Conceived in Stockholm.
Born in London.
John Lennon meets Paul McCartney in Liverpool.
I get my first plastic dinosaur.
Bay Of Pigs & The Cuban Missile Crisis. Kennedy faces off Kruschev. I start collecting beetles.
The Beatles have four number one hits.
I try unsuccessfully to compose an instrumental in my head.
Kennedy shot dead.
First Dr. Who episode transmitted.
Discover H.G. Wells.
Discover Bob Dylan, who hibernates.
The Year Zero
February: Get my first guitar.
October: Learn to tune it.
In July, Neil Armstrong is the first man in recorded history to stand on the moon.
Dylan plays first gig in 3 years at the Isle of Wight Festival.
The Beatles dissolve.
I write my first song , "Baby," with my school friend Martin, who is now a lawyer in Buenos Aires.
Martin and I play the City and Guilds Art School Dance with our beat group, "The Beatles." Somehow the name doesn't catch on, and we play our last gig on December 31st 1973 at the British Council. Topping the bill are Chilli Willi And The Red Hot Peppers,whose drummer Pete Thomas goes on to play with Elvis Costello.
Nixon impeached.
I move up to Cambridge looking for musicians, and play the folk clubs.
Margaret Thatcher becomes head of the Conservative party.
I keep playing the folk clubs.
The Sex Pistols release "Anarchy In The UK."
I write "It's Not Just The Size Of A Walnut." It goes down okay in the folk clubs, but I'm still looking for the right musicians.
I find the right musicians, AKA The Soft Boys, and we release “Wading Through A Ventilator” EP in November. Doesn’t quite connect with the Year Zero of Punk.
I meet Nick Lowe in the Nashville Rooms in West London and take a light off his cigarette.
The Soft Boys support Elvis Costello and nearly get a major record deal.
Kimberley Rew joins the Soft Boys.
Second Soft Boys single “I Want To Be Anglepoise Lamp”.
A Can Of Bees released on our own Two Crabs label. Not immediately popular, but Julian Cope later describes it as a “red-hot poker up the arse of pop music.”
Thatcher elected as Prime Minister.
I read a lot of J.G. Ballard.
Underwater Moonlight,the second Soft Boys LP is released on the Armageddon label.
We get as far as New York, but dissolve the following February.
Ronald Reagan elected.
John Lennon shot dead in New York.
I release Black Snake Diamond Role and promote it by doing nothing.
Inner city riots throughout Britain.
Spandau Ballet are huge.
My second solo album, Groovy Decoy. Promote it by doing even less, except tour of Norwegian fallout shelters, playing to AC/DC fans.
Falklands War guarantees Thatcher a second term.
Decide to hibernate.
Write lyrics for Captain Sensible.
Sleep a lot. U
nbeknownst to me, US college radio stations are now playing our old records.
R.E.M. and other new US bands cite The Soft Boys and myself as influences.
Meet Peter Buck outside Highgate Cat Protection League.
Release first totally solo record I Often Dream Of Trains.
Play first live show in two years at The Hope & Anchor, Islington.
Start touring US with backing group The Egyptians, featuring former Soft Boys Morris Windsor and Andy Metcalfe. Booked to support REM but mystery cyst in my abdomen requires surgery and aborts tour.
Fegmania! the first Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians LP is released.
Fifteen-minute standing ovation after our New York show at the Irving Plaza.
"Walking on Sunshine" is a global smash hit for Kimberley Rew's band Katrina and The Waves.
We sign to A&M records in the US.
Element Of Light, Globe Of Frogs, Queen Elvis and Perspex Island all top the Rolling Stone Alternative chart.
Finally open for REM on their Green tour.
I play my first solo US tour in the autumn.
Eye, my second completly solo record, is released.
The Year Punk Broke, again.
Nirvana chases us off teh Alternative chart and the musical climate changes.
Move to the Isle of Wight, then Washington, DC.
Respect is the last album with Egyptians.
In Britain the Tories are in for a fourth term, despite the deposing of Margaret Thatcher.
Great debut albums from Grant-Lee Buffalo and Belly.
Return from DC to London.
I am now a solo act.
