rock singer-songwriter. She is the daughter of American folk singer and actor Loudon Wainwright III and Canadian folk singer-songwriter Kate McGarrigle...
.
Personal
Robyn is the son of novelist Raymond Hitchcock and the brother of artist Lal Hitchcock. He is not related to Alfred HitchcockAlfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
.
Album discography
Releases marked "with the Egyptians" are credited on the album as by "Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians". Similarly, releases marked "with the Venus 3" are credited on the album as by "Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3". Others are credited as solo albums, although they may contain some group recordings.Original studio albums
- Black Snake Diamond RöleBlack Snake Diamond RoleBlack Snake Dîamond Röle was the debut solo album by former Soft Boys frontman Robyn Hitchcock.Backed on various tracks by his former Soft Boy mates Kimberley Rew, Matthew Seligman and Morris Windsor, Hitchcock confessed satisfaction at being able to record an album with only his own artistic goals...
, 1981 - Groovy DecayGroovy DecayGroovy Decay was the second solo album by Robyn Hitchcock, released in 1982. His backing band for the record featured Sara Lee of Gang of Four on bass and Anthony Thistlethwaite of the Waterboys on sax....
, 1982 - I Often Dream of TrainsI Often Dream of TrainsI Often Dream of Trains is the third album by Robyn Hitchcock, released in 1984.After the break-up of The Soft Boys, Hitchcock recorded two solo albums — Black Snake Diamond Role and the experimental Groovy Decay — before hitting an artistic slump mitigated only by some collaborations...
, 1984 - Fegmania!Fegmania!Fegmania! is a 1985 album by Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians.Fegmania! was Robyn Hitchcock's first album with his new backing group, the Egyptians, which included former Soft Boys Andy Metcalfe and Morris Windsor....
, 1985 (with the Egyptians) - Element of LightElement of LightElement of Light is the sixth album by singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock and his third with his backing band, the Egyptians.Most of the album was recorded at Alaska Studios and Berry Street, but two tracks, "The President" and "Lady Waters & The Hooded One", were live recordings made for the BBC,...
, 1986 (with the Egyptians) - Globe of FrogsGlobe of FrogsGlobe of Frogs is an album released by Robyn Hitchcock and The Egyptians on A&M Records in 1988. Made in London, it was recorded by the Egyptians along with Pat Collier, and emerged as the group's debut after signing to major label A&M.The album is densely produced, most of the tracks shying away...
, 1988 (with the Egyptians) - Queen ElvisQueen ElvisQueen Elvis is an album released by Robyn Hitchcock and The Egyptians on A&M Records in 1989.Having signed to A&M in 1988, this second set for the label was unreleased in Hitchcock's home country the UK. The album's cover depicts Hitchcock in a red telephone box, illuminated from the inside...
, 1989 (with the Egyptians) - EyeEye (album)Eye is an album released by Robyn Hitchcock in 1990 on Glass Fish and Twin/Tone Records and is his fourth solo album, and eighth including his work with The Egyptians...
, 1990 - Perspex IslandPerspex IslandPerspex Island is the title of an album by Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians, released on Go! Discs in 1991.The group's third under their contract to A&M Records, it contains eleven Hitchcock originals. It was recorded in Los Angeles in 1991, and features guest appearances by Hitchcock fans Michael...
, 1991 (with the Egyptians) - RespectRespect (Robyn Hitchcock album)Respect is the title of an album by Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians, released on A&M in 1993.-Background:"Respect" is the group's fourth and final studio album under contract to A&M, and Hitchcock's last record with the Egyptians...
, 1993 (with the Egyptians) - Moss ElixirMoss ElixirMoss Elixir is a 1996 album by Robyn Hitchcock, containing twelve original compositions, predominantly acoustic, and released by Warner Music.Following the traumatic loss of his father, Hitchcock had recorded little in the preceding five years...
