Surrealist rock’n’roller, acoustic troubadour, poet, painter, and writer… we welcome back the remarkable Robyn Hitchcock to Ramsgate on Thursday 12th September!
With a career now spanning six decades, he remains a truly one-of-a-kind artist. From The Soft Boys’ art-rock to solo masterpieces like 1984’s milestone ‘I Often Dream of Trains’ Hitchcock has crafted a striking oeuvre rife with recurring marine life, obsolete electric transport, ghosts, cheese and what one writer has described as “morbid eroticism”.
“Witty, moving and seriously catchy… a glorious return for a man who wasn’t really gone in the first place” – Paste Magazine
Born in London in 1953, Robyn Hitchcock attended Winchester College and the City & Guilds Art School before moving to Cambridge in 1974. There he worked his way up from the folk clubs to found Dennis & The Experts who metamorphosed into The Soft Boys in 1976. Though light years away from first wave punk’s revolutionary clatter, the band still manifested the era’s spirit of DIY independence with their breakneck reimagining of British psychedelia. During their original lifetime, The Soft Boys released but two albums, among them 1980’s landmark LP, Underwater Moonlight. “The term ‘classic’ is almost as overused as ‘genius’ and ‘influential,’” declared Rolling Stone upon the album’s 2001 reissue. “But Underwater Moonlight remains all three of those descriptions.”
Hitchcock launched his solo career with 1981’s Black Snake Diamond Röle, affirming his knack for idiosyncratic insight and surrealist hijinks. 1984’s I Often Dream Of Trains fused that approach with autumnal acoustic arrangements which served to deepen the emotional range of his songcraft. Robyn Hitchcock and The Egyptians were launched that same year and immediately lit up US college rock playlists with albums like 1986’s Element of Light. Cited as an influence by REM and The Replacements, he signed to A&M Records in 1987 and scored early ‘alternative’ hits with ‘Balloon Man’ and ‘Madonna of the Wasps’. Hitchcock returned to his dark acoustic palette with 1990’s equally masterful Eye before joining the Warner Bros. label for a succession of acclaimed albums including 1996’s Moss Elixir and 1999’s Jewels For Sophia.
June 2024 will see his second book ‘1967 – How I Got There and Why I Never Left’ published in the UK by Constable. To accompany this Tiny Ghost will release ‘1967 – Vacations in The Past’ an album of the pop hits of that year covered by Robyn on acoustic guitar with some of his friends in Cambridge and Melbourne. Meanwhile a collection of new songs is due for release in early 2025. “I like to keep busy”, says Hitchcock: “We have all eternity to not exist.”
“These 10 gems slither, rock, roll, glide and shapeshift, coalescing around Hitchcock’s typically anxious, strained but striking and immediately identifiable vocals” – American Songwriter
“Beloved of everyone from Led Zeppelin to REM, Hitchcock has only enhanced his status with this wonderful outing” – Hot Press
“A gifted melodist, Hitchcock nests engaging lyrics in some of the most bracing, rainbow-hued pop this side of Revolver” – Rolling Stone
