Robin Boult A.K.A The Itch
Robin Boult, has worked with many bands both on the stage & in the studio. As a teenager Robin grew up in the Aylesbury area & spent most of his school years playing in bands with Pete Trewavas, who is the bass player with Marillion. Eventually their paths split & Robin joined a band called the Heartbeats with singer/ songwriter John Wilson, brother of “beehived” Marie Wilson. After securing a deal with RCA, which saw the release of 1 album & several singles, Robin left the band on the last night of a tour supporting Hall & Oates to find himself playing guitar with John Otway. Otway had decided to enter the world of the thespian & Robin found himself getting more involved with the theatre & fringe, rather than rock ‘n ‘roll. As a result Robin ended up writing the music for 2 Channel 4 (UK) programmes with Dawn French & he also appearance on the cult comedy BBC series “The Young Ones”...hard to spot but he was there!

Meanwhile Robin had teamed up with John Jolliffe to form the band ‘Big Big Sun” and signed a deal with Atlantic Records in the States. They recorded 1 album, “Stop the World”, which got a bit of airplay on west coast American radio but again, company politics was to intervene & the band fell apart with no real support from the label. By then Fish the ex-frontman of Marillion had contacted Robin and he went out on tour to support Fish’s first solo album. Robin played with Marillion once, when Steve Rothery was on his honeymoon & it a was natural turn of events. It was whilst he was with Fish that he contributed to many of his albums both as a player & a writer. Eventually, personal space was needed and Robin left to concentrate on TV & film ideas. Robin has recently been working with Fish again after a 4 year gap playing gigs in Europe & possibly working on his next solo album.

In 1998, Robin was contacted by musician Howard Jones & they have been working together since. He plays guitars on Howard's albums, People, Perform.00 and Pefawm as well being involved in some of the other projects that Howard is involved with including dba/ Shaz Sparks.

Robin has also been experimenting in dance music, in collaboration with dba. In March 2001 they released to the clubs 'Mirage' under the collective name of Sauna. This is the first record that they have made together and it has already received Radio One play and is doing well in the U.S.A. The record has a unique ethnic twist that stands out from the pack.

Robin has always been in demand as a session musician & has over the years worked with a wide range of projects from Tracey Ullman to early rap artist Derek B, pop albums for Hear’say to The Lighthouse Family, dance acts like Phats & Small, Jazz/funk with Ute Lemper to TV documentaries such as BBC “Life of Birds” as well as writing for advertising & corporate video.

2002 saw the release of Robins first solo album under the name of “The Itch". The album is titled "Present"

Present’ is an album I started a while back. Having spent a long time recording and touring with various artists, I reached a point where I felt I needed to get something out of my system that was unrelated to anything I had previously done.

What started out as a few simple tunes for friends turned into the album ‘PRESENT’ which features nylon acoustics, Indian/African percussion and tucked away synths. It’s all very laid back and is meant to be purely ambient, soundscapey, simple and tuneful. It’s not a guitar album in the normal sense, and certainly not of the moment.

Along with producer Will Mowatt, who helped to develop some of the tracks, the time spent working on it in-between touring and sessions, makes it an album that's easy to chill out to, yet (hopefully) has enough depth to take you somewhere if you choose to listen. There are quite a few producers/DJs who have shown interest in remixing the tracks for the club scene, so hopefully we’ll end up with a totally alternative album.
I now give you ‘PRESENT’.......enjoy