Jonathan Demme appears in the dressing with his wife Joanne Howardroom between sets at my show in Nyack, NY and offers to film me in concert.
All my albums from 1981-86 plus Eye are re-released on Rhino Records.
Storefront Hitchcock, featuring myself with accompaniment from violinist Deni Bonet and guitarist Tim Keegan playing in a shop window on 14th Street in New York is directed by Jonathan Demme.
Moss Elixir is released on Warner Brothers.
Tour US and Canada with Billy Bragg.
Labour returns to power after eighteen years - or does it?
Storefront Hitchcock opens at the Film Forum in NYC. Jonathan & Joanne Demme, Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, Michael Stipe and Peter Buck attend. Peter and I busk outside afterwards and collect over $13.
Third album for Warner's, Jewels For Sophia.
Tour the US as part of the “Revue Against Brain Degeneration” with The Flaming Lips, Sebadoh, Sonic Boom and Cornelius.
Western planes bomb Belgrade.
I introduce Storefront at film festivals in Austrailia, Sweden, Britian and the U.S.
Tour in the US as a double act with Grant Lee Phillips, doing the Grant Lee Hitchcock show.
A Star For Bram (companion to Jewels For Sophia) is the first release on my label, <editionsPAF!>
George W. Bush takes office.
World Trade Centre in New York demolished by hijacked passenger planes.
The Soft Boys reform to promote the 21st anniversary re-release of Underwater Moonlight by Matador, and tour the US.
George Harrison dies at 58.
The Soft Boys reunion album NextDoorLand is released by Matador.
I have a cameo appearance as a sleazy rock grandad in TV play Man And Boy.
NASA plans manned landing on Mars within the next twenty years. Subterranean beds of frozen water "may make it habitable long-term."
Robyn Sings, a 2CD set of Bob Dylan covers, is released on <editionsPAF!>
At my 50th birthday party show in March guest musicians include Peter Blegvad, John Paul Jones, Morris, Kimberley, Deni Benet and Tim Keegan.
Luxor is pressed up to give away to the audience, then released on <editions PAF!> in Britian and the US.
US and Britain invade Iraq, on the pretext of nullifying the threat from Iraqi missiles. No missiles were found.
Jonathan Demme’s remake of The Manchurian Candidate, starring Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep and Liev Schrieber, is filmed over the winter in New York. I play the part of Laurent Tokar, a sinister operative.
Record Spooked in Nashville with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings in downtime from filming The Manchurian Candidate. Released on YepRoc in October (and on Proper Records in the UK).
Record Olé! Tarantula in Seattle with Bill Rieflin, Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey. Released October 2006 on YepRoc. Begin touring with Bill, Peter and Scott as RH and the Venus 3.
John Edginton films documentary Robyn Hitchcock: Sex, Food, Death and Insects for the Sundance channel. Premieres March 27, 2007 on Sundance in the US. John Paul Jones, Nick Lowe, Gillian Welch & Dave Rawlings guest.
Kimberley, Morris, Paul Noble, Terry Edwards and I perform Pink Floyd's "Piper At The Gates of Dawn" on December 16/17 as a benefit for Médècins Sans Frontières at the 3 Kings in Clerkenwell, London. With this and our one-off performances of Sgt. Pepper's and The White Album, plus money raised from after-gig auctions, our fans have raised over 28,000 for MSF. These shows are all arranged and promoted by my wife, Michèle Noach.
Democrats regain US Congress.
Continue to tour and record.
YepRoc re-release all the old catalogue (plus extra) from the 1980's on two boxed sets: I WANNA GO BACKWARDS (solo records) and LUMINOUS GROOVE (with the Egyptians).
Along with Michèle and other artists and scientists, I am on the Cape Farewell expedition to West Greenland, to see the retreating ice-scape.
Smoking banned in UK pubs.
I play 3 US shows with Nick Lowe. Elvis Costello joins us onstage in New York.
Appear singing in Jonathan Demme's "Rachel Getting Married" starring Anne Hathaway and Rosemary DeWitt.
Stock market crashes.
New record with the V3, Goodnight Oslo, due out early 2009...
