Singer Robin McAuley has been fronting successful bands and releasing albums for around forty years. He has fronted Survivor as well as releasing albums with Grand Prix, Far Corporation, McAuley Schenker Group, GMT, Michael Schenker Fest and most recently Black Swan.
However, Robin, who born in Ireland, released what is only his second ‘solo’ album through Frontiers Music on 7th May. It is called "Standing on the Edge". In fact the first ‘solo’ album released back in 1999 wasn’t even intended to be a solo album initially.
I had the opportunity to have a very entertaining chat with Robin via Skype on 24th May 2021 and you can hear that interview on the Friday NI Rocks Show on 28th May. We chat about the solo album, new music from Black Swan, working with Michael Schenker, the ‘Raiding the Rock Vault’ shows and much more. The interview can be read below or you can listen to the Show on the MixCloud page
- https://www.mixcloud.com/NIRocks/interview-with-robin-mcauley-on-the-friday-ni-rocks-show-28th-may-2021/
Black Swan band mates Jeff Pilson and Reb Beach were guests on the Show during 2020 –
http://www.rockradioni.co.uk/interviews/3789-ni-rocks-interview-with-reb-beach-from-winger-whitesnake.html
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/RobinMcAuleyRock
Playlist for the Show -
STORMZONE – This Is Heavy Metal
HARDLINE – Surrender
NIGHT RANGER – Breakout
SMASHED GLADYS – Go To Hell
ROBIN MCAULEY – Standing On The Edge
Interview with ROBIN MCAULEY Part 1 (14 min)
ROBIN MCAULEY – Wanna Take A Ride
Interview with ROBIN MCAULEY Part 2 (10 min)
BLACK SWAN – Shake The World
MICHAEL SCHENKER FEST – The Beast in the Shadows(ft Graham Bonnet)
Interview with ROBIN MCAULEY Part 3 (13 min)
ROBIN MCAULEY – Thy Will Be Done
ROBIN MCAULEY – Running Out of Time
BLACK SWAN – The Rock That Rolled Away
MICHAEL SCHENKER FEST – Heart and Soul (ft Robin McAuley)
VAN HALEN – Finish What Ya Started
EUROPE – Cherokee
FLOTSAM AND JETSAM – Brace for Impact
ANDREW W.K. – Babalon
HELLOWEEN – Fear of the Fallen
SANDSTONE – King of Cipher
NI ROCKS – Hi Robin, thanks for taking some time to chat to Rock Radio NI. Earlier this month you released a new solo album called “Standing on the Edge”. We just played the title track. What can you tell us about that track?
ROBIN – Like everybody else, like the world plus one, I’m sitting at home and the record label goes, ‘hey I think you should do a solo record because it’ll be a while before the next Black Swan record comes out’. And I’m going ‘naahh, I don’t really want to do a solo record’ (laughs) and I don’t really see myself as a solo artist. But anyway, we get into it and I think “Standing on the Edge” was the first track that I actually started to work on. Watching social media and watching all the BS that is going on, and the cockroaches coming out of the drains; I’m going wow! Is this what happens when there is a pandemic – we go for each other’s throats and forget that we’re human beings and that we have to get through this. That is kinda where the lyrical content came from. Then the label said to me ‘what do you want on the cover of your record?’ I said that I don’t want me on it – that’s for sure. So I had this idea, if I was a gargoyle what would I see, what would I be looking down at. Then of course you get two gargoyles – two heads are better than one. I just started thinking, ‘what a mess’! The city that you see in the artwork is the thing as a whole and I just started to conjure up lyrics. I’m not politically minded. Leave it to somebody else to fuck up – excuse my French. I thought it’s quite a mess and I just spat out whatever was there and tried to put it into some sort of current, topical, understandable content that at least made to me (laughs). “Standing on the Edge” – if you take the situation that we have to get out of – we’re almost out of it, thank god – let’s hope that we learn something from it; something positive. “Standing on the Edge” – we’re kinda on a precipice, moving forward and let’s hope it’s a good move. We always say ‘we mustn’t make that mistake again’. How long have we been saying that! (laughs)
NI ROCKS – It’s been over twenty years since your last solo album called “Business As Usual” in 1999. What led you to working with Frontiers this time? You said there that they approached you to do the project?
