Category: Robert Forster

This is a sort of incomplete ICA as I’m not looking to include any of the songs released on Strawberries as that album is far too new to have any mp3s featured.

The skinny…..of sorts.  Robert Forster came to fame as part of the Go-Betweens, whom he co-founded along with Grant McLennan in late 1977. The band would release six albums before initially breaking up in late 1989.  Robert would embark on a solo career, recording four albums in the 1990s before the decision was taken to reform the old band at the turn of the century.  Three albums followed in 2000, 2003 and 2005, before Grant died suddenly from natural causes, aged 46, on 6 May 2006. After a short period, Robert decided to resume his solo career, and has made a further five albums since 2008.  This chronological ICA is drawn from those first eight records.

SIDE A

1. Danger In The Past (from Danger In The Past, 1990)

Robert was living in Germany when the Go-Betweens broke up, having not long before formed a romantic relationship with musician Karin Bäumler whom he would marry in May 1990 and later start a family.  Having been retained by his label Beggars Banquet, he decided to realise a long-held ambition by recording his solo debut in the famous Hansa Studios in Berlin. His fellow musicians were three members of the Bad Seeds  – Mick Harvey (who would produce as well as play), Hugo Race and Thomas Wydler, while Karin added some vocals.  The album, in places, is close in sound to that of his old band, but there is also the sense that Robert’s songwriting was drawing on musical influences from Americana.

2. 121 (from Calling From A Country Phone, 1993)

The songs on the second solo album were largely written in Germany, but recorded back in his home city of Brisbane.  Robert’s idea for the record was to find new and young musicians he hadn’t worked with before, which he did after a live show he went to following a tip-off from a record store owner he had known for years.  The musicians strengths were in country or western, which comes through at regular intervals throughout the record.  121 was a regular part of the live sets from the 2025 tour with The Swedish Band, whose Glasgow show I reviewed a short time back.

3. 2541 (from I Had A New York Girlfriend, 1994)

There was a touch of writer’s block in the mid 90s, which meant the third solo album consisted solely of covers. As these things go, it’s OK, with a real surprise being a very fragile voice and piano take on Alone, a late-80s power-ballad which gave American rockers Heart a worldwide smash.  The one song I’ve regularly gone back to is 2541, which was the lead track on the first solo EP written and recorded in 1988 by Grant Hart after the break-up of Hüsker Dü.

4. Warm Nights (from Warm Nights, 1996)

It took until 1996 before Robert had written enough songs for a new album, and for this one he went to England and to Edwyn Collins‘ newly built studio with his old mate from the Postcard Records era on production duties.  In truth, the record doesn’t quite spark in the way it was hoped for, although I’ve long had a soft spot for the title track.

5. Let Your Light In, Babe (from The Evangelist, 2008)

A number of songs had already been co-written by for what should have been the next group album before Grant’s sudden death.  Three of those songs, including Let Your Light In Babe, would appear on The Evangelist, an album recorded in London by the core of what had been the final line-up of the Go-Betweens.   I think many of us who had followed Robert’s career over the years felt this would be his swansong, and for a few years it seemed that was going to be the case.

SIDE B

1. Learn To Burn (from Songs To Play, 2015)

It would be seven years before another solo album.  It was no surprise that Robert needed time and space to adjust to the loss of his long-time musical partner, and for a while he concentrated on his emerging work as a rock critic, writing mainly for The Monthly, a highly-regarded Australian publication, as well as devoting time to a memoir, which in due course would be published in 2016.

His ‘comeback’ solo album was issued by Tapete Records, an independent label based in Hamburg, Germany.  Robert, in the press interviews at the time of the album’s release, explained that many of the songs had been written for a while, but he needed time to work out exactly how and where, and with whom, he wanted to record them. He ended up decamping to a rural Australian studio next to a village with a population of 430, with the album to be co-produced with two members of a largely-unknown Australian band, The John Steel Singers. It also had, for the first time, major contributions from Karin Bäumler, whose violin playing is at the heart of many of its songs,

2. I Love Myself (And I Always Have) (from Songs To Play, 2015)

Who says that Robert Forster doesn’t have a sense of humour?  A song that has become something of a signature tune over the past decade and which always gets very loud cheers when aired live.

