| Born
in Glasgow, 1948, Robin Campbell's musical beginnings were forged in a classical
music upbringing in a family dedicated to the highly regarded Glasgow choral societies
- Orpheus, later the Phoenix choir, and Glasgow Choral Union. Robin studied piano,
violin and received private vocal tuition from Winnie Busfield of the Royal Scottish
Academy of Music. However, the mid 60s put paid to any notion of following a classical
career. He played in several Glasgow Rock Bands, then formed, with Donald Brown,
the folk group Lomond Folk.
He
has, to his credit, many stage performances in the Glasgow City Halls, town and
village halls, colleges, pubs, folk clubs, show boat and also Radio Clyde and
BBC Club cruises on the river Clyde. Lomond Folk appeared on BBC Radio Scotlland
'Tuesday's Folk and Pop' ' with Alastair Clark and TV appearances including, Scottish
Television's long running 'ThingummyJig', Dateline Today with Bill Tennent and
South of the border on Granada. With several pieces of vinyl, cassettes and compact
discs produced, he has been involved in most mainstream forms of music throughout
his life. Robin
was one half of the successful folk duo, 'Lomond Folk'. He and Donald Brown sang
for many years sharing stages with many other Scottish groups and folk artists
of that period. They had three albums to their credit and were working on a fourth.
'Parcel o'Rogues' on the Caledonian Music label; 'Flower of Scotland' on Decca
(Beltona Sword) label then finally 'Blended Scotch' on the Lismor label. They
established their own club at the Black Bull Hotel, Milngavie outside Glasgow
(1969). They hosted many artists during those years - The Laggan, The Islanders,
The Clydesiders, The McCalmans, Robin Hall & Jimmy McGregor, The Crofters,
Tannahill Weavers, Dapplegrim, The Waverleys, Vindscreen Vipers, Bitter Withy,
Schiehallion, Whistlebinkie, Estrylin, Tinker's Loan, New Celeste, Mystyk, The
Gaberlunzie and solo artists - Alistair McDonald, Iain McIntosh, Dominic Behan,
Fraser Lamont, Rab Noakes, Fraser Bruce, Mike Whellans, Ally Bain,Tam Whyte, Archie
Fisher, Isla St.Clair, Barbara Dickson, Billy Connolly, George Chisholm, Bill
Tennent, Colin Macdonald John Cairney with his portrayals of Burns and McGonagall,
Matt McGinn, Danny Kyle, Hamish Imlach and John Martyn. Together, they ran the
Black Bull Folk Club in Milngavie for five years handing it on to Dapplegrim in
1974, due to the constraints of being a resident group. Lomond Folk ran several
other folk clubs such as Hunter's Quay and sang all over Scotland and south of
the border until the untimely death of Donald in 1977. Painfully, Robin closed
the curtains on Lomond Folk.
Robin then established a solo career on the Scottish tourist circuit in many of
Scotland's renowned tourist centres and hotels. Gleneagles, Sheraton Edinburgh,
North British Edinburgh, Loch Lomond Hotel, and in fact about every hotel on the
road from Balloch to Fort William, and Oban to the Western Isles was the annual
circuit. Robin also continued to compere the Clyde and Loch Lomond Showboat cruises
working with many top folk and jazz artists such as Kenny Ball, and Scottish accordionists
Gary Blair and Iain Duff during these years. However, his professional folk style
was moth balled partly out of the pain of nostalgia for the old days of Lomond
Folk and the Scottish folk scene. Following
a solo recording with Bluebell Records Ltd. in Glasgow, and a few compilation
tracks on various Scottish labels, 1981 - 2011 saw Robin establish and manage
Occasion Recordings & Publications Ltd. He produced several recordings for
himself and for other Glasgow artists on the OCC Label. Having sustained regular
tourist work for 8 years he then relocated to England. In
the late 80s a musical partnership evolved with fellow musician, Andy Hart, while
both were playing in a London based eight piece band. In constant entrepreneurial
pursuit of using their skills, experience and a growing collection of production,
sound and lighting rigs, the pair formed the fully professional events outfit
Solid Silver Productions, while maintaining their 'gigging' with their four piece
covers band Solid Silver. The band is ideal for weddings and parties and you can
visit it by clicking below. Now
embracing his 60+ years Robin decided it was time to get back to his roots and
enjoy folk and world music again. Robin has returned to what he enjoys most -
singing honest songs accompanied by guitar and with other like minded folk musicians!
Despite his return to the 'Lomond Folk' traditional style of folk as a solo performer,
he is the vocalist in 'Celtic Krystal', a folk n' fiddle trio, with Robin on guitar/vocals
and Adrian Boddy and Krystal Woodbridge on fiddles. Celtic Krystal are a highly
dynamic, energetic and entertaining folk band. From song to dance they are ideal
for folk nights, concerts, festivals and party's, and also weddings which have
a Celtic connection.
Tangleweave gives an opportunity to explore new things - if anything
is ever new - but it certainly has a new vibe with a greater emphasis on Celtic/Afro/Antipodean
music. Here Robin works with multi instrumentalist Chris Puleston and brings together
a variety of other musicians who want to try something a bit more experimental.
It's really for chilling out and keeping the circle unbroken! |