Chart entered : 26 May 1990
Chart peak : 69
The Blow Monkeys never really established themselves as chart regulars. They struggled to follow up "Digging Your Scene" except for the near-identical "It Doesn't Have To Be This Way" which got to number 5 in the post-Christmas lull of 1987. They were then responsible for one of the great examples of pop hubris when their anti-Thatcher single "( Celebrate ) The Day After You )" was timed to coincide with the general election of 1987 which resulted in another Tory landslide. Singer Dr Robert had a solo hit ( though it was subsequently included on the band 's next album ) in a duet with Kym Mazelle, "Wait" which reached number 7 in 1989 and the band scored another few hits in its wake. A compilation LP of their singles reached number 5 in August 1989.
"Springtime For The World" was the lead single for the album of the same name. Robert remains an unrepentant red quoting Thatcher's most controversial remark, "There's no such thing as society" and referencing the poll tax in the lyrics. There's also a strong pro-gay message. The track has an unusual intro with sawing cellos playing the main riff. It also has a strong gospel influence with handclaps and strong backing harmonies. Beneath those embellishments though, it still sounds like business as usual, louche mid-paced pop with a melody that won't overtax Robert's reptilian drawl. It is a strong single though and probably deserved to do better. I'm guessing it smacked too much of the decade just gone.
You could hardly level that at the follow-up single "La Passionara" a Balearic chill-out instrumental with lots of Latin guitar. I'm not normally a fan of such things but it has a number of melodic synth lines that make it more than acceptable. I can understand it confusing their dwindling fanbase though.
It turned out to be more representative of the album. Like his mate Paul Weller, Robert had dived head first into house music. Accordingly the third single "If You Love Somebody" is a tuneless deep house tune with Robert's voice ill-suited to the music. The track "Be Not Afraid" a frantic garage track with an Arabic vocal by Algerian singer Cheb Khaled got them some attention in places like Pakistan and North Africa but didn't help them in the markets that mattered and the album bombed. The band had split up by the end of the year.
Robert initially stayed close to Weller. We've already covered the Slam Slam project in the Style Council post and Robert featured on all Weller's solo albums up to Heavy Soul in 1995. Regal Zonophone were the first label to show an interest in Robert as a solo artist and he released the single "I've Learnt To Live With Love in 1991 . It's a reasonable attempt at African-tinged pop but there's a distracting similarity to The Monkees' A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You. They tried again with "A Simpler Place And Time" in 1992 , a return to gospel-tinged house which is OK but behind the curve. After those singles failed there was no prospect of the label supporting an album.
As with many of the eighties refugees we've covered , Robert found an outlet in Japan where he released "Realms of Gold" in 1994. There are one or two gems amid a lot of dreary dadrock. Weller's credited on just four of the tracks but his influence is everywhere.
It eventually found a UK release at the beginning of 1996.
In the meantime Heavenly picked the best track, "Circular Quay" for a single in 1995. It's a mournful semi-acoustic ballad with Robert sounding more impassioned than before although it's hard to penetrate the lyric. It's pretty close to the sound a singing soldier would clean up with a decade later.
When the LP was released in the UK , there were further singles "Pond Life " and "The Coming of Grace " both featuring Weller and both pretty dull affairs.
Similarly , his next album "Bethesda Number One" recorded with Mick Talbot and future Oasis drummer Alan White, was released in Japan in 1995 but the single "Halfway To Heaven" didn't come out in the UK until 1997. It's an impressive slow burning ballad but it's the only thing I've heard from that album.
In 1997 he released the covers album "Other Folk " on the Artbus label. Weller wasn't involved but the album did feature former Blow Monkeys bassist Mick Anker. Also that year, he produced a couple of tracks for Beth Orton.
Another album "Flatlands " followed in 1999 after Robert moved back to his childhood home of East Anglia . Apart from "The Further Adventures of the Fen Tiger" which is a spoken word attempt to transplant a Tom Waits vibe to the wastes of King's Lynn and is best treated as a joke, it's very difficult to realise that you're not listening to an indifferent Crowded House album with Robert doing a very credible Neil Finn impersonation. It's a shame he can't match the quality of the songwriting.
Robert persevered with "Birds Gotta Fly " in 2001 , another eclectic set with one or two tasty morsels amidst a preponderance of dross. The title track and "Blue Skies" are excellent edgy pop songs while "Sycamore Tree" is a very dodgy blues pastiche ( though addressed to the "killer " of his idol Marc Bolan ) and "A Little Song " is a would-be pub singalong that sounds like The Waterboys at their worst.
That same year Robert and his family relocated to Spain and took a break from recording until he discovered one of his near-neighbours was sixties soul star P.P. Arnold. The pair recorded the album "Five in the Afternoon" in 2007 but the label failed to give it adequate promotion. I've heard a couple of tracks live, including the single "I Saw Something ".which were pretty underwhelming soul pop.
Of the other three members, saxophonist Neville Henry enjoyed the most success as a producer and writer for All Saints in the late nineties. Joe Kiley found gainful employment as a session drummer notably for Shirley Bassey and Chris de Burgh. Bassist Mick Anker dropped out of the music business but I don't know what his day job is.
In November 2007, Robert put the band back together, a fairly easy task as the split had been amicable and they were all more or less in the same place in so far as domestic circumstances allowed them to tour. With a level-headed appreciation of the state of the music business, they set up their own label and manage their own affairs. From the start Robert was clear that they must produce new material and so they have; the problem has been getting people to pay any attention to it. According to Robert, they send their music into Radio Two but they just aren't interested in material that sounds nothing like "Digging Your Scene".
The only track I've heard from 2008's comeback album "Devil's Tavern" is the single "Travellin' Soul" a brush-strokes driven country soul effort with Robert singing in a much lower register. Neville's incongruous sax is the only real clue to the band's identity. If that was thought to be the most commercial track. then I'm not surprised radio stations passed on it.
In 2011 they came back again with "Staring At The Sea". It's a set of generally mellow guitar pop with echoes of Richard Ashcroft, World Party and Crowded House again . It's all listenable but nothing really cuts through, the best track being a re-working of his solo song "Hanging On To the Hurt". I don't know to what degree Neville was involved in the recording as I don't hear much sax on the album.
2013's "Feels Like A New Morning" was a lacklustre set with only the jazzy instrumental "In No Time At All" standing out. The title track had a modern sheen in a bid for radio play that didn't work but it's a vacuous song.
Their last album to date, 2015's "If Not Now When" consciously incorporates influences from Robert's musical youth from glam rock to Mick Taylor-era Stones although "Shadow Boxing" seems more in debt to Depeche Mode's Personal Jesus. As usual they manage one really good track in "All That Glitters", the rest is disposable.
Robert then took time out from the group to record another solo album , a home-recorded set of acoustic country blues helped out by local musicians. Robert used open tunings on his guitar to challenge himself. The result was the "Out There" album released in May last year. It's OK but a bit samey if listened to in one sitting.
Robert is a nice guy and you have to admire his perseverance. I don't think he's quite got the goods but there's far worse out there.
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