3. One Bird In The Sky (from Inferno, 2019)

Inferno, certainly for me, is kind of like Warm Nights was back in 1996 in that it never quite lived up to my expectations. Strangely enough, the live tour in support of the album, which came to Glasgow in May 2019, was a great event, but that was largely down to more than half the set being Go-Betweens songs, including a few I never expected to hear.  Having said all that, this, the closing song on the album, is a bit of a latter-career classic.

4. Tender Years (from The Candle and The Flame, 2023)

An album that’s easily his most personal.  The songs were mostly written in 2020/21 and then came the news that Karin Bäumler had been diagnosed with Stage 4 ovarian cancer.  Everything was put on hold as she battled the disease, defying all expectations.  It led to one new song being written with just six words repeated over and over again –  ‘She’s A Fighter, Fighting For Good – to a tune that came from jams undertaken by Robert and Karin, along with their son Louis (who by now had three albums under his belt as part of The Goon Sax) as part of their way of distracting themselves as they waited on the results of Karin’s ongoing treatment.

The album made me wonder if Robert had some sort of sixth sense as many of its other song seemed to reflect on love, life and happiness.  This autobiographical tale of domestic bliss is so joyful….as indeed is its video.

5. When I Was A Young Man (from The Candle and The Flame, 2023)

Yet another tune which closed an album. On this one, Robert looks back on his own life and the paths that led him to become a musician. It’s a song of celebration, but not made with any sort of boastfulness, while the lyrics and tune clearly pay homage to those heroes of Robert who helped him on the journey. It was one of my favourite songs of 2023, and is the perfect way to bring the ICA to a close.

JC

 

Let’s begin things by recalling this #13 hit single from 2006

mp3: Peter Bjorn and John – Young Folks

One third of that trio is in the above picture, playing acoustic guitar. He is Peter Morén, and together with Jonas Thorell on bass and Magnus Olsson on drums, they are The Swedish Band who have just played an 18-date European tour with Robert Forster which took in Stockholm, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Berlin, Dresden, Vienna, Linz, Landsberg, Frankfurt, Cologne, Brighton, Cardiff, London, Manchester, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Leicester.

The Glasgow venue was St Luke’s, a converted church in the east end of the city which is now up there with the Barrowlands as my favourite location in my home city, and the gig took place last Saturday.  And in a year when I’ve been at numerous live shows, with a few more lined up between now and the end of December, this will prove to be the most enjoyable and fun.

Fun?  At a Robert Forster gig?   Surely not, given this is a man who over the decades has regularly had the word ‘aloof’ used by numerous writers and journalists to describe his personality.  I prefer to look on him as being an intellectual with a dry sense of humour that often borders on the deadpan to the extent that you can’t be sure if he is being serious or satirical, all of which was very much on display during a show that lasted not too far short of two hours.

Robert Forster is now 68 years old and has been making great music since 1978, when the members of his Swedish Band were either not born or were mere infants.  The Australian is no stranger to Glasgow, having come here back in 1980 to stay for a short time and release a single with the Go-Betweens on Postcard Records, and he repeatedly expresses his love for the city.  As such, he always seems to come here whenever he goes out on tour, whether he is playing solo, as a stripped down duo with his son Louis, or with a fully fledged band. And even though there was the occasional moment when the great man, who doesn’t use any sort of prompts, got a line or two wrong and, in one instance, forgot the lyric altogether, I will not hesitate in saying that this time round, it was as good as it’s ever been,

This is down to a couple of things.  One being the quality of songs that were played and the other being how tight and talented the backing trio were.

The Swedish Band came together in 2017 when Peter, Jonas and Magnus played five shows, as Robert’s backing band, in Scandinavia, the idea having been hatched by Peter.  The shows were a huge success, and Robert has since said that it gave him a whole new impetus for recording and touring in the future.  Then came COVID….and then came the diagnosis of cancer for Robert’s wife, Karin Baumler.   The cancer was beaten, and while Karin was recuperating, Robert wrote and recorded a new album, The Candle and The Flame (2023), with many of its songs reflecting on that difficult time for his family.  As part of the tour for the album, Robert was looking to return to Stockholm in August 2023 for what would be a solo acoustic show.  Peter got in touch and suggested that the 2017 band get together again as a one-off.  The show proved to be such a success and such a memorable experience for Robert that he flew home to Australia with a new plan hatching away in his head.

