The RCC recently welcomed local journalism student Dave Bradley to cover our sold-out spoken word event featuring John Robb and Gabriel Paschal Blake, bassist for The Murder Capital.

To describe John Robb as an author and musician is not quite telling the whole story. John is also a journalist, presenter and pundit, music website boss, publisher, festival boss, spoken word artist, eco warrior, vegan and frontman of The Membranes and Goldblade. Behind all his accomplishments Blackpool native John is, in his own words, ‘A massive music fan’.

His latest book and spoken word tour of Ireland, Do You Believe in the Power of Rock and roll: Forty Years of Music Writing from the Frontline follows Johns musical journey from the late 1970s Punk era to the present day.

It is not Johns first time appearing Regional Cultural Centre (RCC) in Letterkenny and he was back last Wednesday for a sold-out show. On stage he cuts a striking even edgy figure with a mohawk topping off his pinstripe jacket and skinny jeans.

For the first half of the show John guides us via a slideshow through an array of artists and albums that have influenced him and left their mark on the music world. This is accompanied by stories about how he first created a fanzine in his hometown before moving on to writing for Zig Zag magazine and then for music weekly Sounds.

He had been writing for sounds for a few years when he got the opportunity to live with and be the first writer to interview Kurt Cobain and Nirvana before they became famous.

After the interval where he signed copies of his book and posed for photos, John had Letterkenny native, Gabriel Paschal Blake, bass player with Irish rock/post punk band, The Murder Capital in the interview hotseat. Gabriel shared his own journey into the world of rock and roll, his influences and what the band are currently up to.

At the end of the show following more signings and photos I asked him about Ireland, his current tour, music writing hi website and his future projects.

Turns out John likes Ireland, has friends here and first came here in 1986 and has been back about 40 times since.

“People are interested in words and music, so you always get a good crowd here”.

I asked John how the live show came about?

“For years people occasionally said why don’t you just go and talk about what you do.”

John explained,” I did a lot of events talking about my book and also was doing a lot of in-conversation interviews, so I thought for this tour maybe Ill join the two together.”

On his style of writing John said, “Some people think it’s terrible, but I don’t care.”

He has interviewed most of the musicians from punk till now but is there anybody else he would still like to interview?

“Some of the people from 1960s bands like the “two surviving Beatles or the Stones and also underground people from those periods as well.”

John also writes for his popular website, Louder Than War along with other massive music fans and friends who volunteer their time and content.

“It’s a space where people can write about what they like.”

John is currently writing a memoir due out in 2026 and he’s been writing a novel because it’s fun and because he likes writing ‘whether it ever gets released or not.’

Photographs by Michael McGlinchey.
Article by Dave Bradley.