What A Blow

Biography

Ian Robert Gomm (born 17 March 1947, Chiswick, West London) is a British singer-songwriter, who was the rhythm guitarist for Brinsley Schwarz from 1970 to 1974. He was named "Best Rhythm Guitarist" by NME in 1971. After Brinsley Schwarz folded, Gomm moved to Wales, where he built his own recording studio and recorded sessions by The Stranglers, Amon Düül, and Alexis Korner. He also released his own solo debut album, Summer Holiday in 1978. The following year, Stiff/Epic issued the album retitle...

Ian Robert Gomm (born 17 March 1947, Chiswick, West London) is a British singer-songwriter, who was the rhythm guitarist for Brinsley Schwarz from 1970 to 1974. He was named "Best Rhythm Guitarist" by NME in 1971.

After Brinsley Schwarz folded, Gomm moved to Wales, where he built his own recording studio and recorded sessions by The Stranglers, Amon Düül, and Alexis Korner. He also released his own solo debut album, Summer Holiday in 1978. The following year, Stiff/Epic issued the album retitled as Gomm with the Wind in the United States. From it he scored a Top 40 hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1979, with the song "Hold On" which reached #18 in the autumn of that year. This led to a gig supporting Dire Straits on their Sultans of Swing tour. Gomm also co-wrote with Nick Lowe the song, "Cruel to be Kind", which reached #12 in both the US and UK for Lowe also in 1979.

"Hold On" has been featured as bumper music on the Coast to Coast AM radio show.

Subsequent solo albums included What a Blow, The Village Voice (which included "Louise," a song that became Phil Everly's first solo hit) and 1986's Images, his final release of the 1980s. Gomm spent the rest of the decade building a new studio, Mountain Sound, and writing more songs.

Producing and engineering work kept him busy until 1997, when he released Crazy for You. In 2000, he returned to the studio with Jeff "Stick" Davis of the Amazing Rhythm Aces, plus Pat McInerney of Nanci Griffith's Blue Moon Orchestra, to record Rock 'N' Roll Heart. It was released in 2002. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.