Our friend, singer and guitarist Pete Stevens passed away on Saturday 9th June, 2007. He was diagnosed with bowel cancer in September 2006 and underwent a lot of treatment but always stayed positive. He spent most of his last week asleep, but when awake he kept up that positive attitude up to the end. He was, and always will be, 26 years old.
So next time you're out at a rock gig, or relaxing on Hampstead Heath or Primrose Hill with a less-than-legal smoke, or at home listening to Sam Cooke, Dylan and the Stones, take a moment to think how much more fun it would have been with Pete there. And any time you bump into anyone else who knew Pete, stop and share some stories about him - we all have a few. Most of all, just remember Pete in his prime: young, wild-haired, witty, imaginative, fun, talented, unpredictable, generous, rambling and, so often, merrily stoned.
He was a talented, intuitive musician and a powerful, soulful singer. Pete's too big a loss to ever be replaced, and the band will not be continuing without him.
Pete Stevens 1981-2007
Pete and I formed the Robot Blues back in 2003 after a lazy jam session at his dad's house. We were messing around, playing fuzzy blues covers of the Frasier theme tune amongst other things, and liked the sound of what we were doing. So we wrote some proper songs and started performing first as a two-piece, then as a three piece with friends helping out. Finally we settled on our final line-up with Tom Cook and Kris Ilic, and hit our stride properly in some storming gigs throughout 2006. We played acoustic shows in a Golders Green charity shop, on a boat, in a forest and in all the usual London venues. I think our best was headlining at the Tatty Bogle, when Pete had the audience in the palm of his sweaty hands the whole night.
I'll always remember that final line-up of the Robot Blues as being the best three guys you could ever want to share a stage with: tight but soulful, loud but subtle, wild but in control, all over the place but completely together. That was the Robot Blues.
We'd like to thank everyone that played with us, Dom and Jamo for both booking us so many times, John and Alison for making our last recordings possible, and all our friends for their support.
All songs by The Robot Blues.
