Robin Trower is Busy at 80 in 2025: Tour, Expanded Classic LPs
by Best Classic Bands Staff
Robin Trower (Photo from his website)
It’s a busy year for Robin Trower. He recently added nearly two dozen concerts for a 2025 summer tour of the U.S. (Those dates follow a series of U.K. concerts in May. Tickets for all shows are available here and here.) The guitar legend recently completed a brief winter run in February-March that was rescheduled from 2024 following a “major operation” that he had over that summer. He had canceled those shows last June citing ongoing health issues. In that June 3, 2024, post on his Facebook page, the guitarist, who turned 80 this past March 9, revealed that he had been hospitalized in spring 2024. He said at the time, “My doctor advised me that the only possible way for an effective solution is to undertake a major operation as soon as possible.
And in mid-April, the news arrived of a 50th anniversary edition of his third studio album, For Earth Below. The original 1975 release reached #5 on the Billboard chart, the second of four consecutive Gold albums, further cementing Trower’s profile as a major league solo artist. The newly expanded edition, coming June 27, features the album newly remastered at AIR studios, a newly unearthed extended stereo mix of the entire record, a disc of outtakes, rarities and BBC sessions with the majority previously unreleased and a newly mixed concert taped live in Los Angeles from the “For Earth Below” tour, never available in its entirety before.
For Earth Below followed hot on the heels of its impressive predecessor Bridge of Sighs which had wowed audiences and critics upon its release in 1974. [That title received its own expanded edition in 2024; see below.] Trower was at the very top of his game as he entered the studio to make For Earth Below and with this album came a key personnel change. Following the exit of Reg Isadore, Trower recruited drummer Bill Lordan who was schooled in r&b and funk and in Trower’s own words “brought a new dimension” to his lineup, providing the perfect platform for Trower’s guitar virtuosity adorned by the unmistakable vocals and bass of James Dewar. [The 50th anniversary edition of For Earth Below is available for pre-order in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here.]
Says Lordan, “Robin, James and I had a magical chemistry instantly. It was like we had always played together and the music just flowed naturally. I always wanted to play with a blues-rock three-piece band.”
Watch him perform during his brief winter run in March 2025
“I have also been advised that the recovery time to 100% full fitness could take a while,” Trower wrote in June 2024. “This makes committing to a fixed touring period in the near future impossible. I have struggled with this decision but realize I cannot continue touring at this time.
“I am very hopeful that this procedure will give me a new lease of life,” he wrote, “and I can return to doing what I love the most: playing live. I look forward to catching up with you all as soon as I am able.”
Over the summer, he wrote, “I would like to thank everyone for the very kind and positive messages… I went in and came out through the other side and am recovering well. Now I’m looking forward to getting going and to start playing live again.”
Robin Trower 2025 Tour (Tickets are available here and here)
May 14 – Buxton, UK – Buxton Opera House
May 15 – Glasgow, UK – Oran Mor
May 17 – Holmfirth, UK – Picturedrome
May 18 – Birmingham, UK – Birmingham Town Hall
May 20 – Frome, UK – Cheese and Grain
May 21 – London, UK – O2 Shepherds Bush Empire
Jun 11 – Richmond, VA – The National
Jun 13 – Jim Thorpe, PA – Penn’s Peak
Jun 14 – Atlantic City, NJ – Music Box at the Borgata
Jun 15 – Glenside, PA – The Keswick Theatre
Jun 17 – Red Bank, NJ – Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre at Count Basie Center
Jun 18 – Montclair, NJ – The Wellmont Theatre
Jun 20 – Huntington, NY – The Paramount
Jun 21 – Poughkeepsie, NY – Bardavon
Jun 24 – Derry, NH – Tupelo Music Hall
Jun 25 – Boston, MA – The Wilbur
Jun 27 – Portland, ME – Aura
Jun 28 – Salisbury, MA – Blue Ocean Music Hall
Jul 01 – Homer, NY – Center for the Arts
Jul 02 – Buffalo, NY – Babeville
Jul 03 – Greensburg, PA – Palace Theatre
Jul 05 – Northfield, OH – MGM Northfield Park Center Stage
Jul 06 – Cincinnati, OH – Taft Theatre
Jul 08 – Royal Oak, MI – Royal Oak Music Theatre
Jul 10 – Nashville, IN – Brown County Music Center
Jul 11 – Chicago, IL – Copernicus Center
Jul 12 – Milwaukee, WI – Pabst Theater
Jul 14 – Des Moines, IA – Hoyt Sherman Place
Jul 16 – Kansas City, MO – Uptown Theater
Jul 17 – Springfield, MO – Gillioz Theatre
Jul 19 – Chesterfield, MO – The Factory
The upgraded 50th anniversary edition of the guitarist’s acclaimed release includes a 2024 remaster, an unedited stereo mix, outtakes, rarities and live recordings. It arrived June 7 as a 3-CD/1-Blu-ray set (with a Dolby ATMOS mix) and as a 2-LP edition on 180g vinyl, via Chrysalis. It’s available in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here. As Trower, himself, remarked, “Incredibly, Bridge of Sighs never made the British chart but spent over five months on the U.S. chart, reaching #7.”
