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Robert Hokum is the blues musician alter-ego of the West London musician born Robert (Bob) Martin Salmons. Best known as the founder and artistic director of the annual Ealing Blues Festival, London’s longest-running blues music festival, Salmons is also a founder and director of the Ealing Club Community Interest Company and was front man-guitarist of blues band The Guv’nors from 1987 to 2012. In 2022 He was honoured with an Unsung Hero Award by The UK Blues Federation for his contribution in promoting British blues heritage and live music in west London.

Early Life
He was born in July 1951, at Perivale Maternity Hospital, West London. He is the great nephew of John ‘Charger’ Salmons (1870-1951), the Norfolk folk singer whose version of the song Rigs of the Times was broadcast by the BBC in 1947 and has since been covered by amongst others, Martin Carthy, Sandy Denny and Bellowhead.

Salmons attended Ealing County Grammar School and took guitar lessons from Geoff Baker at a West Ealing music shop, Tempo Music.

He subsequently studied engineering and business studies at Twickenham College of Technology, now part of Richmond upon Thames College where he formed his first band: Granny Clegg’s Grunt Band. In 1973 Salmons became social secretary of the students union, booking such diverse acts as Bert Jansch and The Tremeloes.

On leaving college worked in the music business, notably at International Talent Booking from 1976-79 where he handled tours by amongst others the Tom Robinson Band and Heatwave. In 1980 through his booking of The 101 Club in Clapham, started Polydor-backed 101 Records with Frank Sansom.

He left the music business in 1984 subsequently becoming a senior Fleet Street executive at Express Newspapers, leaving there in 1997. From 1997 to 2013 Salmons held a managerial position at British Market Research Bureau.

Music Career
From 1969, Salmons has sung and played guitar with a number of west London-based bands: Granny Clegg’s Grunt Band, Cast Iron Alibi, Dangerous Rhythm, The Works, The Amazing Rhythm Burglars, The Guv’nors, The Robert Hokum Blues Band, Devil Drives, and Blues Sans Frontieres. Initially he used names such as ‘Bobby Solo’, Bob ‘BB’ Salmons, ‘Rock’ Salmons. He adopted the persona ‘Robert Hokum' in 1988. Latterly he has performed with The Great West Groove, and fusing the Blues with Indian music in Blues Sans Frontieres and Blues Dharma. His work as a sideman included playing guitar on the 1987 Ivor Biggun album Partners in Crime (1987).

The Ealing Blues Festival
On 28 June 1987, with his band The Amazing Rhythm Burglars, Salmons started the annual event that was to become Ealing Blues Festival in Walpole Park Ealing. It was originally established as a casual summer event for local musicians but grew rapidly to become a two-day event with audiences of 10,000 plus.

In 2013 he was on the founding committee for The Hanwell Hootie, a live music event set up to celebrate the life of local man and guitar amplification pioneer Jim Marshall that has grown to become London’s largest one-day free music festival. Salmons continues to run The Hootie Blues Bar at the event.

The Ealing Club Community Interest Company
In 2011 Salmons and Alistair Young founded the Ealing Club Community Interest Company to promote the heritage of The Ealing Blues Club, Britain’s first dedicated electric blues club which was founded on 17 March 1962 by Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies.

The first activity of Salmons and Young with the Ealing Club CIC was in 2012 to raise money to erect a blue plaque on the wall of the building which housed the Ealing Blues Club, at 42a The Broadway, Ealing W5 2NP.

They then staged the exhibition Ealing – The Birthplace of British Rhythm & Blues at Pitzhanger Manor, Ealing (11 July – 5 August 2012).

Salmons and Young subsequently worked with filmmaker Georgio Guernier to produce and to appear in the feature-length documentary Suburban Steps To Rockland - The Story of The Ealing Club, which premiered at The Barbican Centre Doc’n’Roll Festival on 4 November 2017.

Contributed a chapter to the book Rock’s Diamond Year(Aurora Metro publishing, 2022, ISBN 978-1913641221)

Advised on the play The Ealing Club premiered at the The Questors Theatre, Ealing on 21 October 2022.

Collaborated in 2022 with The British Blues Exhibition for events at the Musical Museum, Brentford and the Barbican Centre.

UK Blues Federation Unsung Hero Award
Salmons was presented with the award at an event on 15 May 2022 by singer and radio personality Paul Jones who said: “The UK Blues Federation Unsung Hero award goes to someone who has worked tirelessly to promote, encourage and nurture blues musicians over a long period. He is a man who started the Ealing Blues Festival and co-founded the Ealing Blues Club Community Interest Company. He’s tireless promoter of the west London blues scene.”

Personal Life
Married to Dr Kim Salmons; two children Bibi Lucille and Dusty Riva.

Discography

 * As Robert Hokum

Albums

 * Searching for the Brentford Delta (1999) (with Graham Wright)
 * The Robert Hokum Blues Band (2004)
 * Blues on the Loose at The Moose (2004) with Dorris Henderson)
 * Trippin' Backwards, a LIve Retrospective - Robert Hokum with The Guv'nors, Dorris Henderson and Blues Sans Frontieres (2017)


 * With The Amazing Rhythm Burglars
 * Your Cash Ain't Nothin' But Trash – EP (1987)


 * With Dangerous Rhythm
 * Just a little drink- 7-inch EP (1979)


 * With Devil Drives
 * Devil Drives (2014)


 * With The Guv‘nors

Albums

 * Between The Hum & The Hiss (1989)
 * Red Hot Conkers (1990)
 * Un’Natchl Blues (1991)
 * Strange But Blue (1992)
 * A Funky Spanking of The Blues (1995)
 * Getting to the Point of The Get Down (1999)
 * Blue Murder, the Best of The Guv‘nors 1989-1999 (2000)
 * Kickin' It Back (2005)
 * Live At Ealing Studios (2007)
 * 20 Years On The Run (2008)
 * Live In Ealing (2012)

Singles

 * Drowning For Your Love / In Trouble Again (1992)


 * With The Great West Groove
 * Why The Hell Wasn't I Born Rich (2015)

Compilations

 * Club Sandwich – one track as Rock Salmon Et Les Pommes Frittes (1981)
 * Journey Without Maps – one track as Disposable Pop (1982)
 * Help, I'm in Trouble – one track as Rock Salmon & the Chips (1983)
 * Blues from The Ain't Nothin' But Vol 1 - one track by The Robert Hokum Blues Band (2000)
 * Blues from The Ain't Nothin' But Vol 2 - one track by The Robert Hokum Blues Band (2003)
 * Blues from The Ain't Nothin' But Vol 3 - one track by The Robert Hokum Blues Band (2005)
 * Basingstoke Blues Club, Live Volume 2 – one track by The Robert Hokum Blues Band, one track by Dorris Henderson with The Robert Hokum Blues Band (2007)
 * In Memory of Jon Emmett – one track by The Guv‘nors (2008)
 * Barnet UnCovered - one track by The Guv‘nors (2008)
 * Blues from The Aint Nothin But Vol 4 - one track by The Robert Hokum Blues Band (2009)
 *  Sounds Of London Literature Lounge - two tracks Robert Hokum & Dheeraj Mishra; one track by Robert Hokum & The Guv‘nors / one track by Blues Sans Frontieres (2010)
 * Songs Of Isolation Vol 4 – one track as Robert Hokum (2019)