About
Hi folks! Welcome to the site! Glad you stopped by and had a look around.
First things first:
Who am I?
As usual, Wikipedia’s Entry on Robbie France has the best version of the story (I should know, I wrote it!)
What’s it all about?
RobbieFrance.com is the place where I, Robbie France, can write about the various projects i’m involved in now, and provide little snippets of history from my career.
So. There’s many a thing or two I’d like to talk about…but the first thing is…I have to explain:
What happened?
‘Why did you suddenly disappear from the music biz?’
‘Why did you stop doing your drum clinics?’
‘Suddenly you weren’t there… how come?’
‘Are you still playing?’
…these are the most common FAQs over the last 12 years. So I’ll explain.
On the 22nd of June 1996 at around 6.45 P.M., I was watching a football match between England & Spain. A young man called Miguel Angel Nadal, (Rafa’s uncle, for you tennis enthusiasts), walked up to take a penalty. The goalkeeper was David Seaman.I was innocently watching all of this take place in the south of France with the band I was with, Alphaville.
Nadal shot. Seaman saved. I jumped up. In doing so I crashed my achilles tendon into the underside of the seat I was using. The horizontal wooden strut was like a razor. The tendon was severed to within 16th of an inch. About a millimetre. That was it. Life had changed.
To cut a long story short, I did two festivals in Sweden with A’Ville, fighting excruciating pain, then returned to London to have an operation. This would involve taking about a foot of calf muscle to wrap around the gap in the tendon to graft and hopefully fix the darned thing. The operation was on Tuesday. I left the hospital on Friday.
Now here’s the really scary part.
Over the weekend I had noticed a horrible smell coming from the foot. As I was due to go back to hospital on Monday to replace the plaster cast I thought it would be okay. It wasn’t. Gangrene had set in.
For those of you who’ve had this experience, you’ll know what I’m talking about. The stench and site of a part of your body in total meltdown is the scariest scenario imaginable. I remember it to this day. They rushed me in to the operating theatre immediately, so by then I knew it was serious.
I was told I may never walk again without a raised platform shoe.
I was told it would be likely I would never play golf again.
I was told I would be in considerable pain for the rest of my life.
After a series of major and minor operations, (one of which I chose to have under local anaesthetic…huge mistake!), I was preparing for yet another visit to the operating theatre when my consultant surgeon informed me that the tendon had repaired itself. Scar tissue, you see. He sent me on my way.
Sheer bloody mindedness got me to the gym 4 days a week. A blind physiotherapist, who had treated a gymnast with a similar problem, moulded and massaged me a new tendon. Ignoring the pain, which women who have had a ruptured Achilles equate to childbirth, I was determined to carry on living a full and useful existence.
I knew my days as a touring drummer were over. That was the harshest reality I had to face. Those of you who know me, or have met me, know this would be the toughest part of my life. Giving up the thing I’ve known since I was a toddler. Playing drums. Being in a band. Recording. Touring. Doing my beloved drum clinics.
So. I retired to Spain, learnt how to use a computer, wrote a novel, eventually formed a record label and a music publishing company, recorded, produced arranged, had a kid, built a life around golf… what I’m trying to say is this.
Never give up! When ‘they’ tell you it’s over? Go tell ‘em to screw themselves.
You always can enable yourself to get on with life with purpose and dedication, no matter what ‘they’ say.
I currently broadcast my radio programmes 6 days a week. Used to be 7 days. But now I have a day off every saturday to go sailing, or be with my son.
Never give up. Never.
Funny. I’m happier now than I’ve ever been. Maybe I should thank Messrs Nadal & Seaman for their part in my life after all!
Hope you enjoy the site!
Love yas.
Robbie. XX
PS: I have another site, Robbie on the Radio, where I talk about Music and the radio shows I present here in Spain (there’s even talk of a podcast!)
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