John Robb talks about a life in music, being the first person to interview Nirvana, and inventing the word britpop…
John Robb talks about a life in music, his best selling art of darkness book, being the first person to interview Nirvana, inventing the word britpop and adventures on the post punk frontline…
John Robb is a many-faceted creature.
Not just a well known face from TV but also a best selling author, musician, journalist, presenter and pundit, music website boss, publisher, festival boss, Eco warrior and vegan behemoth and talking head singer from post-punk mainstays The Membranes.
John Robb is all these things and more.
His recently released book ‘The Art Of Darkness – the History Of Goth’ is a worldwide pop culture best seller and his soon to be launched ground-breaking new scheme – the Green Britain Academy, is set to train up people in thousands of Eco jobs whilst Borders Blurred is a gaming and music agency with a twist.
He grew up in Blackpool before punk rock came along and saved his life and he formed the Membranes – the highly influential post punk band whose current albums keep pushing forward with added choirs and textures and are critically acclaimed.
He was one of the leading post punk fanzine writers in the UK with ‘Rox’ before he went on to write for the rock press with Sounds in the 80s and was the first person to interview Nirvana and coined the expression Britpop and was instrumental in kick starting and documenting the Madchester scene with his writing. His music and culture website louderthanwar.com is currently the 5th most read music and culture sites in the UK and at the front of diverse modern culture.
He is a constant on TV and radio commenting on music, culture and politics and one of the UK’s leading in conversation hosts who has his own successful youtube channel and his own books and music festival in Manchester every year called Louder Than Words.
He has written many books like best sellers like ‘Punk Rock – an Oral History’ and The Stone Roses and the Resurrection of British Pop’ and in 2021 a book about the leading Eco energy boss Dale Vince from Ecotricity called ‘Manifesto’. 2023 also sees the release of a new book with Alan McGee as well as his own autobiography and a collected works of journalism.