Cold Heart Revue

My name is David Robinson, although I perform music under the name The Cold Heart Revue. My interest in music began as a nine-year-old boy. There was an extra-curricular course that my primary school ran that was hosted by visiting American harmonica hero Johnny Mars. He gave me my first musical instrument; a harmonica in a red box that was adorned with his name. He was a wonderful teacher and knew exactly how to unlock the door to let music into our minds. I grew up in Portsmouth in the UK and Johnny was the first real musician that I had met. He gave me the inspiration to make music my life. I grew up and attended music colleges in Liverpool and London. The guitar is my main instrument, but I always keep a harmonica handy at every recording or performance. Before the pandemic I once opened for the band Madness at a football stadium in Portsmouth. My compositions Hope and Magazine and (You’re A) Picture On A Wall reached No#1 on the iTunes Blues Singles chart,

Royal Variety Performance By David Robinson

and I regularly played my music at festivals, concerts and gigs with the intention of refining and learning from other, more experienced, musicians. The pandemic hit me, and every other person in the arts, hard. It was right that our health be protected, but my income was reduced to nothing. There are no reserves of help for musicians. There is rarely enough to cover the present moment, never mind a net that will relieve you under additional pressure. After receiving many rejections for help, I reached out to the Royal Variety Charity and received a one-off monetary grant. It reminded me that a tiny amount of respite is of real importance when your environment is hard.

I received a phone call from the producers of The Royal Variety Performance, and they asked me to make a little film about my music and my grant that would be televised. I keenly agreed. There was a remarkable group of individuals that organised my travel to a recording studio on the outskirts of London and a production team that lit the room… and me! I requested the advice of the director on how I should reply in my interview, and he told me to just, “relax and talk. The right phrasing will come”. He was positioned off camera and my answers reached a moment of rare clarity, and I raised my voice about the need for the arts in the UK. Music plays an important role in hard times, giving people a distraction and lifting their morale. Music, radio, television, and theatre are relied upon to give us more than we ever knew we needed. I opened up, and my depth of feelings on the matter unfolded in the interview. The director nodded and, without the loud roaring ‘cut’ that I had expected, my moment in front of the camera ended. On the night of The Royal Variety Performance my little film was screened in the Royal Albert Hall before the likes of Rod Stewart and Elvis Costello, who are heroes of my youth. A few weeks later it was on ITV. I received warm phone calls and pats on the back from kind-natured friends and family that knew how nervous I had been. My music is returning, and I have a new album on the way. I have been nominated for a UK Blues Award for my radio programme A Night of the Blues, and although I would never hope to repeat it, I have learned over the past couple of years that there might be a little help for a musician if you look really hard. I am rather lucky that I found it. https://www.instagram.com/thecoldheartrevueofficial/ https://www.bluesbroadcasters.co.uk/david_robinson.htm https://twitter.com/coldheartrevue https://www.facebook.com/thecoldheartrevue https://thecoldheartrevue.wixsite.com/my-site?fbclid=IwAR0UkcQy oXzn84YvNSH6Sh0ZQvhXLKisazXvZtEpUjYP31rxGRJogwGVutI

Photos by Jess Blake Photos