, 1996 - Jewels for SophiaJewels for SophiaJewels For Sophia is a 1999 album by Robyn Hitchcock, released on Warner Records.Since Respect , the hitherto prolific Hitchcock had released just one full studio album , the rest of his recent output consisting largely of repackages and live recordings...
, 1999 - LuxorLuxor (album)Luxor is a solo album by Robyn Hitchcock, released in March 2003 on Hitchcock's own Editions PAF! label.The album contains thirteen self-composed tracks, including the instrumental title song and several love songs to Hitchcock's partner Michele Noach...
, 2003 - Spooked, 2004
- Olé! TarantulaOlé! TarantulaOlé! Tarantula is a 2006 album by Robyn Hitchcock, recorded with Peter Buck of R.E.M., Scott McCaughey of Young Fresh Fellows, and Bill Rieflin of Ministry, who are billed collectively as The Venus 3...
, 2006 (with the Venus 3) - Goodnight OsloGoodnight OsloGoodnight Oslo is a 2009 album by Robyn Hitchcock, recorded with Peter Buck of R.E.M., Scott McCaughey of Young Fresh Fellows and Bill Rieflin of Ministry and R.E.M., who are billed collectively as The Venus 3. Colin Meloy of The Decemberists provided one of the backup vocals in "Saturday...
, 2009 (with the Venus 3) - Propellor TimePropellor Time- Personnel :Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3* Robyn Hitchcock – lead vocals, guitar, harmonica, keyboards* Peter Buck – 12-string electric guitar, 6-string acoustic guitar* Scott McCaughey – bass, vocals* Bill Rieflin – drums...
, 2010 (with the Venus 3) - Tromsø, KapteinTromsø, KapteinTromsø, Kaptein is a 2011 album by Robyn Hitchcock, released on the Norwegian label Hype City Records.- Track listing :#Light Blue Afternoon#Raining Twilight Coast#Savannah#Dismal City#Old Man Weather#Erasing Your Life#August in Hammersmith...
, 2011
Compilations of rarities, demos, alternate takes and out-takes
- Groovy Decoy (A re-worked version of Groovy Decay, featuring demo versions of many of that album's songs), 1985
- Invisible HitchcockInvisible HitchcockInvisible Hitchcock is a 1986 solo album by Robyn Hitchcock. A collection of leftovers and out-takes recorded from 1981–1985, Hitchcock's sleeve notes explain that the album was assembled because the songs "didn't fit in with what I was doing at the time and do fit in with each other now"..The US...
(Outtakes and rarities, 1980–1986), 1986 - Gravy DecoGravy DecoGravy Deco is an album by Robyn Hitchcock, issued during a spell of intense re-issuing of his work in the mid-1990s...
(A compilation of the Groovy Decay and Groovy Decoy sessions), 1995 - You & OblivionYou & OblivionYou & Oblivion is the title of a solo Robyn Hitchcock album, released on CD in 1995. All 22 tracks are billed as previously unreleased, although "Surgery" had been included on the video edition of Gotta Let This Hen Out a decade previously, and "Ghost Ship" had also surfaced previously as a B-side,...
(Outtakes and rarities, 1981–1987), 1995 - Mossy LiquorMossy LiquorMossy Liquor is the title of a vinyl LP released by Robyn Hitchcock in 1996. The album preceded the release of the Moss Elixir CD by a few weeks, and half of it was made up of demos or alternative versions of the Moss Elixir material....
("Outtakes and prototypes" from Moss Elixir), 1996 - A Star for BramA Star for BramA Star for Bram is an album released by Robyn Hitchcock in 2000, comprising outtakes from his then recent Jewels for Sophia. It was issued on Hitchcock's own Editions PAF! label...
(Outtakes from Jewels for Sophia), 2000 - Obliteration PieObliteration PieObliteration Pie is the title of an album by Robyn Hitchcock, released in Japan in 2005.Not released in the UK or America, the set nonetheless contains six otherwise unavailable titles, and re-makes of several tracks from Hitchcock's catalogue such as "Madonna Of The Wasps" and "My Wife And My Dead...