ROBIN – Well it must be said, that I don’t like to rush into things (laughs). Very short on that – “Business as Usual” was never meant to be a solo record. It was a collaboration between myself and Survivor guitarist Frankie Sullivan. That’s what it was and John at Geffen Records – he actually called Ricky Phillips who is the bass player with Styx, who used to be with Bad English and he goes ‘hey, this could be an interesting project if I can put you and McAuley together to see what we get’. And somehow, along the way Ricky got booted out of the situation and I got a call from Frankie and he says ‘hey, you want to write some songs’. (Laughs) So we wrote all of this record, and the bottom line was that we couldn’t give it away – nobody wanted it. It was 1994, it wasn’t ’96 or ’99 when it actually came out. We had a record that nobody wanted because grunge and alternative had taken over and that kind of music was just (raspberry sound) you know. So a Japanese label picked it up six years later and said we’d like to do something with this. Frankie goes ‘just put it out as a solo record’ and that’s really how it happened. Fast forward to 2021 – this is the real solo record (laughs). The one I didn’t want to do! (laughs)
NI ROCKS – You worked with Alessandro Del Vecchio on production and writing. Was the writing and recording done remotely or did you travel to Italy?
ROBIN – Done through the universe. He lives in Florida most of the time, but was back in Italy and couldn’t move. He’s still there. The restrictions locked him down the same as it did everybody else. I can demo from home so we did everything remotely. I needed a studio so we ended up planning for a studio local to me – just myself and the engineer Andy Zuckerman. That’s where we did the vocals. Then we’d send the tracks to the universe and they’d miraculously land on Alessandro’s desk (laughs). Then we just talked over the phone. He would go (mimicking accent), “ah Robin, we will ah, we will have a Skype conversation when you are recording”; and I’m going “no, we won’t dude I like to record about 4am in the morning, I’m not talking to you when I’m half asleep” (laughs). He did an amazing job and he mixed the Black Swan record as well. He’s the maestro over there. You know, on hindsight I could have talked to him at 4am because he does so much work that he never actually sleeps. So it would have probably been ok.
NI ROCKS – Yes, he seems to be involved in everything. Everything that comes out his name seems to be attached to it somewhere.
ROBIN – You know what they say – strike when the iron is hot.
NI ROCKS – You mentioned the album cover there, and the two gargoyles overlooking a burning city. Was that your idea and who put the concept together for you?
ROBIN – They put me together with a fabulous artist called Nello Dell’Omo. I discussed it with him and said I’m a huge Batman fan - I love comic heroes - I said I’m a huge Batman fan and I loved the whole Gotham series that was on Netflix or whatever it was, but I don’t need a spotlight into the sky with my name on it or anything (laughs). And I won’t be wearing a cape (laughs). So he put it together and he sent me some very rough renderings and as I kept looking at it, I said no, we need more depth, like you’re about to fall over the edge and everything had been burnt down. I wanted home to illustrate that a little bit more. I don’t know if you’ve seen the vinyl – the vinyl is absolutely beautiful. They did it in gloss. I’m going to have that thing blown up and be a real pompous idiot and put it on my wall, because it’s just such a great artwork.
NI ROCKS – It’s a great cover. On the album there are tracks co-written by Phil Lanzon, Tommy Denander and Howard Leese, from Heart and Bad Company fame. How did those guys get involved?
ROBIN – Howard is the musical director at the Las Vegas classic rock show that we do – Raiding The Rock Vault – and I think March 4th 2020 was my last show in Vegas; and I reached out to Howard. The label said give us a solo record and I went can I do whatever I want? They said give us more of you and I said that’s kinda been done and it’s a little bit boring, yadda yadda. They said don’t be changing direction too much – people might not take to it and they’re used to certain…you know, the bag, put it in the bag! I reached out to Howard and said hey dude, give me a Bad Company song (laughs). Howard says, “nah, but I’ve got some ideas that are not finished. I’ll throw you one idea and do what the hell you want with it. It’s not finished – make it short, make it long, whatever”. So, I worked on it and it took shape into “Supposed To Do Now” and I sent it back to Howard very rough and said what do you think. He goes “ha! This is great, it’s a different song, I love it. Is it going on the record”. I said I’ve no idea, I have to submit the whole bag when I’m done and then we’ll see what we pick.
