Robb Johnson

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Robb Johnson is recognised as one of the finest songwriters in the UK and a genuine folk legend. His songs have featured in the repertoires of musicians from folk singer Roy Bailey to cabaret chanteuse Barb Jungr, and he enjoys a similarly diverse spectrum of critical acclaim. Robb has played pubs, clubs, pavements, pickets and benefits, arts centres and festivals, local radio, as well as BBC Radio 3 and 4, Belgian Radio 1, Nicaraguan TV, Channel 4 and the Albert Hall in London. He also plays extensively in Belgium, Holland and Germany, and he has toured Britain supporting Chumbawamba and the US with David Rovics. For several years, Robb has also been a regular feature of the Tolpuddle Festival, which led to him doing the same job at the Labour Live festival in June 2018.

As a writer, Robb is a regular contributor to RNR magazine. He co-wrote Woman, a biography of Yoko Ono, with Alan Clayson and Barb Jungr, and The People’s Republic Of Neverland based on his experience of working as a teacher. He has worked with a variety of bands, with friend and fellow songwriter Leon Rosselson, as a member of the Anti-Capitalist Roadshow, as well as solo.

In 2016, PM Press in the US released A Reasonable History of Impossible Demands, a five-CD career retrospective, to widespread critical acclaim. fRoots magazine said Robb was “one of this country’s most important songwriters (no argument!)”. Reviewing his 2021 release, Minimum Wages, KLOF Magazine said: “If anyone should write a real history of the country, then perhaps Robb Johnson is the person to do it. His ability to focus on the detail and allow that to tell the larger and more critical story makes his songs stand out.”

Picture: Guy Smallman