Tom Robinson Band

I remember Tom Robinson being interviewed on RBI a couple of times. He said he was more of a socialist than a Communist, but he liked living in the GDR, and had some uncomplimentary things to say about margaret Thatcher. He appeared at the International Political Song Festival a couple of years running.

There is only a short reference to his GDR days in his biography on his website, http://www.tomrobinson.com/pages/biog.htm where I found this...

"As the '80s arrived, Tom ploughed his remaining earnings into a new band, Sector 27. They recorded a critically acclaimed album with Steve Lillywhite and took New York by storm (playing Madison Square Garden with The Police) before they too split up and left Tom technically bankrupt.

Fleeing the taxman, he packed his few possessions into his Austin A40 and headed for Hamburg. Living in a friend's spare room - Tom began writing again and ended up working in East Berlin with local band NO55. He returned home with fluent German and a song that became his Top 10 comeback, 1983's 'War Baby'."

He also wrote a song about it.

DDR

I grew up living in a Welfare State
Just the other side of the Brandenburg Gate
It's called East Germany everywhere
But locally we know it as the DDR

Waiting for tomorrow, living for today
Living in the DDR
Sitting on a time bomb, we don't care
We're living for today
Living in the DDR

It's a people's paradise, you better believe it
Every other week people dying to leave it
Trucks full of Russkis carrying guns
We'll be first in the fire when the third war comes

Waiting for tomorrow, living for today
Living in the DDR
Sitting on a time bomb, we don't care
We're living for today
Living in the DDR

After the party when the Wall came down
They closed all the factories in my home town
Shops full of everything money can buy
Skint and miserable, wishing that I
Was still living in the DDR

Waiting for tomorrow, living for today
Living in the DDR
Sitting on a time bomb, we don't care
We're living for today
Living in the DDR