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ROBB JOHNSON

Robb Johnson

Minimum Wages / Bodger: My Part In His Downfall

    Last year Robb released the vinyl-only album Minimum Wages, 9 songs performed on acoustic guitar, with guest appearances from Boff Whalley, Fae Simon & John Forrester on vocals, Jude Abbott on brass, Jason Pegg on accordion & Jenny Carr on piano. The album was very well-received; “a timeless album for the times” (****RNR), Folk Radio UK named it as one of their top 10 albums of the year, & Ian Anderson said it would have been one of Podwireless’s CDs of the year – if it had been on CD.

    The album has its CD release as part of a double album with Bodger: My Part In His Downfall, a collection of 20 songs chronicling the events of the last three years – “the worst of possible times to have the worst of governments too.” There are voice & acoustic guitar based tracks, 2 ukulele songs, & various contributions from Irregulars Sian Allen (trumpet), John Forrester (bass), Ali Gavan (drums), Arvin Johnson (drums), Linze Maesterosa (clarinet), Fae Simon (b/vox, lead vocal on track 190, & from Irregular Records recording artiste & award-winning poet Roger Stevens (piano). The recording of the album’s last track “Goodbye” was finished on July 6th - & the following day the Prime Minister resigned. Irregular Records decided to release the album to celebrate the departure of this most murderously lazy, corrupt, mendacious & incompetent of Prime Ministers. The double album includes a 12 page booklet with notes for all the songs. 

    TRACK LISTING

    Minimum Wages:
    1: Fiddler In The Rain
    2: Last Night Of The Proms
    3: Hartlepool ASDA, Saturday Morning
    4: Great Aunt Gladys
    5: My Quiet Flame
    6: Sister Reynardine
    7: This Is Your History
    8: Minimum Wages
    9: My Very Best Of Friends

    Bodger: My Part In His Downfall:
    1: Well Done Little England
    2: The Cheese & Wine Of Privilege
    3: Barry Bucket
    4: Common Sense
    5: Don’t Forget To Wash Your Hands
    6: Tony Skinner’s Lad
    7: Blue Light On A Red Brick Wall
    8: When The Leaves Have All Fallen
    9: Jack & Jill Are Good For The Economy
    10: Chipping Sodoffbury
    11: Shut Up & Just Go Xmas Shopping
    12: We Can All Join A Union
    13: The Plague Ship
    14: What A Week It Was When The Pubs Reopened
    15: Freedom Day
    16: You’ve Only Got Yourself To Blame
    17: Well Done Little England
    18: The Worst Prime Minister In The World
    19: Sunlight On The Wall
    20: Goodbye

    Robb Johnson & The Irregulars

    Stay Cool, Keep Left, Shine Bright

      This album grew out of the recording sessions that produced the “Mystery / Poetry” LP, adding brass & violin parts, new songs, new recordings of three audience favourites, & reworking three songs that appear on the LP. Core Irregulars John Forrester (bass), Arvin Johnson (drums & percussion) & Fae Simon (vocals & percussion) are joined by Sian Allen (trumpet), Linze Maesterosa (saxophone) & Lorsey Tillbrook (violin). Together they create a truly fine album showcasing some of the best of Robb’s songwriting for electric band performance. “The most joyous & life affirming set that I watched over the weekend” – audience response to recent Irregulars festival appearance.

      TRACK LISTING

      1: Win, Lose Or Draw
      2: From Tolpuddle To Timbuktu,
      3: Brown & Black In The Union Jack
      4: One Day We Go To Wembley
      5: Fiddler In The Rain
      6: Start Counting *
      7: When I Look Up*,
      8: The Summer Time Is Coming
      9: Be Reasonable
      10: My Very Best Of Friends.

      * Lead Vocal Fae Simon

      Robb Johnson & The Irregulars

      The Mystery Gets Your Number & The Poetry Makes The Call

        Recorded as soon as the 2021 Covid restrictions allowed, this album expresses both the delight at being able to make some noise again, to be working with other musicians live again, & the anger at having had to endure both a pandemic & a useless, heartless government at the same time. Songwriting, vocals & guitar by Robb, The Irregulars on this album are John Forrester, bass & b/vox, Arvin Johnson, drums & percussion, & Fae Simon, b/vox, percussion, & lead vocal on “Start Counting”. Recorded by Ali Gavan at Brighton Road Studios, the album was manufactured by Press On Vinyl in Middlesborough – the cutting engineer said it was the best album he’d worked on, & Robb thinks the Press On pressing is the best sounding album he’s had manufactured.

        TRACK LISTING

        1: Scream Till The Walls Fall Down
        2: Danny Kustow’s Gibson
        3: Lost In Space
        4: One Day We Go To Wembley
        5: Yes Please Louise
        6: Start Counting
        7: From Tolpuddle To Timbuktu
        8: Anytime

        Robb Johnson & The Irregulars

        Pandemic Songs

          Packaging will be a gatefold card wallet & will include 16 page lyric booklet. Pandemic Songs is songwriter Robb Johnson’s chronicle in song of the unprecedented events of the first half of 2020. His critically-acclaimed family histories of the 20th Century Gentle Men & Ordinary Giants use song to dramatise past lives & narrate significant historical events & processes. Pandemic Songs uses songs to provide a media-free perspective of contemporary history, with thirteen tracks written between March & June of this year, that record & comment on the global pandemic, from Robb’s local UK perspective. The songs are angry, sad, affectionate, elegiac, satirical, anxious, & compassionate. They celebrate our lives in lockdown & the endurance of our keyworkers, & catalogue the vanities, incompetence, hypocrisy & failures of those in power. Pandemic Songs was recorded with a socially-distanced pared-down version of The Irregulars; John Forrester on bass & vocals, Arvin Johnson on drums, percussion & Spanish guitar, & Fae Simon on vocals. The result is a powerful, visceral album, a significant creative response to these very significant times. Robb Johnson is now widely recognised as one of the UK’s finest songwriters: 

          TRACK LISTING

          1. Saint Mary (a Fable About The Origin Of A Virus),
          2. Monday Afternoon In The Paris House (March 16th, & A Last Gig Before Lockdown),
          3. 422 (lockdown Has Begun),
          4. One More Lockdown Day (lockdown Continues),
          5. 5373 (the Number Of Deaths From COVID 19 Continues To Rise),
          6. 89p (the Government Responds By Promoting A Care Badge),
          7. Disinfectant (President Trump Promotes A Cure),
          8. The Highlight Of My Week (the Weekly Lockdown Shopping),
          9. All The Bells Were Ringing (the Nightly Lockdown Dreaming),
          10. Lockdown Jokes & Stories (three Sad Stories- Belly Mujinga, Railworker, Mervyn Kennedy, Bus Driver, Louisa Rajakumari, Teacher, & One Bad Joke – Dominic Cummings Drives To Durham) 
          11. Victory In Europe (May, & The UK Achieves The Highest Rate Of COVID 19 Deaths In Europe),
          12. The Days We Don’t Forget (a Proper Remembrance)
          13. In Palmeira Square (June 17th, & Lockdown Is Ending)


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