2 4 6 8 Motorway

Product Information

The band's debut single " 2-4-6-8 Motorway" was a top five hit on the UK Singles Chart in 1977, and their third single, "Up Against the Wall", is seen by some as a classic punk rock single; [2] [3] while their debut album, Power in the Darkness (1978), is regarded as a definitive late-1970s punk album. The verse lyric came from having done cheap gigs around the country with my previous band Cafe Society, and driving back through the night from places like Scarborough and Rotherham. Taylor's eventual replacement was Charlie Morgan who had played for Kate Bush, and went on to drum for Elton John for a further fifteen years.

2-4-6-8 Motorway 2-4-6-8 Motorway

By the time our van hit the last stretch of M1 into London the motorway sun really was coming up with the morning light. Also, Richard Thompson taught Hugh Cornwell (of The Stranglers) how to play the bass guitar in a band when they were both at the same school (Emil and The Detectives?The chorus hook was a straight lift from my favourite chant at Gay Lib demos - ‘2,4,6,8, Gay is twice as good as straight. However, after touring the band became much tighter, and guitarist Danny Kustow expanded his riffs, which persuaded EMI to release the record. Power in the Darkness reached number 4 in the UK album charts and won the band a gold record, and TRB were voted "Best New Band" and "Best London Band" for the year 1977 by listeners at the Capital Radio Music Awards. Tom Robinson began gigging in London in 1976 with a constantly shuffling lineup of musician friends backing him and by the end of the year, he had decided to put together a permanent band. However, when Rundgren picked two of the songs Taylor particularly disliked, Taylor decided that he would rather leave rather than play on the tracks.

2-4-6-8 Motorway - The Tom Robinson Band - Acoustic Guitar 2-4-6-8 Motorway - The Tom Robinson Band - Acoustic Guitar

I’d come up with the song about a year earlier whilst trying to work out the chords to Climax Blues Band’s Couldn’t Get It Right - which I’d only heard once before and couldn’t remember properly. A drummer for one of the most successful metal bands of the last decade, Chris talks about what it's like writing and performing with Slipknot. It was the way everyone played it on the record, and especially Danny Kustow’s guitar work, that finally persuaded EMI they had a future hit on their hands. The UK version of the LP contained all new songs, but in the US (on the Harvest label), the "2-4-6-8 Motorway" single and Rising Free record were combined for a six-track bonus EP that made the album almost a double. It was released as a single in 1977 by British punk rock/ new wave group the Tom Robinson Band, and reached No.Robinson wrote the song between leaving Café Society in 1976 and forming the Tom Robinson Band the following year, at a time when he was performing with whichever friends were available on the night; thus, the song had to be simple enough to learn in a few minutes.