Sit Down Strike: November 2008

This is the text from the program handed out at Robyn Hitchcock's performance of I Often Dream of Trains at Symphony Space in NYC on 11/22/08.

About the Artist
1952 Conceived in Stockholm.
1953 Born in London.
1956 I see a dead chicken.
1957 John Lennon meets Paul McCartney in Liverpool.
1959 I get my first plastic dinosaur.
1962 Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis; Kennedy faces off Kruschev; I start collecting beetles.
1963 The Beatles have four number one hits; I try unsuccessfully to compose an instrumental in my head; Kennedy shot dead; First Dr. Who episode transmitted.
1965 I discover H.G. Wells.
1966 I discover Bob Dylan.
1967 The Year Zero. February; Get my first guitar; October; Learn to tune it.
1969 In July, Neil Armstrong is the first man in recorded history to stand on the moon.
1970 The Beatles dissolve; I write my first song, "Baby" with my school friend Martin, who Is now a lawyer in Buenos Aires.
1972 Martin and I play the City and Guilds Art School Dance with our beat group, The Beatles; Somehow the name doesn't catch on. and we play our last gig on December 31. 1973 at the British Council. Topping the bill are Chilli Willi and The Red Hot Peppers. whose drummer, Pete Thomas. goes on to play with Elvis Costello.
1974 Nixon impeached; I move up to Cambridge looking for musicians. and play the folk clubs.
1975 Margaret Thatcher becomes head of the Conservative party; I keep playing the folk clubs.
1976 The Sex Pistols release Anarchy in the UK; I write "It's Not Just the Size of a Walnut." It goes down okay in the folk clubs, but I'm still looking for the right musicians.
1977 I find the right musicians, AKA The Soft Boys. and we release Wading Through a Ventilator in November. Doesn't quite connect with the Year Zero of Punk.
1978 The Soft Boys support Elvis Costello and nearly get a major record deal; Kimberley Rew joins the Soft Boys; Second Soft Boys single "I Wanna Be an Anglepoise Lamp."
1979 A Can of Bees released on our own Two Crabs label. Not immediately popular, but Julian Cope later describes It as a "red-hot poker up the arse of pop music"; Thatcher elected as Prime Minister; I read a lot of lG. Ballard.
1980 Underwater Moonlight, the second Soft Boys LP, is released on the Armageddon label; We get as far as New York, but dissolve the following February; Ronald Reagan elected; John Lennon shot dead In New York.
1981 I release Black Diamond Snake Role and promote it by doing nothing; Inner city riots throughout Britain; Spandau Ballet are huge.
1982 My second solo album, Groovy Decay; I promote it by doing even less except tour of Norwegian fallout shelters, playing to AC/DC fans; Falklands War guarantees Thatcher a second term; Decide to hibernate.
1983 Write lyrics for "Captain Sensible;" Sleep a lot; Unbeknownst to me, U.S. college radio stations are now massively playing our old records.
1984 REM and other new U.S. bands cite The Soft Boys and myself as influences; Meet Peter Buck outside Highgate Cat Protection league; Record first totally solo album I Often Dream of Trains; Play first live show in two years at The Hope & Anchor, Islington.
1985 Start touring U.S. with backing group The Egyptians, featuring former Soft Boys Morris Windsor and Andy Metcalfe; Booked to support REM but mystery cyst in my abdomen requires surgery which aborts tour; FegMANIA!, the first Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians LP is released; 15-minute standing ovation after our New York show at Irving Plaza; "Walking on Sunshine" is a global smash hit for Kimberley Rew's band Katrina and the Waves.
1986-1992 We sign to A&M records in the U.S.; Element of Light. Globe of Frogs, Queen Elvis, and Perspex Island all top the Rolling Stone Alternative chart.
1989 Finally open for REM on their Green tour; I play my first solo U.S. tour in the autumn.
1990 Eye, my second completely solo record is released.
1991 The Year Punk Broke. again; Nirvana chases us off the Alternative chart and the musical climate changes.
1993 Respect is the last album with the Egyptians; In Britain, the Tories are elected for a fourth term despite the deposing of Margaret Thatcher; Great debut albums from Grant-Lee Buffalo and Belly.