(Japan-only collection of live tracks, rarities, and new studio re-recordings), 2005 - I Wanna Go BackwardsI Wanna Go BackwardsI Wanna Go Backwards is a boxed set released in 2007 by Robyn Hitchcock's label, Yep Roc Records. The set reissues three of Hitchcock's albums, each with bonus tracks, and also contains a two-disc rarities set, While Thatcher Mauled Britain...
(Boxed set of reissues and rarities), 2007 - Shadow CatShadow Cat (album)Shadow Cat is the title of an album by Robyn Hitchcock, released in England in 2008.This was released in the UK by Sartorial Records, distributed by Cargo, and is available in America thru Red Eye distribution...
(Outtakes and rarities, 1993–1999), 2008 - Luminous GrooveLuminous GrooveLuminous Groove is a 2008 compilation box set of the records Fegmania! , Gotta Let This Hen Out and Element of Light by Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians. The versions included are the extended CD reissues from YepRoc...
(Boxed set of reissues and rarities), 2008
Live albums
- Gotta Let This Hen Out!Gotta Let This Hen Out!Gotta Let This Hen Out! is a live recording of Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians recorded in April 1985, shortly after the group had come together for Fegmania!....
, 1985 (with the Egyptians) - Give It To The Thoth Boys - Live OdditiesGive It To The Thoth Boys - Live OdditiesGive It To The Thoth Boys - Live Oddities is a live recording of Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians recorded in 1991 and 1992 at various locations. It was released on cassette only and sold on the Respect tour in 1993. It was compiled by Andy Metcalfe from soundboard tapes done by the band themselves...
, 1993 (Cassette only release sold on tour 1993) (with the Egyptians) - The Kershaw SessionsThe Kershaw Sessions (Robyn Hitchcock)The Kershaw Sessions is an album by Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians, comprising nineteen titles recorded live between 1985 and 1991. The album was released in 1994....
, 1994 (with the Egyptians) - Storefront HitchcockStorefront HitchcockStorefront Hitchcock is the title of a soundtrack album by Robyn Hitchcock, released in support of a film of the same name, which was directed by Jonathan Demme....
, 1998 - Storefront Hitchcock L.P.Storefront Hitchcock L.P.Storefront Hitchcock L.P. is the vinyl edition of the soundtrack to the performance film Storefront Hitchcock, directed by Jonathan Demme and featuring the songs of Robyn Hitchcock....
, 1998 - Live at the Cambridge Folk FestivalLive at the Cambridge Folk FestivalLive At The Cambridge Folk Festival is the title of a 1998 album by Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians, containing live recordings from the Cambridge Folk Festival of Hitchcock's back catalogue....
, 1998 (with the Egyptians) - Robyn SingsRobyn SingsRobyn Sings is a double album by Robyn Hitchcock, released in 2002. The set is made up entirely of Bob Dylan covers, performed live at various dates.The CD was the second release on Hitchcock's own Editions PAF! label.-Background:...
, 2002 (Double live album of Bob DylanBob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
cover songs) - This is the BBCThis Is the BBCThis Is The BBC is an album by Robyn Hitchcock, released on the Hux Records label in April 2006.It rounds up fourteen tracks recorded for radio, primarily with Andy Kershaw between 1995 and 1999...
, 2006 - Sex, Food, Death... and Tarantulas (Live EP), 2007
- I Often Dream of Trains in New York, (CD+DVD), 2009
Best-of compilations
- Robyn HitchcockRobyn Hitchcock (album)Robyn Hitchcock was the first official collection of pre-released Robyn Hitchcock material, issued in 1995 by Sequel Records.This little-noted compilation was worthy of particular attention, being the only Hitchcock album to include the studio recording "Statue With a Walkman", a humorous depiction...