From the album announcement: Following his departure from 1960s baroque rockers Procol Harum, the gifted guitarist set sail on forging a solo career and in doing so assembled a new band bringing in James Dewar on vocal and bass duty, and Reg Isidore on drums. The new power trio set the tone on Trower’s 1973 solo debut solo, Twice Removed From Yesterday, but it was the follow up, Bridge of Sighs, that would catapult Trower into an international guitar hero.
Photo (c) Brain Cooke
Recorded in just over two weeks at Olympic and Air Studios in London under the auspices of Trower’s former Procol bandmate, producer Matthew Fisher, Bridge of Sighs also benefited greatly from the presence of famed Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick who brought with him a whole array of recording techniques that greatly inspired Trower. “He came up with a way of recording the guitar I don’t think had been done before,” Trower says. “It was a big room and he had one mic in close, one mic set in the middle distance, and one mic set fifteen feet away to get the sound of the room. That was a very big factor in how the song and the whole album sounds.”
Bridge of Sighs features some mesmerizing guitar work from Trower. The title track and gems such as “Day of the Eagle,” “Too Rolling Stoned,” “In This Place,” “Little Bit of Sympathy” and “Lady Love.” Toto’s Steve Lukather says, “In 1974, I got the album and it blew my mind. I was devouring everything guitar based as I was an up-and coming player, and the sound of Robin’s guitar hit my soul. The tone-touch and feel was so incredible.”
Critically applauded upon release, Bridge of Sighs became a radio staple in the U.S., where the album reached #7, and helped establish Trower, born March 9, 1945, as one of the big touring attractions of the mid-‘70s.
50 years later, the recordings have been newly mixed from the original tapes. The package includes a 24-page booklet featuring newly written liner notes by David Sinclair, newly conducted interviews with Trower and Fisher and testimonials by Bryan Ferry, Robert Fripp, Lukather, Clive Bunker, Andy Parker and album cover designer Paul Olsen, all alongside previously unseen photographs.
Robin Trower Bridge of Sighs 50th Anniversary Edition (Click here for the track listing)
Disc 1: Bridge of Sighs 2024 Remaster
Disc 2: Bridge of Sighs 2024 Stereo Mix + Outtakes & Rarities
Disc 3: Live at The Record Plant, Sausalito, May 29, 1974
Disc 4: Blu-Ray: 2024 Remaster | 2024 Stereo Mix | Atmos | 5.1 | Stereo album instrumentals | Outtakes & Rarities | Live at Record Plant, Sausalito, May 29, 1974
Related: Listings for 100s of classic rock tours
3 Comments so far
Jump into a conversationI saw Reg, James and Robin live shortly after Bridge of Sighs was released, opening for Wishbone Ash (who performed all of Argus), and ZZ Top with a crowd of a few hundred in San Bernardino. Incredible show, particularly from Robin and mates, and the Ash.
I believe tickets were $5, LOL. We were at the foot of the stage until the Top came on and blasted us to the back of the room. They were LOUD!
Luv Robin Trower band ever since those early days
Saw the Bridge of Sighs tour in Seattle around 76, I believe. My ears are still ringing. I think I remember them saying it was 35,000 watts.