My Dad bought me a £5 guitar that used to belong to popstar Heinz Burt, and I was so determined to be like him that I even went as far as to put lemon in my hair to make it even blonder than it actually was.” 

Robin taught himself guitar, despite increasing issues with his weakened eyesight leading to feelings of anguish and despair.  

Being able to touch all six of the guitar strings helped, it was a direct conduit to my feelings of frustration. At the time I was being bullied at school because I was skinny and lacked sight, but a teacher started me off playing in a folk and blues band, and it showed me that music was a way of earning me respect. If nothing else, it was good for my image. It got girls to notice me.” 

Music gave Sir Robin confidence. The more competitions he won, the more his confidence grew and he went on to perform in pubs and clubs around North London. He always wanted to study music at university, but unis at the time were only focused on classical music, not the modern pop and rock that he was interested in. 

My dad wrongly convinced me that my poor eyesight meant that music was not an option. He himself wanted to be an end-of-the-peer performer, but his parents wanted him to get a proper job. That attitude perpetuates. So, without being given much of a choice, I was entered for the Cambridge University entrance exam for law.” 

Robin struggled through the law degree, as it required a lot of reading that exacerbated his eyesight issues. When he graduated, he went looking for jobs in a recording studio, but they weren’t keen on hiring someone with disabilities. So, at age 21, he took his guitar in hand and headed to France, where he was offered a training contract at a residential studio.  

They were early adopters of apprenticeships. I got the chance to study music arrangement at the University of Paris, alongside learning electronics and working as an assistant engineer at the recording studio. I got to watch people making records and I just fell in love with the environment.” 

Eventually Robin got a record deal with Atlantic Records, which he created with connections he’d made during his years as an assistant record engineer. 

Unfortunately, the record was not a success, and Robin stayed on as an assistant at the studio, working with David Bowie, Elton John and Fleetwood Mac. The studio began, during this time, to offer sessions to up-and-coming artists, and it was through this that Robin produced his first record, and earned a name for himself promoting indie bands. 

In the early 2000s, Sir Robin began teaching Masters classes at UWL. 

I wanted to teach students how to build trust, how to get the best performances out of people, how to listen. There were aspects of computer based music that I felt were wrong, they didn’t focus on the people. And I wanted to embed that into modern teaching.” 

Nowadays, Robin is still busy working, though he sold the studio in 2019.  

That allowed me not to have to think about how much money to earn next year. I still do what’s called creative consultancy, which means supervising, critiquing, sometimes mixing and mastering various bits of work. 

I still make music for fun. I still play the guitar every day and I still work with people on their vocals. I do a lot of mixing and mastering, which really came out of working with The Grateful Dead in America. I lived there for nearly a year and halfway through that project I was roped in to do the opening ceremony of the Atlanta Olympic Games. Lovely big project, big production, everything had to be prepared and scored.”  

Outside of work, Sir Robin is a vocal advocate for people with disabilities and chair of disability equality charity Scope. In 2023, he received a knighthood for his services to music, people with disabilities and charity. 

Musicians are very special, amazing, extraordinarily sensitive people. Many of them have bypassed my disability in five seconds and worked to make music with me. Anyone with a disability, whether they are discreet or apparent, it’s important that they know the music making community is their best friend.” 

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