1994 I am now a solo act.
1995 Jonathan Demme appears in the dressing room between sets at my show near his home just outside New York. He identifies himself and offers to film me in concert; All my albums from 1981-1986, plus Eye, are re-released on Rhino records.
1996 Storefront Hitchcock, featuring myself with accompaniment from violinist Deni Bonet and guitarist Tim Keegan playing in a shop window on 14th Street in New York, is directed by Jonathan Demme; Moss Elixir is released on Warner Brothers.
1997 Labour returns to power after 18 years - or does it?
1998 Storefront Hitchcock opens at the Film Forum in NYC. Jonathan & Joanne Demme, Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, Michael Stipe, and Peter Buck attend. Peter and I busk outside afterwards and collect over $13.
1999 Third album for Warners. Jewels for Sophia; Tour the U.S. as part of the "Revue Against Brain Degeneration" with The Flaming Lips, Sebadoh, Sonic Boom, and Cornelius; Western planes bomb Belgrade; I introduce Storefront Hitchcock at film festivals in Australia, Sweden, Britain and the US.
2000 Tour in the U.S. as a double act with Grant Lee Phillips, doing the Grant lee Hitchcock show; A Star for Bram (companion disc to Jewels for Sophia) is the first release on editionsPAF!
2001 George W. Bush takes office; World Trade Center in New York demolished by hijacked passenger planes; The Soft Boys reform to promote the 21st anniversary re-release of Underwater Moonlight by Matador, and tour the U.S.; George Harrison dies at 58.
2002 The Soft Boys reunion album, Nextdoorland, is released by Matador; I have a cameo appearance as a sleazy rock granddad in the TV play Man And Boy; NASA plans manned landing on Mars within the next 20 years. Subterranean beds of frozen water "may make it habitable long-term;" Robyn Sings, a 2-CD set of Bob Dylan covers, is released on editionsPAF!
2003 At my 50th birthday party show in March, guest musicians include Peter Blegvad, John Paul Jones, Morris, Kimberley, Deni Bonet, and Tim Keegan. Luxor is pressed up to give away to the audience, then released on edittonsPAF! in Britain and the U.S.; U.S. and Britain invade Iraq, on the pretext of nullifying the threat from Iraqi missiles. No missiles were found. Saddam Hussein deposed; Jonathan Demme's remake of The Manchurian Candidate, featuring Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, and L1ev Schrieber is filmed over the winter in New York. I play the part of Laurent Tokar, a sinister operative.
2004 Record Spooked in Nashville with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings in downtime from filming The Manchurian Candidate. Released on YepRoc in October (and on Proper Records in the U.K.).
2005/2006 Record Ole! Tarantula in Seattle with Bill Rieflin, Peter Buck, and Scott McCaughey. Released October 2006 on YepRoc Ex Proper; Begin touring with BUl, Peter, and Scott as RH and the Venus 3; John Edginton films documentary Robyn Hitchcock: Sex, Death, Food and Insects for the Sundance Channel. Premieres March 27, 2007 on Sundance in the U.S.; Kimberley, Morris, Paul Noble, Terry Edwards, and (perform Pink Floyd's Piper At The Gates Of Dawn as a benefit for Medecins Sans Frontieres at the 3 Kings in Clerkenwell, London. With this and our one-off performances of Sgt. Pepper's and The White Album, plus money raised from after-gig auctions, our fans have raised over £28.000 for MSF. These shows are all arranged and promoted by my wife, Michele Noach; Democrats regain U.S. Congress.
2007/2008 Continue to tour and record; YepRoc re-release all the old catalogue (plus extras) from the 1980s on two boxed sets: I Wanna Go Backwards (solo records) and Luminous Groove (with the Egyptians); Along with Michele and other artists and scientists, I am on the Cape Farewell expedition to West Greenland, to see the retreating ice-scape; Appear singing in Jonathan Demme's Rachel Getting Married starring Anne Hathaway and Rosemary DeWitt; Stock market crashes.
Early 2009 New record with the V3, Goodnight Oslo, due out