Talk to Frank

Nottingham's legendary Xylophone Man (aka Frank Robinson) - illustration by Chris Summerlin

As far as I know I’m the only journalist that ever interviewed Frank Robinson - which still seems bizarre when I think about it. He was such a well known face around the city and was never hard to find in one of his regular busking spots, where he played for almost thirty years. To this day I wonder why no-one thought of doing it before.

The interview I did with him was back in the days when LeftLion published on the web only. It’s a fairly basic stuff to be honest and, apart from the concept itself, I wouldn’t consider it amongst my best work. The truth is I don’t think he even wanted to be interviewed.

I approached him outside the Tourist information centre in the council house on a lunch break in late 2003, minidisc and digital camera in hand, and at first he seemed confused. Then he agreed to answer a few questions for me, but mumbled throughout and didn’t want to stop playing his instrument at any point. Eventually, after less than five minutes, he seemed tired of answering questions and I felt I had outstayed my welcome. So I left him alone and that was pretty much that… or so I thought.

Before he died the interview we printed was picked up by both b3ta.com and Popbitch and circulated across the web. We had thousands and thousands of visits within days and through this viral chain we started to realise just how well known he was across the whole country - which made perfect sense when you think about it. Generations of people had grown up in – or come shopping to – Nottingham. Despite many of them moving away, their childish memories of this guy who was always playing his instrument (actually a metallophone) while their mams were dragging them round town stayed with them.

Within a month of first publishing the article we had received hundreds of comments about him and the last time I saw him in the flesh I put a print out of them (alongside a Greggs sandwich) into his busking basket. Again he looked confused, but pleased.

After he died the local media picked up on it as well. I gave BBC Nottingham access to republish the interview and there was a serious outpouring of grief. He made it into the Evening Post and countless other media too and many other journalists rang me up to get quotes for articles about him. We even tried to get NCT to name a tram after him, after getting thousands of signatures in support. When the next tram line is completed we will do that again.

I was invited to his funeral and it was a strange occasion. I was glad to be able to pay my last respects, but I felt a bit out of place to be honest, as I didn’t know his family or friends who obviously had more to grieve about than I did.

But to me, Frank Robinson stands as a major symbol of Nottingham and of the underdog. We come across a lot of local bands and musicians at LeftLion and pretty much all of them have more talent than our Frank. But as he’s proved if you apply yourself to play on the streets every day (for nearly thirty years) then you can’t fail to get noticed eventually.

King Bong

The original Xylophone Man interview

A poem for Xylophone Man

Xylophone Man on Wikipedia
 

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