Tom Robinson - Atmospherics: Listen To The Radio (live) 1983

[@DerekHogg-ln5gz]

Couldn't remember the name of this song so just typed " 'cross the dial from Moscow to Cologne" and here it is! great song, happy memories of Radio Luxembourg under the covers.

[@zeldalicious]

When I was a small girl, My parents had one of those old fashioned radios with foreign stations on the facia, Hilversum, Luxembourg, Cologne and Moscow,seemed so far away and distant and I wondered what life would be like there in those places and this song always reminds me of those days. The faint voices and the silences on the airwaves....

[@geoffjoffy]

Great song. Still sounds fresh in 2023.

[@markappleton5496]

Great song. Not heard it for ages. Deserves more recognition.

[@roelhoremans5887]

Mr. Robinson, this song has never failed to make me surrender to a calm "it's gonna be alright" mood. 🙏

[@-dimitris]

Indeed. And Mr. Robinson is the good neighbour next door I wish I had.

[@susannewilliams]

This song has stayed with me for 30 years....absolute brilliance. Instantly in the mood.

[@TheoWerewolf]

I've always loved this song. The lyric about "Atmospherics in the dark, noise and voices from the past, across the dial from Moscow to Colonge - Interference in the night, thousand miles on either side, stations fading into the unknown..." still sends chills up my spine - like the universe unravelling and fading away. :) I remember having an email chat with you about the origins of this song and your story behind it was awesome. :)

[@TomRobinsonMusic]

Hi Richard - you're too kind, though your generous words are very much appreciated. Actually I've written a great many bad songs, but have done my best to keep most of them away from KZbin :-)

[@zeldalicious]

You can feel the atmospherics in this song even after all these years. 'Across the dial from Moscow to Cologne'. How the world has changed in the past 20 years.

[@FISHMUSIC4U]

No other form of media can really ever replace radio. Radio is timeless and important. A voice over the airwaves is forever powerful.

[@twoshedsmcginty]

Brilliant - I would never have thought a live rendition could do the song justice, but this is superb. I love this song, a fantastic evocation of Autumn for me...

[@TomRobinsonMusic]

Co-wrote. Peter supplied the drum machine pattern that it was written around and the chords of the verse. Then I took it away with me and finished it in Hamburg 6 months later...

[@richardgoffin-lecar5001]

I love the way that Tom Robinson paints pictures with words. I don't think that he has ever written a bad song. I love this one - you can almost imagine yourself there with him. Great!

[@00ky]

What a song, love it❤

[@TomRobinsonMusic]

Bless you, my child

[@billwinship3734]

First heard this song on long motorway drive home " Listening to the Radio" in my car after long day at work. Whenever I hear this song I am transported back in time to that lonely motorway, so evocative, so great. Very enjoyable in a moody sort of way.

[@stuartrenfrew7385]

Brought the cassette back in the day, predictably for War Baby, then found that every track was pure gold. Cassette's dead but the vinyl and its tracks will endure. Shame Back in the Old Country didn't make it onto the record as that was a great bar room chant for MN cadets abroad - Cheers Tom.

[@TomRobinsonMusic]

Hi Stuart - thanks for your kind words! You can hear the whole album and buy it for six quid as a lossless quality download, complete with Back In The Old Country and loads of bonus tracks. I've put the URL in the info section for this video

[@ianbarnes961]

If this is the gig at Golddiggers, I was there, all those years ago! If I remember correctly, the band played a song from the new LP (Cabin Boy?) before the cameras were rolling, then Tom introduced it as 'a song you haven't heard' in the show itself. Laughs all round! I saw Tom in a solo style last weekend (October 29, 2022) in South Petherton; still as entertaining as ever. Get well soon.

[@MW-xi5go]

good work by Ditcham

[@janecoull3197]

Such a brilliant song ..takes me right back...

[@papalazerus22]

Tom this is so close to your studio version .... just superb x thank you

[@OnlyoneAlReid]

I used to listen to this song being played late at night on Radio Scotland by Tom Ferrie in the mid-1980s, I'd never left Scotland at that point and it conjured up romantic images of central Europe in my mind. Now, I've visited most of the continent, and I still love this song. I'm listening to it tonight in Ljubljana, which would have been one of the places with "Stations fading into the unknown". Thanks Tom !

[@susannewilliams]

This song has stayed with me for 30 years...absolute genius! Instantly in the mood.

[@N7_JCJ12]

Love this song have it on 12 inch vinyl, Played literally 1000's of times !

[@janecoull3197]

Can't stop listening to this song ..brings back so many memories!!!

[@josbruls]

Great song, very nice voice, nice lyrics, the Berlin scene in the early 80s.

[@GerardVos]

Every now and then i come back to this song (never seen this live version though) and get elevated by this.. especially the trumpet dissonant hits! not only that ofcourse ..this is a classic tune, great voice and lyrics. one of my all time favorite songs.

[@TomRobinsonMusic]

@exmagicbastard Thanks for your kind words! The North By Northwest album is available - like all my records - as a free high quality download via my website. See the info attached to this video for the URL. Tom Robinson

[@cdmbaker3084]

I'd listen to the radio more if I could hear this song play.

