Punk musician and music writer John Robb has many claims to fame. He coined the phrase Britpop and was the first person to interview the band Nirvana. He’s a TV presenter and producer and his music books, including 2023 release The Art Of Darkness - The History Of Goth, have been critically acclaimed.
But what many people perhaps don’t know about The Membranes and Goldblade frontman is that he was a Staffordshire University student.
John, from Blackpool, arrived at the Stafford campus in 1980 to study Geography with Statistics.
“I only ever went to one lecture,” said John. “I had no interest in going to college because I was in a band. It was my sister who applied to lots of colleges on my behalf and I got into Staffs.”
John has travelled the world having adventures with his music and interviewed the sorts of global superstars most people could only dream of meeting, but his Staffordshire University memories are still very clear.
“I used to hitch home every week because I had no money. I’d heard of Stafford before but never been to the town and then when I arrived I thought ‘is this it?’
“We used to love going to Stoke though. The Stoke campus was great and I used to drink scrumpy in the bar there.”
John’s band at the time, The Membranes, played in Stafford and he says he saw ‘a lot of great gigs’ in the county town. It was years after he left the University before he played a gig at the Stoke campus.
“I have lots of really good memories of Staffordshire University and I did have a great time there.”
John is still in touch with some on his uni friends including fellow Stafford campus student Paul Hemmings, who went on to be guitarist with band The La’s.
John’s band The Membranes has evolved over the years from DIY punk to staging sell-out shows with scientists from the Higgs Boson project where they explained the universe.
He’s been a pundit for many varied TV programmes over the years including The Culture Show and Channel Four News.
His writing has included his own fanzine, Rox, and writing and running the music magazine and website Louder Than War. He has written for ZigZag, Melody Maker and newspapers including The Sunday Times, The Observer, The Independent and The Guardian.
John’s books include a biography of The Stone Roses, an oral history of punk, an account of 1980s underground music, an oral history of the Manchester music scene and Manifesto, co-written by fellow Staffordshire University alumni and eco energy pioneer Dale Vince.
John is now being made an Honorary Doctor of the university that he dropped out of before completing his studies.
He said: “As soon as I opened the letter my first thought was that my mum would think it was really funny that I was finally going to get a degree 42 years after the start of my course. It’s almost like a world record.”