WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Marilyn

As Marilyn, Peter Robinson was the new romantic who called your name. But is he still…?

Peter Robinson was born in Jamaica in 1962 and moved to the UK aged 5. As a fan of Marilyn Monroe, he kept her name alive and carve his own career out of it. A chance meeting with a then unknown singer by the name of George O’Dowd lead to a life long friendship that still exists today and ‘Marilyn’ began to become a regular on the London club scene. She became more famous once Boy George and Culture Club had got their first hit and in 1983, Marilyn appeared in the Eurythmics video for “Who’s That Girl?”. It was from here that she was signed to Mercury Records and went to America to record his first songs.

In late 1983, Marilyn released her first single, “Calling Your Name”, co-written with Paul Caplin. The song peaked at No.4 in the UK and was also a top ten hit across Europe and in Australia. Marilyn worked with Don Was of Was Not Was on her debut album, releasing the singles “Cry And Be Free” and “You Don’t Love Me” in 1984, both of which made the UK top 40. The album, “Despite Straight Lines”, came finally in 1985, but not before Marilyn had taken part in “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” as one of the many stars to give their time to the recording of the enormously successful hit. The album and two further singles, “Pray For That Sunshine” and “Baby U Left Me”, did not do so well and following a change in record label in the late 1980’s, Marilyn dropped out of sight.

Robinson/Marilyn made occasional appearance on talk shows and being interviewed for 80’s documentaries, but in 2000, she returned to the studio to record “How Could I Live?”, although it never saw the light of day commercially. Following an appearance on Celebrity Gogglebox in 2015, Marilyn once more returned to the studio and this time it did get a formal release. “Love Or Money” is, to date, Marilyn’s most recent recording as both she and Robinson have returned to the shadows once more. But as the 80’s are now a much treasured and replicated era, Marilyn’s place and brief time in the limelight do not go unforgotten.