Same with Phil Lanzon. I’d been on a flight to France about 18 months ago when Uriah Heep were doing a festival together with Schenker Fest in France. I kept being asked the question, do you think you’ll ever see a Grand Prix reunion, and I’m going hell no. I had a long discussion with Phil and yeah I got asked the same question. He goes there was no conclusion! So when the record came up I went, hah, I’ll call Phil, and I said hey, let’s make a Grand Prix connection, for what it is. So he sent me two ideas; both of which we worked up and at the end of the day we picked “Like A Ghost”; which is a great track. Alessandro recorded all the music, Phil just sent in the rough piano track and then I sat on the phone with Alessandro and said put lots of Hammond on this and make it a little Purpley, a little bit Grand Prix-ish. He did an amazing job of course. Of course I lucked out, I struck gold finding that young guitar player Andrea Seveso who is just on fire throughout the whole thing.
And likewise, working with Tony Franklin. Tony does swing bass at the Rock Vault. I worked a couple of tunes up with Tony and Tony says you should get hold of Tommy Denander in Sweden; which I did. Tony’s connection was also Jimi Jamison from the Survivor years. He had written some stuff with the world as well, because he is such a phenomenal writer. Tommy sent me, I don’t know, four or six tracks and “Do You Remember” and “Chosen Few” were the first two that were really worked up and I really liked them and they are both on the record. A lot of people liked the tracks – they have a little bit of everything on them. Then, Alessandro, myself and Ulrick; we wrote the remaining tracks.
NI ROCKS – The Covid pandemic has obviously stopped gigs in the meantime, but are there any plans to tour the album at some stage?
ROBIN – Tomorrow, we actually have tour dates (laughs). Oh my god. Yes, is the answer. When? I don’t know. We have the same problem with Black Swan because Pilson is out there, actually he’s already out with Foreigner and they’ll be out for quite a bit of time. I think he’s back today and we’ll finish the second portion of the Black Swan songs. Reb Beach of course has his hands full with the new Winger and I don’t see Whitesnake dates yet, but for sure they’ll come. But Winger for sure is ready to jump the gate. And I see Ace Frehley with Matt Starr of course, our drummer, he has advertised shows already with Alice Cooper. So, as soon as we get that window. Jeff and I were talking at great length and both agreed that festivals would be the perfect forum to launch Black Swan at any rate. I keep getting calls from Alessandro and he is saying first chance we get we’ve got to take this thing out and we’ve got to do something. I don’t know if Frontiers are doing their Frontiers Festival. If they do that would be the perfect opportunity. Yes, of course is the answer. That’s what we do. It’s nice to stay home and record, but man it’s great to get out there.
NI ROCKS – We’ll play another track from your new album now. Do you want to pick a track and tell us something about it?
ROBIN – Well we’ve had three singles. We had “Standing on the Edge” which was the first one out. They we came with “Say Goodbye” which was the second track. And on the actual drop date of May 7th for the record we came out with “Wanna Take A Ride” which took everybody on a sort of beach journey. A little summer song. It’s kind of a good time, up tempo sing along, so you for it. Or you can pick something heavier and go for “Running Out of Time” right at the very end. And hopefully we don’t run out of time. (laughs)
NI ROCKS – You mentioned earlier that your new album was released on crystal vinyl. Which has actually sold out now on the Frontiers store, on the European site anyway.
ROBIN – And we charted on Billboard US last week also.
NI ROCKS – Talking about vinyl, that brings me on to Black Swan again as your first album (“Shake The World”) is being re-released on vinyl next month.
ROBIN – On gold vinyl
NI ROCKS – Yes, I have mine pre-ordered this time to make sure I get it this time.