In September 2024, he returned to Stockholm, this time to record a new album with The Swedish Band, and a handful of other locally based musicians on keyboards and wind instruments, while additional vocals would be added later by Karin Baumler in a studio in Brisbane.

The fruits of their labours were released as the album Strawberries earlier this year, with this September/October tour being part of its promotion.  Robert had said prior to going on the road  “I am enormously excited to be touring with a rock band again. The first time in six years. And not just any rock band – these are the genius Swedish players from my new album ‘Strawberries’, recorded in Stockholm. I love the album and I wanted to bring the group with me out on the rock and roll highway. We are wanting to impress.”

Well, Robert (not that you’ll be reading this!!), as a collective you most certainly did.

The set consisted of 21 songs, of which six can be found on the new album. Five others were from earlier solo albums, while the remaining ten came from the Go-Betweens era – four from 16 Lovers Lane (1988), one from Spring Hill Fair (1984), two from The Friends of Rachel Worth (2000), one from Liberty Belle and The Black Diamond Express (1986), one from Bright Yellow, Bright Orange (2003) before finishing the night off with a magnificent rendition of 1978 single, People Say.

It was everything that a long-time fan could ever have hoped for.  The Swedish Band were, as you’d expect, magnificent on the songs you’ll find on Strawberries, but they more than did justice to the past members of The Go-Betweens throughout the night, as well as bringing a fresh energy and vibrancy to Robert’s other solo material.  It all added up to a night that will live long in the memories of those of us lucky enough to have been there, including quite a few members of the Glasgow indie cognoscenti who came along to pay tribute to our rock and roll friend.

Highlights?   All 21 songs.  From the new album, there’s this near eight-minute opus, whose origins were revealed to be when Robert last came to Glasgow, arriving on a train from London….and then the next day finding himself in Edinburgh while an international rugby match was being played between Scotland and Ireland.

As for the ‘cover’ versions….an impossible task in many ways to narrow it down to one, but when I closed my eyes during this one, I could have sworn The Go-Betweens had, by way of a miracle, reformed for a few minutes.

mp3: The Go-Betweens – Spring Rain

I took my leave of the venue and offered up a silent prayer to a non-existent god that Robert Foster and His Swedish Band will be working together and touring again next year. Fingers and toes are crossed.

 

JC

 

The third of an occasional feature in which I’ll draw your attention to some albums that have been purchased in 2023 and which I reckon are worth highlighting. It’s an LP that came out on Tapete Records back in February.

The Candle and The Flame is the eighth solo album to be released by Robert Forster, going back all the way to Danger In The Past in 1990.   There have also, of course, been three Go-Betweens album in that period, with the last being Oceans Apart (2005) which came out a year before Grant McLennan passed away, at the age of 48, after a heart attack.

It’s always been a tough one comparing Robert’s solo releases to those with his former band.  He’s never been one to completely let go of what came before, with his always entertaining live shows being a mix of the solo and band material.  As much as I’ve always enjoyed the solo records, none of them have really managed to have the same longevity as most Go-Betweens records in that I don’t often find myself going back for very regular listens once the vinyl or CDs were put on the shelf.

Things are going to change with this one, thanks to it easily being his best solo effort this far.  It’s an album that was largely conceived and recorded against the challenging background of Karin Bäumler, his wife and musical partner for more than 30 years, being diagnosed, during the COVID lockdown period, with ovarian cancer that was inoperable and could only be treated with chemotherapy.

Robert, who makes great use of social media to keep in touch and update his fans, broke the news in October 2022.  It’s best to actually reproduce what he said:-

“Greetings from Brisbane

Dear friends, pull up chairs, this is a difficult and lengthy post. It is tough news that I wish to share with you and not for you to pick up second hand on the internet over the next months.

In early July last year (2021), Karin Bäumler, my wife and musical companion for thirty-two years, was diagnosed with a confronting case of ovarian cancer. It was a time of shock and grief, and that same month, she embarked on a regime of chemotherapy treatment.

Ever since we met, Karin and I have sung and played music together in our home, and in these dark days we turned to music once again. I had a batch of new songs I’d written over the last years, and we started playing them together. Our son Louis often dropped in for a meal and a chat and soon he began joining us on guitar. One night, when sitting cross-legged on the couch, after we had played a song, Karin looked up from her xylophone and said, “When we play music, is the only time I forget I have cancer.” That was a big moment.

