Tobe has been the lead singer of Cell Block 9 for many years now and after pressure from a number of people for quite a long time has decided to record some of his large collection of original songs.  Tobe started writing songs in the late 70's when he was often found playing in pubs with his old friend Mr Keith Johnson.  Always writing about his life and the people in it Tobe illustrates various relationships and having been married 3 times has never been short of material.

Starting the very successful 'Blue Grid' in 1980 with Jimmy Hawken, Jimi Underwood, Pete Taylor and Colin Treleaven in which he was the driving force and guitarist he left the band in 1985 to form 'Isobar One' a short lived duo with Jimmy Hawken.  This morphed into a namless duo with sister Kate which, before a gig was played, had gained a bass player, Mark Scott, and a drummer, Cameron who was replaced with Dave Tyrell, who was replaced with Young Vic.  This collective became the highly respected band 'Antony Pig' and served to expand Tobe's writing abilities and his singing style.

Coming to Kent from Cornwall in 1988 he soon formed a band and by 1991'The Thieves' were a popular Medway pub band.  The band played hundreds of gigs in it's near 10 year life and this is the band that started the famous 'Cornwall Tours' still now a feature of CBL9 which itself has been together for over 10 years.

Now 54 Tobe is still as busy as he ever has been and is still writing and playing what he calls 'One Man Songs' and is in great demand at parties despite never playing requests.  Due to the demands of fronting Cell Block 9 there are no plans for a return to solo gigging in the near future but this is his long term aim and currently he is trying to record one solo song every week.

If you get the chance make sure you see this eccentric poet perform, he can make you laugh and make you think.

Blair Dooly.