ROBIN – I don’t even have mine, so don’t feel bad (laughs)
NI ROCKS - How did the whole Black Swan project come about? I’ve actually talked to Reb and Jeff over the past year, but how did Black Swan come about?
ROBIN – I’ll tell you exactly. I was working in Vegas and we’d done almost 1,500 shows on Raiding the Rock Vault in six or seven years – it was huge. And, don’t laugh, I actually came out of church (laughs) – people go to church in Vegas?! Yes, believe it or not; it’s like the weirdest thing. And I’m sitting in my car and my phone rings – ‘hey, what are you doing?’ – ‘I just came out of church’ and he goes ‘are you sitting down?’ – ‘yeah, I’m sitting down, I’m not kneeling’ (laughs) – and he says ‘look, Serafino just called me and he wants me to put a supergroup together’ – and I started laughing; there’s no such thing as a ‘supergroup’, and I said ‘no I don’t want to be part of a supergroup, people laugh at supergroups’. And he goes, ‘yeah, me too. But seriously, I know he approached you about a solo record.’ Now, this was 18 months or two years prior to this solo record. I told them two years ago that I wasn’t interested. It’s not that I don’t need the money, but I just said that I have no interest in it. I’m not a ‘solo’ artist – that’s how I see myself. But anyway, Jeff says ‘no, no, hear me out. Serafino would really like this, and I already spoke to Reb, and Reb’s totally into it. If we get to write songs together. Absolutely, we will be writing the songs. You’ll be the first singer, and you’ll be the last singer, that I call. I want you to do it and I think it will be great.’ I went, ‘You’re playing bass? Right?’ And he said, ‘no, I will be producing and I’ll probably get involved in song-writing, but I want to stand back.’ I went, ‘naaaahhh’. I’ve known…..Jeff Pilson was my best-man, in case nobody knows. I said ‘that might be kind of a pre-requisite there Mr Pilson….you no play base….you no have me as a singer’ (laughs). So, we started off, just the three of us, writing and Jeff putting the bass down – he called it a guide-bass – and Reb and I went, ‘dude, there is no other bass player coming into this. Either, you’re doing it or we’re not doing it.’
So there you have it. The rest, we know is history. Why would you want anyone else but Jeff Pilson? I wouldn’t. You know. And we’re already about half way through. We haven’t recorded half of it yet, but we did already make a dent in the new Black Swan. So, we’re already into it.
NI ROCKS – That’s good! You’ve answered one of my next questions then! Any idea then, when that might appear? Sometime next year maybe?
ROBIN – They didn’t give me a drop date on that. Both of them, Reb and Jeff, will be in and out on dates. I think Jeff is back today and I think Reb is back into LA in a few days. Then we’ll finish the remaining batch. Then he just needs to find time to put the tracks together and mix and yada yada yada! Maybe the end of the year? Maybe! Maybe! If not, then for sure the top end of 2022, when I think the world will officially really open. We’ve seen some great openings already, but I think there will be a cautiousness about it.
NI ROCKS – Certainly, here there is a very cautious approach. In Northern Ireland you’re still not allowed live music inside a venue.
ROBIN – I think realistically, 2022 is when we’ll really start cranking. There will be a few feelers. God knows with promoters and artists, what pre-requisites they will put in place, and protocols and the touchy-feely things. But, back to work we gotta go!
NI ROCKS – So you’ll have two albums to play live when you get the live shows organised!
ROBIN – (Laughs) Spoilt for choice! Yeah, and….not to move across to Germany, but the Michael Schenker Group, with Ronnie Romero and Ralf Scheepers and Michael Voss playing bass and vocals. He has already scheduled and I hope all those dates materialise for him. He has Russia and he has….he’s going to be in Scotland actually!
NI ROCKS – Yeah, actually he announced one last week for Scotland.
ROBIN – And the UK. I hope that it all comes together and that people show up. That’s going to be the sticking point – people coming out and going. And going big. That would be disappointing to turn up to venues and you have half a venue! That’s not going to be good in any aspect – especially financially.