In the meantime some of our very kind Brisbane friends had formed a cooking roster, leaving meals at our front door to support us through this time. One of them was Adele Pickvance, former Go-Betweens and Warm Nights bass player. On one of her meal delivery trips, I asked her to bring her bass and an amp along. She pulled up a chair in our lounge room and fell right in on the new songs.

In October, Karin was scheduled for surgery. We booked a studio, and on September 27th, the four of us sitting in a circle, recorded 10 songs live in 7 hours. Whatever would happen in the future, we would always have the tape.

Over the next months, when Karin was strong enough and Covid numbers were low, we booked odd days in the studio. Sometimes our daughter, Loretta, would come along and join us and we brought in friends to help us, too. Karin was driving the album and listening to what we’d done on each session, gave us weeks of enjoyment and a place we could retreat to, away from hospital visits and scans and blood tests. In early March, with her chemotherapy course just finished, we did our last day in the studio.

The songs we recorded formed an album that will come out early next year, and this Wednesday, the 19th, we will release a single. But we wanted you to know the story of the creation of the record first. Why it exists. Why these musicians are playing on it. Why there isn’t layers of production, instead a live, catch a moment feel to the sound. Two of the songs on the album are from that September 27 recording. We didn’t know we’d started an album but we had, in the shadow of Karin’s hospital visits.

With a challenging year behind her, Karin is feeling strong and positive now and she can’t wait for our music to go out of our house and into the world. It may seem strange making an album in these circumstances and looking back, we really don’t know how we did it, but we do know that it helped us just so much as a family. It was done in drops and gave us this other reality we could live in. Something that music is great in giving.

In the slow process of the album’s recording, we didn’t inform a wide range of family and friends of what we were doing, and we ask for their understanding in the delivery of this news.

The album is called The Candle And The Flame. We hope you will enjoy it!

Fondest Regards from Karin and myself,

Robert”

This is the video which dropped into our inboxes a short time later:-

Not too much in the way of words, but by god, it delivered a musical and emotional punch.   Robert would later reveal that the bones of the song had actually been written prior to Karin’s diagnosis, but it emerged fully from those home sessions in Brisbane.

She’s A Fighter would be the track chosen to open the new album.  It’s totally different, musically, from any of the other eight songs, but what they all have in common is that they are a celebration of the good and happy things in life, all of which makes for an album that was, without any question, the most uplifting and rewarding listen of 2023.

One of the standout tracks, Tender Years, is a wonderful love song, an autobiographical tale of domestic bliss with a video that matches it perfectly,:-

Surprisingly for an album that was made in such challenging circumstances, there are many moments of humour across the record, particularly in the self-deprecating I Don’t Do Drugs I Do Time, while album closer When I Was A Young Man sees Robert look back on his own life and the paths that led him to become a musician. It’s yet another song of celebration, but its not made with any sort of boastfulness, and the lyrics and tune clearly pay homage to those heroes of Robert who helped him on the journey.

Robert has been out on the road with the album.  I was lucky enough to see him twice – the first being in Hebden Bridge when he was accompanied on stage by his son Louis, while the second was when he played solo as the headline and closing act of the 2023 edition of Glas-Goes Pop.  The latter was probably my favourite gig of the past year, perfectly paced with the usual blend of solo and band material, but taken to new levels thanks to Robert’s chat in-between the songs being just as entertaining. This song was a particular highlight:-

mp3: Robert Forster – There’s A Reason To Live

The Candle and The Flame is a tremendous record.  If you don’t have a copy, please do something about it.  At the very least, have one of your loved ones make sure that Santa Claus knows you’re interested……

JC

Oops!

I didn’t mean to take five full months to make good on my promise, as a follow-up to this post on Danger In The Past, the debut solo album by Robert Forster, that I’d offer up some thought on its follow-up, Calling From A Country Phone, which originally came out in 1993, again on Beggars Banquet the long-time home of the Go-Betweens.

Again, I’ve picked up a copy thanks to it being reissued, on vinyl, by Needle Mythology in 2020, with the bonus of an additional 7″ single.

