I didn‘t know Rob very well, and wondered if anyone did. It’s really nice to see that so many people did and found him just as intriguing, witty, irreverent and likeable as I did.
I was ‘the client’ on about 10 corporate jobs with him. Will introduced me to him at our first gig at the houses of parliament. I did a double take, as did security, when Rob arrived in denim and cowboy boots.
He was completely disarming and charming. He called me ‘Paxman’ – he was great at very gently ribbing me, congratulating me on ‘going in strong’, giving my interviewees a real ‘grilling’ and so on. Of course, I was reading my questions off a sheet approved by a PR exec. Not journalism, not Paxman, but we enjoyed the charade. The shoot would usually end with Rob emerging from behind the camera and holding a much more interesting conversation with my interviewee than I ever could.
I’m afraid I don’t have any pics except for this one which Rob took on his iphone of a shoot – I like it.
It’s no exaggeration to say that the highlights of my job for the last three years – the days I most looked forward to – have been the video work we did. Great fun from start to finish. Of course, not so fun for him when my terse corporate-speak emails would come through the day after the shoot with ridiculous and amateur demands for more of this and less of that. But Rob dealt with it with aplomb – he never told me to F-off (Will probably got the brunt of it) and we always enjoyed the next shoot.
I particularly remember one long and rambling telephone conversation with Rob, early evening, I was the last in the office and keen to get home. Rob wandered into a very informative diatribe about music (a passion I share) and was regaling me with various facts about this and that, him and her. Too much for my tired brain, but highly entertaining, and how I wish now that I’d been privileged to have more such phone calls from Rob. And more shoots. And more of Rob.
I have a small summer party at my house every year and have invited Rob before but he never came. I didn’t think parties were really his thing. This year I was surprised when he said he would come and sounded really keen – he took down the directions. We cancelled the party at the last minute because my wife broke her foot. I wish we hadn’t purely to know if Rob would have come. I like to think he would have.
I bought his Jazz Chorus amp off him and we said once that we’d start a band. I won’t be getting rid of it in a hurry. Rock on Rob.
Christian Walsh
If you would like to add your remembrances or pictures of Robert to this website, please email them to Tom: [email protected]