Rock musician Frank Robson has died

Rock musician and singer Frank Robson has died. He is best remembered as the vocal soloist of the band Tasavallant Presidentti.

Robson was 78 years old. Tieto’s death was shared by the singer’s daughter on Facebook.

British-born Frank Robson spent his childhood and youth in East London and started playing as an elementary school student. He got excited about rock in his teens and ended up playing in a band that also toured in Europe.

To Finland Robson came in 1967 by chance, because he decided to come to see a Finnish tourist he met in London. Robson soon also got to know musicians from Helsinki. He sang and played keyboards and was a soloist in the band Mosaic and the Blues Section until he was asked to join the newly formed President of the Republic.

He was in the band initially in 1969–1972. He sang on the band’s first three albums and later in the group that got back together and operated every few years from 1983 until 2006. Robson’s tonal and softly distorted voice emphasized the soulful side of the technically controlled music of the President of the Republic.

The President of the Republic was one of the most important trendsetters of Finnish progressive rock together with Wigwam. It gained attention in the early 1970s also abroad, especially in Britain.

Frank Robson also released five solo albums between 1974 and 1998. He contracted pharyngeal cancer, which made it difficult to sing, but he recovered from the disease.

Robson lived his last years with his wife in Lahti.