Robin Trower

Robin Leonard Trower (born 9 March 1945) is an English rock guitarist and producer who achieved success with Procol Harum from 1967 until 1971 and as the bandleader of his own power trio known as the Robin Trower Band.

Although Procol Harum was primarily known as a progressive rock band, Trower himself is known for his blues-infused guitar playing, which critics have frequently compared to that of Jimi Hendrix, whom he has cited as an influence.

As a solo artist, Trower released four consecutive gold-certified albums from 1974 to 1977 that charted well in the US and Canada, but in the 1980s his career faltered. He briefly returned to Procol Harum for their 1991 reunion album, The Prodigal Stranger, but left again to resume his solo career. His most recent solo album, Come and Find Me, was released in 2025.

Robin Trower was born in Catford, London, England, and grew up in Southend-on-Sea, Essex.

In 1962, he formed a band that became the Paramounts, later including Westcliff High School pupil Gary Brooker. The Paramounts disbanded in 1966 to pursue individual projects. During this time, Trower created a local three-piece band called the Jam (not to be confused with the later group with Paul Weller). He also unsuccessfully tried forming a band with Wilko Johnson, who had instead decided to attend university. Trower then, in June 1967, joined Brooker's new band Procol Harum following the success of their debut May 1967 single "A Whiter Shade of Pale", and remained with them until mid 1971, appearing on the group's first five albums. Trower wrote "Whisky Train," the lead single from the group's fourth album, Home, and wrote three songs on the subsequent album, Broken Barricades. However, as Trower later confessed, "I started to realise that I was coming up with a lot more ideas than Procol had room for, so I was driven to go forward into my own thing."

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.