Marilyn (singer)

After Marilyn's friend Boy George had made a commercial impact with Culture Club, record companies were looking for other artists with a similar cross-dressing image. In 1983, following a high-profile appearance in the promo video for Eurythmics' hit single, "Who's That Girl?",[9] Robinson signed his own recording contract as Marilyn with Phonogram Records.

Marilyn's first chart success came in late 1983 with his debut single "Calling Your Name"[10] which reached the Top 5 in the UK and Australia, and number 1 in Japan. He had two further minor UK Top 40 hits in 1984 with "Cry and Be Free" and "You Don't Love Me" (the latter of which he performed at the Children's Royal Variety Performance held at Her Majesty's Theatre, London, in the presence of The Princess Anne).

In March 1984, Marilyn flew to Australia for a 10-day promotional tour and was besieged by fans who were waiting to greet him at Melbourne Airport. Film footage of his arrival was broadcast on that evening's television news.[11][12] While in Australia, he was attacked and kicked in the face by a member of the public at the Exchange Hotel, a gay bar venue in Sydney, sustaining a bruised eye from the incident.[13]

In late 1984, Marilyn took part in the Band Aid charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas" along with various other pop stars of the era.[14] In early 1985, now facing financial difficulties and being forced to give up his London home, Phonogram Records dispatched him to Detroit, Michigan, to work with producer Don Was. While in America, he cut his trademark long blonde hair short and ceased wearing make-up, abandoning the image that had brought him his initial success. After spending a week recording new material with Was, Marilyn was scheduled to perform live for the first time at New York's famed Area nightclub. The performance was intended to be filmed for use in the promo video for his new single, "Baby U Left Me", but the film crew were delayed, and although Marilyn proceeded to go onstage anyway, the performance was ruined by technical problems with the club's PA system. Midway through his first song, Marilyn abandoned the performance.[15]

In June 1985, Marilyn released his debut album, Despite Straight Lines. Despite including his three earlier UK Top 40 hit singles, the album only charted in Australia.[16] Further singles from the album, "Baby U Left Me" and "Pray for That Sunshine" were unsuccessful, although the former reached the top 40 in Australia.[16]

By this time, Robinson's drug addiction and his highly publicised disputes with Boy George damaged his public image. Public tastes were also changing, and his music career suffered.

Despite the problems in New York the year before, Marilyn performed live once in December 1986 at the Mud Club in London, where he performed a cover version of "Spirit in the Sky" which was planned to be his new single but was never released.[17]

By 1989, Robinson had signed with the Interbeat label, though again no new recordings surfaced. He then dropped out of the public eye for the next decade, abandoning his music career.

Robinson first reappeared in 1999 when he was interviewed on the Channel 4 programme Top Ten New Romantics, though he himself was not listed in the chart. In 2000, he attempted to relaunch his career and recorded a new single as Marilyn, a cover version of the Dennis Brown song "How Could I Live?" for Desilu Records based in Jamaica.[18] Robinson recorded the track in Jamaica and a few months later producer Nick Cabrera flew out there to supervise the final work on the track and its subsequent remixes. German producer Kinky Roland also made a remix of the track.[19] Following disagreements with the label, Robinson refused to let the single be released, though some 12" promotional copies do exist.[19]

In 2001, Robinson appeared in the BBC documentary programme A Fine Romance: The Story of the New Romantics. On 2 September 2001, Marilyn performed a live appearance at the Sound on Sunday club night in Leicester Square, London. It was his first live performance in over 14 years.[20] To promote the gig, Robinson gave a series of magazine interviews.[21][22][23]

A 4-track self-released CD-R of older material was issued in 2003.[24] The same year, Robinson appeared on the Channel 4 television show The Salon, a reality show based at a hairdressing salon where members of the public and several celebrities went for haircuts and beauty treatments. He also appeared in the TV documentary 25 Years of Smash Hits that traced the influence of UK pop music.

In 2006, Robinson was interviewed in the Channel 4 TV documentary Whatever Happened to the Gender Benders?, which reflected on the advent of the New Romantic movement of the early 1980s and the prominent roles that he, Boy George and Steve Strange played within it.

On 16 May 2013, Robinson appeared on Birmingham's Switch Radio where he gave a 30-minute interview.[25] The following month, he appeared on Kev Gurney's Club Tropicana radio show on Bolton 96.5 radio where he gave a 20-minute interview in which he speaks candidly about his life. During the interview, he revealed that he has been back in the recording studio and is currently working on four new tracks with a new production team, and suggested the possibility of live dates in the future.[26]

He appeared on an episode of Celebrity Gogglebox that aired on Channel 4 on 9 October 2015 as part of the channel's Stand Up to Cancer Charity Evening.[27]

Robinson began reporting on his Facebook page in Spring 2015 that he has been writing and recording some new material with Boy George as producer, and some re-recordings of his back catalogue. He spoke about the new recordings at length during a June 2016 interview.[5] On 23 September 2016, Marilyn released his first new single in over 30 years, entitled "Love or Money".[28] The same day, both he and Boy George appeared on the television show BBC Breakfast, which showed the promo video for the single. The pair were also interviewed on Loose Women on 26 September 2016.