When the Tom Robinson Band stormed the barricades of the pop charts in 1978 with their hit single ‘2–4–6–8 Motorway’, British society seemed on the verge of breakdown. As TRB became figureheads of Rock Against Racism (the organisation founded after Eric Clapton’s bigoted outburst during a 1976 concert), rabble-rousing anthems such as ‘Up Against The Wall’ and ‘Glad To Be Gay’ captured the uneasy spirit of the age. ‘Power In The Darkness’, the title track of the band’s debut album, was a call to arms, punctuated by a monologue in the hysterical voice of a rabid right-winger that showed what punky youth were up against. Almost half a century on, and with the UK in a similar state of collapse, those songs might just have found their time again.

‘The two TRB albums came out of a time of uncertainty,’ says Robinson, who brings a new line-up to Scotland for three dates. ‘There was mass unemployment among the youth for the first time, and nobody really knew where the country was going. We didn’t know what was going to happen with the next election, or what was going to happen in America. We didn’t know Reaganomics was going to come in and had no clue what Thatcherism was going to mean. And there were all these far-right groups seemingly polling really high, and it seemed like something really ugly could come down the turnpike. It’s been hard to explain to people why the songs are so paranoid, but now we find ourselves in times of similar uncertainty, so I’ve revisited them.’

He formed TRB after his first band, Café Society, imploded around the time he saw the Sex Pistols. Gigging at grassroots level, TRB handed out newsletters that contained contacts for Gay Switchboard, Spare Rib and Rock Against Racism, as well as details of who to contact if you were arrested. As with the songs, this was a form of community agit-prop. TRB fell apart around the time of the 1979 Tory landslide and Robinson spent the next ten years in therapy, decamping to Germany and scoring a 1984 solo hit with ‘War Baby’ before moving into broadcasting to become the familiar voice on BBC Radio 6 Music he is today. 

In terms of today’s equivalents of TRB, Robinson cites Kae Tempest, Stormzy, Akala, Fontaines DC and Idles. ‘But 40 years later, this needs to be black-led,’ Robinson implores. ‘We don’t need well-meaning white liberals to be putting together something called Rock Against Racism. We need to be supporting the black artists that we have and who aren’t getting a fair crack of the whip in the media. I’d love to see veteran artists as well, like Roots Manuva who should be so much more famous than he is. The wonderful Dennis Bovell is still beavering away making great records, but they don’t get the same prominence. The media is still far too male, white, middle class-dominated. But the beauty of the internet is that people can go straight to the source and find their own tribe musically.’ 

Robinson has put his money where his mouth is on this issue with his choice of the Tom Robinson Band’s opening act for this Britain-wide tour. ‘Rob Green is a young, black, gay songwriter, and he’s just the most charismatic, brilliant stage performer,’ Robinson says. ‘It’s good to be able to introduce the audience to something they haven’t heard of before and that they might like. Rob is going to be our secret weapon.’

Tom Robinson Band are on tour until Friday 31 January; main picture: Ashley Greb.