The first thing that has to be mentioned is that it is a totally different beast from the debut which had been recorded at the famous Hansa Studios in Berlin and the backing musicians were all part of The Bad Seeds.  By 1992, Robert Forster was back in Australia, living again in Brisbane with his new wife Karin Baumler.  He had a bundle of newly written songs, which he felt had a similar sort of vibe as much of the earliest material he had written for the Go-Betweens.

He decided his needs would best be met if he could return to the same small studio where it had all began in Brisbane back in the late 70s but to do so with musicians he didn’t know.  Acting on advice and a tip from an old friend who ran a record shop in the city, Robert went to a well known pub venue, the Queen’s Arms, where he saw a band called COW who also had members of another band called Custard playing with them that night.  He liked what he was hearing, and he asked if they would like to work with him to make a new album. All the musicians were at least ten years younger than him, and he had no idea if they would be compatible in the studio environment. It’s probably best, at this stage, to let Robert explain:-

It was risky and deliberate. I’d written ten songs from mid-1990 to mid-1992 in the Bavarian farmhouse where I had been living with my German wife.  Moving to Brisbane. my aim was to make a record to the exact opposite of Danger In The Past.  Why? The songs led me there, and you always have to follow the songs.

The studio…..was funky.  I hired a Hammond organ for the session and a four piece band could record together in the room. We weren’t making a huge contemporary rock record; in fact it wasn’t much like anything anyone was doing at the time. Unadorned, raw, with a cracked seventies AM radio vibe to it. Listening now, I am struck by its boldness and beauty – we really did go out on a limb.

(taken from the sleeve notes to the reissued album)

The one thing I can say is that I’m pleased I didn’t buy the album back in 1993 as I would have been quite disappointed. Almost thirty years on, and my tastes are a bit broader than before and my tolerance levels that bit higher.  Oh, and there’s also the fact that I’ve enjoyed many of the subsequent solo albums, as well as much of the material from the period when the Go-Betweens reformed, which means a lot more slack can be cut knowing better records would follow rather than worrying, as I would have back in the day, that Robert had lost it forever.

Calling From A Country Phone feels more like a collection of songs rather than an album which hangs well together.  Most of the tracks have an Americana feel to them, with pedal steel and violin often to the fore, along with that honky-tonk piano sound that I associate with scenes set in saloon bars in films or TV shows set in the Wild West.  The musicians brought on board for the album are quite clearly very good, nay excellent, at what they do, but I can’t help but feel there’s no real chemistry with Robert.

The main man perhaps has a sense of this too, mentioning further in his sleeve notes that it was unfortunate the band never got the chance to play outside of Australia and that perhaps the live experience would have better explained the record and what he was doing.

Anyways, that’s my take on it and there will likely be many folk out there who disagree strongly.  The album certainly gets a very good write-up in a number of places, with references to a gentle acoustic sound melding perfectly with the wistfully rueful vocals, as well as fine country-rockers with some typically trenchant lyrics and cinematic choruses.

Judge for yourself:-

mp3: Robert Forster – Atlanta Lie Low
mp3: Robert Forster – Falling Star

I don’t want to leave anyone with the impression, however, that I thought this purchase was a waste of money. C’mon, it’s Robert Forster and there’s a few moments on the album which could just about find themselves on an ICA of the solo material; but overall, while it’s not one I’ve had on heavy rotation since it landed in Villain Towers, it hasn’t been put in the cupboard to be completely forgotten about.

If I was to use the ratings deployed by some of the monthly music mags, it would likely be three stars;  in other words, a borderline pass.

JC

It was sometime last year that I picked up the vinyl re-issues of the first two solo albums recorded and released by Robert Forster.  They are each things of beauty, coming finely packaged, complete with a bonus 7″ single and Robert’s newly supplied liner notes to help put things into context.