NI ROCKS – I think it will take time, but people will start to go; as more and more people get vaccinations more people will go out.
ROBIN – Yeah, how are you guys doing there by the way?
NI ROCKS – We’re doing well. Our pubs opened for the first time today indoors, so Belfast being Belfast, that has obviously been a popular move.
ROBIN – I’m all shot up so I’m good to go man! (Laughs)
NI ROCKS – Yeah, so am I. Actually, I’m just over 50 so I got my second vaccine a few weeks ago.
ROBIN – Good for you! Awesome.
NI ROCKS – We’re getting there. I just need my wife vaccinated now so that she can come with me! (Laughs)
ROBIN – Awesome (Laughs)
NI ROCKS – We’ll play something from the Black Swan album shortly. Which track would you pick from it?
ROBIN – Let’s start with the opener, “Shake the World”. Let’s tear it up.
NI ROCKS – We’ll play that one in a minute or two. The other albums that you’ve appeared on recently – you mentioned Michael Schenker and the two (Michael Schenker Fest) albums – “Resurrection” (2018) and “Revelation” (2019) which you sang on. What was it like working with Michael on new material again – about thirty years probably since the McAuley Schenker Group albums?
ROBIN – You know it was like nothing ever changed really. It’s probably four years ago now maybe already, when I got the call about the Bang Your Head Festival in Germany; which was the first outing of Schenker Fest. And I didn’t hesitate. I thought what a great idea – myself, Gary and Graham together as opposed to there separately singing each other’s songs. Now, here we are, a complete unit. A two hour show. The promoters absolutely loved it and it had a domino effect over the next three years. We toured the States a couple of times, and Europe. It was great. He’s probably in the best shape he has ever been in, in terms of playing and he sounds phenomenal. He’s focused, he’s on his game. Fantastic. All the guys are great. We had a blast and of course not to forget that we lost our great and dear friend Ted McKenna before we set out. “Revelation” – we were geared up and had sold out shows in Japan and Europe. The onset of this - on March 4th (2020), which was my last Vegas show, March 6th I was scheduled to fly to Japan for those sold out shows; and we know of course where that went! Everything came to a halt. But, yeah, it was awesome. A really, really good time.
NI ROCKS – Any prospect of working with Michael again?
ROBIN – Right now, he’ll do the “Immortal” thing with the other singers; which is his fiftieth anniversary. And you’ll notice that he called it the Michael Schenker Group as opposed to Michael Schenker Fest. So, Michael knows how to leave the door open to come to and fro. I can tell you that we haven’t been scheduled for anything, but he’ll just have to add more singers. My god, it’ll be a ten hour show! (Laughs)
NI ROCKS – Sounds good! We’ll play that Black Swan track now along with something from the Michael Schenker Fest albums. Which track would you want to pick from the Michael Schenker Fest albums?
ROBIN – I’m going to pick a Graham Bonnet song. Because I think it’s worthy of a Grammy. The lyrics are very near and dear to Graham, because it really deals with dementia. It’s called “The Beast in the Shadows”. Lyrically, it’s an astounding piece of work from Graham. So, definitely not one of my songs; I would love to pick “The Beast in the Shadows” from “Revelation”. It’s just phenomenal.
NI ROCKS – We’re hopefully starting to come out of the pandemic now, fingers crossed and all the rest of it. What plans have you for the rest of the year in terms of recording or touring?
ROBIN – I’m already involved in a couple of things. Once you do a solo record people go ‘are you free to do this?’ I’m doing a couple of other things which could be very world notey, and a couple of big organisations want some tracks done. So I’m doing that, but my main focus is getting the new Black Swan done, and I’ll do as much to drag this solo thing out as far as we can (laughs). I know the guys in Italy and saying go on let’s do another one. Let the dust settle down a little bit first. And Vegas, now immediate plans except we do have want they call loyals of ‘Raiding The Rock Vault’ petitioning like crazy to get us back into Vegas. And that is opening; it’s not…there are some of the big shows coming back in like the Cirque du Soleil shows, and I think once that starts to roll we’ll see where the sun is shining. Because people love the show; it’s just a good time classic rock show you know.