[@wimhuysmans7628]

deaf are you

[@madeleinehague648]

Happy Birthday, Mr. Robinson!

[@DylanWhite-k5j]

Gotta love Martin on the perc.

[@toosboos]

Wow , this brings back memories ! There's nothing quiet like listening to the radio , don't you think ?

[@rikako1123]

I can't forget the day i had a very special time w/U in shinjuku, tokyo at a room of a small bld. It was the almost best gig I ever had. Come to japan again^^

[@loobycarroll]

What a gent!! Love you Mr Robinson - :) x

[@rschortinghuis5452]

Great song, nice live version

[@oscaandchloe]

Me too!!!!!! luv this bloody song!!!

[@CTOYH72]

Recently discovered this song listening to Canadian radio. Pukka Orchestra covered the song and now I’ve come to like this version better.

[@lyonmcr77]

great memories this song truly beautiful piece of music still today :) and as for memories of picking up faded euro radio stations late a night I remember those days fondly :) x

[@TomRobinsonMusic]

Onkel Po was a nightclub in Hamburg; Taxi Zum Klo was a gay cult movie in Germany at the time. Bitter Tears was the movie The Bitter Tears Of Petra Von Kant... hence the 'double feature' (Though both were actually in color, not black & white)

[@Damnblastify]

You're a damn good bloke for having your tracks downloadable :-)

[@richardgoffin-lecar5001]

Thank you Tom, My generous words are very sincerely meant. I would love to hear some of those "bad" songs - I bet they are brilliant really.

[@TomRobinsonMusic]

If you like this video, it'd be great if you could subscribe to this KZbin channel. There are loads of other clips on here - some of my own music and some that I've shot or edited for other people. Google will let us do all kinds of extra stuff on the channel once it gets over 1,000 subscribers :-) Cheers, me dears... Tom Robinson x

[@zeldalicious]

brilliant

[@TomRobinsonMusic]

Thanks Babs - am doing a one-off gig in London on 12th Jan 2013 - see my website for details :-)

[@martinanderson4937]

One of my favourite songs of all time, ever since it came out. Along with The The's 'Heartland', for some reason this song really signifies autumn for me, even though the web says it was released summer 1983. Finally going to get the album - better late than never. (Also had no idea the Peter Gabriel co-wrote this until today!)

[@Zappstitute]

I just love this!!!

[@thomaslangbacka]

Great song, thanks T.R. Much liked like many other of your masterpieces.

[@zeldalicious]

Those words have exactly the same effect on me. Ths song is just so good,

[@olliespike2]

Fucking wonderful...my God Tom is soooooo good. great singer..!!

[@rudydemoor8480]

Knap nummer ! Mooi !

[@exmagicbastard]

great song i loved that album north by north west, it was you at your best, stripped down stuff and great production to my ears, sadly I lost that i think i loaned it out, have you got any clips of sector 27 doing 'not ready' that was a great track too. all the best Martyn .

[@toosboos]

Lol , i'm from Holland so to be honest , i had no idea what that was.I'm old-fashioned ; i still buy cd's and i still listen to the radio.The cd's are because i want to see the credits and liner notes ;)

[@michaelmcdermott976]

Great 1980s cold war ambiance from Germany. Onkel Pös Carnegie Hall, better known as Onkel Pö, was a music venue in Hamburg in the 1970s and the early 1980s. taxi to the KLO a film

[@tastierista]

technical question: just can't recognize the keyboard played on top... seems to me a (rare!) Fender Rhodes 61keys... any idea? thanks

[@TomRobinsonMusic]

That's exactly what it was - it was mine and I bought it because the standard Fender Rhodes pianos were just too heavy and cumbersome. I only had a small flat and wanted an electric piano I could play at home as well as take on the road. Also I wasn't much of a pianist and never used those extra notes at the top and the bottom anyway :-)

[@tastierista]

@@TomRobinsonMusic wow. thanks Tom, I literally ignored that existed such a Fender version. aaand... your motivations about it are completely understandable. (curiously, actually for the piano sounds I'm using a Clavia Nord Electro 61keys- light and easy to carry despite it's all wood+metal. Stays confortably on the back seat of my car, carry it like a normal backpack, and at home stays literally under my bed.) :-) Ideal for small gigs. Make life easier when you can!!

[@briandoran8260]

If you requested this on radio they would send guys to your house in white coats . Only a few of us understand good music.

[@urbandiscount]

Still love the Taxi zum Klo reference to Rosa von Praunheim.

[@roberttuiten8858]

souds cool

[@jabodl1]

Quintessentially Robinson

[@exmagicbastard]

@exmagicbastard Thanks Tom take care, Martyn

[@jsilence418]

I prefer the PUKKA ORCHESTRA'S version I know you wrote it and all Tom, good version though .

[@colargolfriend]

Thanks Peter Gabriel who wrote the song.

[@TomRobinsonMusic]

I hope not, given my present employment :-)

[@colargolfriend]

Sorry. I was probably mis-informed. Even if I'm no catholic I will say 3 Hail Marys to save my soul from damnation !