The debut album was Danger In The Past, recorded over just 14 days in June/July 1990, some six months after the Go-Betweens had broken up.  By this time, Robert was living with his new wife, Karin Baumler, in a Bavarian farmhouse which is where most of its nine songs were written.  A combination of good luck and knowing the right people enabled the album to be recorded in the famous Hansa Studios in Berlin.  His old friend, Mick Harvey, had taken on the task of producing the record, and in doing so had persuded Thomas Wydler and Hugo Race to join him in the studio.  In effect, it was Robert Forster and the Bad Seeds who convened for those two weeks with the end result being very much to everyone’s satisfaction.  Robert has since said it was one of his most treasured recording experiences, finally getting into the type of  studio hadn’t ever really had the resources to book, armed with songs which saw him move in different directions from before.  He has described the title songs as being….‘ like a folk song, and none of my songs on any Go-Betweens record were like that or had six verses. It had a classic folk chord sequence that Neil Young could’ve written, that Gordon Lightfoot could’ve written’

mp3: Robert Forster – Danger in The Past

I should also mention that Karin Baumler supplied vocals to the title track, he first of what would be many contributions to Robert’s wongs and live shows ever since.

I don’t want to go overboard with the music from the album, given the fact it contains just the nine tracks.  The album came out on Beggars Banquet, the label which the Go-Betweens had been signed to for the final few years, and while there wasn’t a single officially lifted from it, a promotional 45 featuring the jaunty, magnificent and poppy album opener, Baby Stones, (with its piano lines eerily similar to Don’t Go Back To Rockville) had been pressed up and sent to radio stations. A promo video was also shot:-

It’s b-side wasn’t on the album and when Needle Mythology issued the 2020 re-pressing they made it available on the bonus 7″:-

mp3: Robert Forster – The Land That Time Forgot

I’ll get round soon enough to posting something from Calling From a Country Phone, the follow-up album originally released in 1993.

JC

Week-End is an annual music festival, first held in the German city of Cologne in November 2011. The third edition of the festival, on 11-13 December 2013 attracted a great line-up including Young Marble Giants, The Fall, Grant Hart, and The Pastels.

Robert Forster also performed over that weekend, linking up with the composer and arranger Jherek Bischoff for a unique concert consisting of Go-Betweens songs as performed by a string quartet. Prior to the show, and after a great deal of rehearsing, a number of the songs were recorded in the studio, two of which were subsequently released in 2017 on a 7″ single by Slowboy Records, an independent label based in Dusseldorf.

The credits on the back of the single reveal that Jherek Bischoff, as well as arranging the songs in question, also played bass while a backing vocalist was added to the first of the tracks.

Robert Forster: Guitar, Vox
Jherek Bischoff: Bass, Percussion
Mike Donovan: Backing Vox
Lola Rubin: Violin
Kalliopi Mitropoulou: Violin
Elisa Becker-Voss: Viola
Ruben Palma: Cello

The track to which the backing vocal was added dates from the very early days of the band. Indeed it was just their second-ever single, released in 1979 in Australia on the Able Label and written solely by Robert Forster. The flip side of this delightful and unusual 45, was from much later on, taken from the album Bright Yellow Bright Orange, released on the Melbourne-based Trifekta Records in 2003.

I had no idea that the single was in existence until I saw it while doing some on-line browsing of a record store in Stockholm, Sweden (as you do!!!). It was quickly ordered and arrived safe and sound a few weeks ago, purchased without ever being heard in advance….and as I said, it proved to be quite delightful.

mp3: Robert Forster w/ Jherek Bischoff & String Quartet – People Say
mp3: Robert Forster w/ Jherek Bischoff & String Quartet – In Her Diary

This is exactly why music blogs remain essential in the spotify/streaming age.

JC

His first words for a very long time:-

It’s been a good wee while since I last visited these familiar lands – some eighteen months or so – and whilst I could offer several (rather poor) excuses I won’t even bother. Instead, I’ll just present my annual ‘best of’ compilation (for both 2013 and 2014) and hope that makes up for being so absent. I hope to be around this pixel geography a bit more during 2015 but, aye, no promises I’m afraid. I’m still as obsessed as I once was with all things music; especially going to gigs and buying vinyl. Life just sometimes gets in the way of translating that into words about music. I’m sure you all know how that can be. Keep well and see you down the road.x

http://andbeforethefirstkiss.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/you-just-wanna-tick-some-boxes.html

Welcome back Comrade. Your many fans will be delighted and hope that you stay good on the idea of posting a bit more in 2015. Seems apt that you’ve returned just as I’m in the middle of a series on the band which did more than any other to forge our much valued friendship.

This one’s for you:-

mp3 : Robert Forster – Rock n Roll Friend