NI ROCKS – Yeah, I was going to ask you about that. There’s no date for it starting back yet then?
ROBIN – No date right now because everything is…..I mean June 1st is the official opening for Vegas, but as I’ve been telling everybody, you do know that the virus knows that at 12 midnight on the last day of May it just has to stop dead; it just can’t cross over there into June 1st. (Laughs) It just drives you nuts, right? It reminds me of when, and this is giving away my age, when they used to have the non-smoking section on aeroplanes! Seat 26 – non smoking; and of course the smoke knew exactly that it could come down to seat and stop! I mean, come on! Anyway! Don’t get me started. (Laughs)
NI ROCKS – You mentioned there might be a follow-up – they’re asking you about doing a follow up to “Standing on the Edge”. Would that be something that you’d be keen to do?
ROBIN – I’m contracted to do it! (Laughs)
NI ROCKS – (Laughs) So you’re doing it!
ROBIN – Yeah, if I’m still alive (Laughs)
NI ROCKS – We’ve avoided covid, so hopefully, fingers crossed we’re doing alright!
ROBIN – We’re doing great!
NI ROCKS – You mentioned that you’d fronted Survivor and worked with Michael Schenker and of course the guys from Black Swan. Is there any one that you haven’t worked with that you’d really like to work with sometime in the near future?
ROBIN – The best way that I could answer that is that I never in my wildest dreams though that I would work with the people that I have worked with. You know, I’m a little snotty nosed Irish kid out of County Meath. The fact that I’ve worked with as many notable and respected musicians to date – I could never have imagined that. Coming out of my primary school on my last day saying ‘guess who I’m going to work with tomorrow’ – you know! I told the story last week to somebody. I was 12 years of age down in that little town of Navan, sitting cross-legged in this…I can’t remember if it was a pub or a club; I guess it was a mixture of both….and I saw Thin Lizzy. It was when only Radio Luxembourg would play rock music at the time; and “Whiskey in the Jar” had been a hit for Lizzy and they were promoting it. Brian Downey was playing drums, the original drummer; and Eric Bell was playing guitar; the original guitarist. And at 12 years of age I saw Thin Lizzy. I remember several years later I went up and wanted to see them again and I couldn’t get within a hundred miles. I did see them – I was at the “Live and Dangerous” concert tour in Wembley. And I actually got to work with both Brian Robertson and Scott Gorham and record with both; and I’m going – just that small piece of info right there – woah, who ever would have thought that could happen? Then multiply that with all the others! I’ve just been absolutely blessed in every way. So who would I like to work with? Oh God! If I can’t work with them, I’ll just rip off their songs, like we did with Led Zeppelin (Laughs). I think that’s maybe the way to do it! (Laughs)
NI ROCKS – We mentioned Frontiers. For a long time Frontiers was seen as a label that was promoting the older generation of bands – the classic rock kind of stuff. But, more recently they are very much into bringing forward new bands and new singers, guys like Dino Jelussic. Do you keep an eye on the newer bands coming out and is there any that have caught your attention?
ROBIN – There’s a lot of bands out of Sweden that I absolutely love. I love Nightwish; I love that whole big symphonic thing and as a live spectacle it is phenomenal. I love Sabaton – it’s just big and raucous. All that sort of stuff. There’s a couple of bands out of LA right now. Motherwolf just kicks ass (Australian band Wolf Mother?). Then there’s another new band called Dirty Honey. Also wow!
NI ROCKS – Yes, love them. That album is amazing.
ROBIN – Right! It’s got that sleazy, 70’s, edgey….it’s just killer. I’m all over that stuff. Just love it.
NI ROCKS – I think I saw you do a video link with Dino Jellusic a while back. Him and ….
ROBIN – Oh yeah, Renan Zonta (from Electric Mob). Oh, my God! Those guys are the new age of singers. Those guys do stuff with their vocal cords which is like…really!! (Laughs). Incredible. There’s a great new age and you know they’re taking a little bit of the old school and bringing it fast forward into what they do. It’s just phenomenal.
