Steve Robinson: Difference between revisions

==STEVE ROBINSON ON MEETING ALLAN HOLDSWORTH==

STEVE: “I started my musical quest when I was 14 years old in 1963. I learned how to tune the guitar and started playing a few chords with help of the usual Mel Bay books. I joined one band after another but I was still pretty much in the dark as to how to play well. One of those bands was The Spell. Mick Jackson was the bass player in the band and he went on to be the bass player in the band Love Affair who wrote “Everlasting Love" and a couple of other hit songs. We became great friends and we are still in touch today.”

“We hired a rehearsal room in Shipley, not far from the center of Bradford, and rehearsed there with Dave and Mick. After a while Mick Jackson came around to the rehearsals and by this time he was a member of Love Affair. He heard our band play and arranged the audition at Ronnie Scott's Club in Soho. Some time during this period we did a gig in Bath for BOAC which was the predecessor of British Airlines. Igginbottom was booked to do what today can only be described as a "corporate gig" but the shoot was never aired and I remember Allan had written some new material for the gig. Lost in time I suppose.”

“After Igginbottom broke up I sold my Gibson SG, the one I used on the album, for 50 Pounds Sterling to a music shop in London and proceeded to Carnaby Street where I bought a pink suit with which to further woo my fiancée. Back in Bradford things were bleak but I eventually hooked up with Graham Lockwood who played with Allan in the original Museum band. We found gigs as a resident band at various Mecca Ballroom venues.”

“When my wife finally retired from work in 2008 we found ourselves looking to buy a property to settle in for our "golden years". On moving to Robertson I was approached by the financial director of Graham Beck Wines to set up a music school on their wine farm called The Graham and Rhona Beck Music Academy. Our main objective has been to empower the Graham Beck farm workers children by giving them musical instruction and by way of that to create a situation that would not only occupy their minds and provide an alterative to crime and drugs but to improve their self esteem and even provide later job opportunities. The school will celebrate its fifth anniversary in July of 2016 and during those five years I have had a lot of children come through the doors to the school. Some of them have fallen by the wayside but most of them have stuck to the program and are now at what you might call a semi-professional level. These kids have gone on to perform at many gigs and events in the community and are now rehearsing for a big gig at the Town Hall here in Robertson next month. I suppose that this is really the pinnacle of my career and that to give back to others what I have learned along the way is just the way it should be. This might be a small and insignificant thing for others but to be honest, I get more pleasure out of seeing a face light up when that person finally understands what I am trying to impart to them than anything else I have done musically in my life. I'm not a Sam Holdsworth but for me he started this process a long time ago and I hope one of my kids will do the same for others in the future.”

Steve Robinson, August 2016

Had Igginbottom been a gigging band, then? "No. All we were doing with that band Igginbottom was rehearsing. We were just trying to get something together. There was Dave Freeman - my friend Dave; Mick Skelly, who now lives in Australia, and Steve Robinson, who lives in South Africa." This presumably cuts out any ideas of a reunion! "Yes, thankfully! I'm actually sorry that it became a record. There are some other tapes around that I have from rehearsals which would be much better memories of it than that record, but that's life...."

[[Category:Musicians]]