, 1995 - Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians: Greatest HitsGreatest Hits (Robyn Hitchcock album)Greatest Hits is a collection of Robyn Hitchcock material from the A&M period 1988-1992 ....
, 1996 (with the Egyptians) - Uncorrected Personality TraitsUncorrected Personality TraitsUncorrected Personality Traits is the title of an album by Robyn Hitchcock, released in 1997. Following A&M's recent Greatest Hits, this compilation was assembled from earlier, pre-A&M recordings, selected personally by Hitchcock....
(Rhino Records best-of compilation of solo material), 1997
Compilation appearances
- Time Between - A Tribute to The ByrdsTime Between - A Tribute to The ByrdsTime Between – A Tribute to The Byrds is a various artists tribute album consisting of cover versions of songs originally written and recorded by the Los Angeles band The Byrds. It was released in 1989 as an LP and CD by Imaginary Records in the UK and by the Communion Label in the United States...
(Imaginary RecordsImaginary RecordsImaginary Records was an independent record label based in Heywood, Lancashire, England, which specialised mainly in indie rock and post-punk. It was created and owned by Alan Duffy, known for his lyrical contributions to Porcupine Tree's first two albums, On the Sunday of Life and Up the...
), 1989 - Pave The Earth (A&M Records), 1990
- More Oar: A Tribute to the Skip Spence AlbumMore Oar: A Tribute to the Skip Spence AlbumMore Oar: A Tribute to the Skip Spence Album is a 1999 tribute album completed shortly before and released shortly after the death of Moby Grape founding member Skip Spence. The album contains cover versions by various artists of Spence's music from his Oar album, released in 1969, presented in...
(Birdman RecordsBirdman RecordsBirdman Records is an independent record label based in South San Francisco, founded by former Warner Bros. Records A&R vice-president David Katznelson.-History:...
), 1999 - Ernie: Songs of Ernest Noyes Brookings (Gadfly Records), 2001
- Listen To What The Man Said - Popular Artists Pay Tribute to the Music of Paul McCartney (Oglio Records), 2001
- Wig in a BoxWig in a BoxWig In A Box: Songs from & Inspired by Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a charity tribute album featuring versions of songs from the musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch...
(Off Records), 2003 - Terry Edwards Presents Queer Street (Sartorial Records), 2004
- I Want You (She's So Heavy)I Want You (She's So Heavy)"I Want You " is a song by The Beatles, from their album Abbey Road. It was written by John Lennon, although credited to Lennon–McCartney....
- Abbey Road Now! (Mojo Magazine Free CD), Oct 2009 - Dark Globe - The Madcap Laughs Again! (Mojo Magazine Free CD), Mar 2010
Further reading
- "Robyn Hitchcock: I wanna go Backwards" — an article at Crawdaddy!Crawdaddy!Crawdaddy! was the first U.S. magazine of rock and roll music criticism. Created in 1966 by college student Paul Williams in response to the increasing sophistication and cultural influence of popular music, Crawdaddy! was self-described as "the first magazine to take rock and roll...
. - "The Barrett/Hitchcock Connection" — an article at Perfect Sound Forever.
- Interview with Robyn Hitchcock with Andy CarvinAndy CarvinAndy Carvin is National Public Radio's senior product manager for online communities. Carvin was the founding editor and former coordinator of the Digital Divide Network, an online community of more than 10,000 Internet activists in over 140 countries working to bridge the digital divide...
in 1993.
External links
- The Museum of Robyn Hitchcock (official site)
- The Asking Tree: Robyn Hitchcock Discography and Gigography Database
- Otmoor Productions Documentary Robyn Hitchcock: Sex, Food, Death... and Insects
- fegMANIA! - Robyn Hitchcock news and information listserv
- The Glass Hotel - comprehensive site including "Glass Flesh" tribute project
- Robyn Hitchcock collection at the Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
's live music archive