Robinson, J. Peter (16th September 1945-Present)

Extremely busy keyboardist born in Fulmer, Buckinghamshire, England, who rose out of the ashes of Episode Six, along with John Gustafason and Mick Underwood, to co-found the bass-drum-organ prog-rock band, Quatermass. The band, whose name was culled from a science-fiction program, only released one self-titled album in 1970 and promptly dissolved.

That same year, Peter played electric piano, organ, piano, and positive organ on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s soundtrack to Jesus Christ Superstar. He also recorded with Chris Farlowe with The Hill on From Here To Mama Rosa.

Peter went on to join Paul Buckmaster’s Chitinous Ensemble. They, too, released one eponymous LP in 1971, on which Peter played electric piano. He also played keyboards on Get Rolling, as part of Chris Barber’s Travelling Band. A year later, he recorded Suite London with The Peddlers, playing keyboards, orchestrating, and contributing a couple of instrumental compositions, “Impressions” and “In Juxtaposition”.

A year after that, Peter co-founded Suntreader with Maurice Ross Allyn, Morris Pert, Robin Thompson, Neville Whitehead, and Yamashita Tsutomu, and played piano on their 1973 release, Zin-Zin. Their second album, The Voyage, went missing for nearly three decades until it was re-discovered, re-mastered, and released, in 2001.

Peter played keyboards on Bryan Ferry’s 1974 release, Another Time, Another Place. In 1975, Peter briefly re-united with Pert, playing keyboards on Luminos, Chromosphere, 4 Japanese Verses.

In the mid-‘70s, Peter went on tour with Stanley Clarke, armed with an ARP String Ensemble, B-3 organ, Fender Rhodes, and Mini-Moog bass. Some of these performances on captured on Stanley Clarke: Live 1976-1977. Peter also appears on Stanley Clarke’s 1979 release, I Wanna Play For You, once again employing his trusty ARP string ensemble, keyboards, and synthesizers.

He was briefly involved with the band Go, playing keyboards on their 1977 release, Go Too. In the late ‘70s, he joined Brand X, which included Phil Collins, playing keyboards on 1978’s Masques. He also managed to find time to play organ and piano on Al Stewart’s Time Passages.

Time passed, and Brand X released Product, on which Peter is credited with keyboards, voice-overs, and gunfire. (We assume no one was injured.) He played piano and keyboards on 1979’s Trilogy and Live at the Bottom Line/Trilogy III, keyboards, synthesizers, and tam-tams on 1980’s Do They Hurt?, and keyboards on 1982’s Is There Anything About.

This was the beginning of a collaboration with Collins that would continue with 1981’s Face Value, and lead to one of Phil’s big solo hits, a remake of Diana Ross & The Supremes’ “You Can’t Hurry Love”, on which Peter played glockenspiel, piano, and vibraphone. This was on the Hello, I Must Be Going album, and Peter accompanied Phil on the subsequent tour, and the No Jacket Required tour in 1985, highlights of which are available on a DVD of the same name.

He had also found time to record with Mike Rutherford in 1982, playing keyboards on Acting Very Strange, and The Manhattan Transfer, on 1983’s Bodies and Souls.

In the mid-‘80s, he began a creative partnership with Eric Clapton, playing synthesizer on 1985’s Behind the Sun, which contains the Clapton/Robinson composition “She’s Waiting”, and performing with Eric at Wembley Arena in London, England. They also appeared together at Live-Aid, along with Phil Collins on drums and Donald “Duck” Dunn, performing “Tears in Heaven”.

Peter’s latter-day releases include Eric’s 1988 boxed set, Crossroads, 1998’s Phil Collins …Hits, 1999’s Clapton Chronicles: The Best of Eric Clapton, and Chris Farlowe’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Soldier – Anthology 1970-2004. He is credited with the string arrangements on Genesis’s Archive #2 1976-1992.

In 1985 he made his debut as a film composer and has gone on to score many successful films as well as the music for dozens of episodes of the TV series Charmed.

Sources:

Robinson, J. Peter (16th September 1945-Present)

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