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Bob is Great Big Sea’s only bonafide St. John’s-man, having been born at St. Clare’s Hospital on LeMarchent Road in the city. His family name is a rare Devonshire one, dating back almost 350 years in Newfoundland. The family still has strong English roots, due to his families’ continued contact with their English cousins over the years. Bob also has many Irish roots, particularly in the Brennan and Tucker families.
Bob considers the old provincial district of Kilbride his home, having grown up just outside Bowring Park in the extreme West End of St. John’s. It is an area with its own unique accent, one with a strong Irish brogue, mixed with a more typical St. John’s drawl.
Both of Bob’s parents were very musical, and he was constantly encouraged to learn and practice whatever instrument he wanted. An enthusiastic member of the school band (where he played the baritone saxophone, of all things), he taught himself to play the guitar and tin-whistle while he was still an adolescent. He was inspired on the hopelessly uncool button accordian by his grandmother, and Bob persuaded his mother to buy him a cheap Galotta ’F’ model at O’Brien’s music. It wasn’t until the relatively advanced age of twenty that he picked up the fiddle, learning on an old violin which had been a legacy from his great-grandfather. After playing in numerous quickly forgotten punk bands, Bob met Séan McCann at Memorial University.
Together they formed the Newfoundland Republican Army, a traditional music-cum-political group which contained eight members. This unwieldly collective quickly collapsed, though the name survives as the partner’s label name. Undaunted, they formed Rankin St. --- a pub act which was later joined by Darrell Power. The band’s policy of total spontanaeity led to a large Pogues-like following in Eastern Newfoundland, as well as a well-received live album. Rankin Street’s open-ended approach to performance also led to a revolving door membership and a reputation for over-the-top showmanship. Band members still laugh when they recall evenings when the audience was invited to participate onstage, the night the band swapped instruments (unsuccessfully), or the night when a tempo dispute led to onstage fisticuffs. In 1993 the band finally split up, evolving into Great Big Sea in an effort to bring a more original, Newfoundland based sound to life.
Bob is also an accomplished writer and editor, having been Managing editor of publications like the Muse and the Newfoundland Herald. He designed and wrote all of GBS’s early publicity material, as well as the liner notes on several albums.