NI ROCKS – We’ve obviously talked about the fact that you’re from Ireland. Do you still refer to Ireland as home and when was the last time you were here?
ROBIN – Home is where the heart is, right? It’s where I was born, it’s where my family still lives. Yeah, of course. This was a stepping stone to trying to do something better for myself; following opportunities. What starts out as I’ll just stay for a month; and now 33 years later, I became a US citizen and all that kind of stuff. Because I wanted to do it right. I love it here; my wife is from Vienna, Austria, our boys were born here. We have twin…men, 22 years of age – and we took them to Ireland for their 18th birthday. They had more than one beer! I will tell you a story – my son Jamie says we are going to visit the Guinness Brewery, right? So we get in there. Now he may have snuck a beer in here before then, but he knew there that he could definitely have one! So on his first outing he has three pints of Guinness at the Guinness Brewery; and I am not going to exaggerate, he had diarrhoea for about a week! (Laughs). He completely ruined his vacation (laughs) and he goes, no dad it wasn’t the Guinness! And I said I’ll tell you what, line yourself up there and have a few more pints and see how that works out for you! (laughs). They absolutely had a great time and they loved it. We did so much in a short space of time. We also went into the UK because I have family there also. Oh my God, I love going home to visit. And see, I just said ‘home’!
NI ROCKS – Hopefully we’ll get to see you on one of your tours sometime soon.
ROBIN – Oh, you never know!
NI ROCKS – A wee show in Belfast or Dublin would be good!
ROBIN – I have a great story from Belfast. The very first time I think I ever played Belfast was with Schenker in the McAuley Schenker days. I remember we played Belfast Ulster Hall (Aug 1986) and the bass player and the guitar player were both English and they were both from the band Lionheart, which has recently resurfaced. I remember, in the middle of the show (laughs), I don’t know if it was somebody’s wife or girlfriend, but anyway, she was on his shoulders and preceded to whip her top off and plunge herself, no pun intended, towards the stage! And just as she was doing that I got hit by what looked like a Double D bra and I remember kneeling down…this is a true story, you couldn’t make this shit up….I remember kneeling down on the stage and I put the bra over my head; now the bra was very quickly followed by a bible, if you can believe that!
NI ROCKS – (Laughs) It is Northern Ireland!!
ROBIN – So I’ kneeling on the stage with the bra over my head and I picked the bible up, and I’m singing all of the time and Rocky the bass player comes up and whispers in my ear… “we’re all going to die!” (Laughs) And I said no we’re not! Hell no! That’s a true story. And Michael lost his Flying V the same night because we used to play “Lost Horizons” and he would bend the strings and create a tone that sounded just like Big Ben. He would always reach into the crowd so that you could strum the notes. And one of the first, if not only times, that Michael wasn’t directly connected and whoever it was put their fingers behind the strings and yanked the guitar right off him! I think he had $2,000 piece of wireless equipment that just went missing. He got the guitar back but the neck was broken and all that was left was the truss rod. That’s all that was left and it was like a spirally piece of metal. So that’s my Belfast story. It was an absolutely amazing show (laughs). If you’re going to go out, go out on a note. It was awesome. Thank-you Belfast! (Laughs)
NI ROCKS – We’ll get you back for another one sometime soon hopefully!
ROBIN – I love reading stories. I used to hear great stories from Ted McKenna, God rest him; when he played with Rory Gallagher. And Rory loved Belfast and he had amazing stories. I got to hear lots of great musical, gutsy rock n roll stories from Ted. It’s a great town.
NI ROCKS – We love our music and our musicians here. That’s all I have for you. We’ll finish off by playing another track from your new solo album. Again, do you want to pick a track. You mentioned finishing with something hard and fast so which one will we finish with?
ROBIN – You can either end with “Running Out of Time” or the very first track, which is also a great track, called “Thy Will Be Done”. It really sets up the record.
NI ROCKS – We’ll finish with that. Thanks Robin for taking the time to talk to us. It has been really fun talking with you.
ROBIN – My pleasure. Thank you so much.