Issue 8 – Monday 7 August
Robb Johnson Interview
Songwriter Robb Johnson performed in the Cornwallis on Saturday night. James Robson interviewed him for 87.7 fm Radio Global, but here’s a sneak preview of their chat.
Q: What kind of songs do you do?
A: This is a very difficult question, and the cheap, smart-arse response is good ones! The other answer I suppose is that they often get called folk, but i don't do songs about diddly-diddly, cowboys, and stuff like that, i do contemporary subjects and politics. I think that it's important to reclaim folk music from the diddly-diddly merchants. I know folk music as music made by people for people. So if that's the definition then I'm happy for my music to be called folk.
Q: You’ve co-authored a book on Yoko Ono?
A: That was lucky really because I have a friend called Alan Clayson and he’s done biographies of all the Beatles and he was talking to me and he said “Oh God, I’ve got to do one on Yoko Ono now,” and I said, “oh that’s the only time that I found the Beatles remotely interesting!” He said that he didn’t want to write any more books on the Beatles and said “you can do the bits where she’s with John Lennon, and I’ll do the bit before and after,” so we did.
Q: What’s your latest album?
A: The latest one is called Metro. It’s just piano and vocals, no guitar, so I can wave my arms about and pretend to be Shirley Bassey.
Unfortunately Russell, the piano player – he’s a very good pianist and used to play for Julian Clary – unfortunately, he got diagnosed with cancer at Christmas, and so obviously isn't able to do much playing at the moment.
Q: You released a double CD called Tony Blair: My Part In His Downfall?
A: It's a slow process but we’re chipping away bit by bit
Q: Do you enjoy singing and writing?
A: I feel tremendously elated when I’ve written a song. In some respects, writing is more important to me than performing, although I do get a great delight from performing. I always wanted to be a writer, and because I think that everybody thinks of me as a songwriter, and I ask myself, if I don’t write songs, who’s going to want to see me perform?
Q; A lot of your songs are about schools – is there a particular reason for that?
A: I’m a reception teacher at the moment. I did give up. I was so infuriated by the National Curriculum and everything that it was unloading on schools and thereby onto children, so in a fit of integrity I resigned in 1997. But then immediately we started having children so had to go back to teaching. I have to say that I hate the authority stuff that goes with schools, but I really like children.