Robert Kirby

Robert Kirby (16 April 1948 – 3 October 2009) was a British-born arranger of string sections for rock and folk music. He was best known for his work on the Nick Drake albums, Five Leaves Left and Bryter Layter, but also worked with Vashti Bunyan, Elton John, Ralph McTell, Strawbs, Paul Weller and Elvis Costello.

Early life

He was educated at Bishop's Stortford College an independent school in Hertfordshire, and then the University of Cambridge.

At Cambridge

Patrick Humphries' book Way To Blue gives some details of Kirby's time at university.

He sang in a group called 'The Gentle Power of Song'. His tutor once told him that his compositions sounded like a breakfast cereal commercial. This was intended as an insult, but Kirby took this as his high praise: "As good as that, eh?" Kirby went to Caius College, Cambridge and made friends with Paul Wheeler. They were both members of the Caius Breakfast Club, also called "The Loungers". There were few rules. You had to have a Loungers' breakfast on Sundays, and 'stand by ye gate once a day and observe what strange creatures God hath made'. There was a rule that permitted an outsider (the 'Oddefellowe') to become a member. Robert and Paul were both friends with Nick Drake so they invited him to be the Oddefellowe. There is a line in Drake's song "Way To Blue" which seems to echo one of the rules of the Loungers:

Robert Kirby (humor columnist)

Robert Kirby (born 1953 in California) is an American writer.

Biography

Kirby was born into a military family. After completing high school he served a two-year mission in Uruguay for his church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where he learned to speak Spanish. Upon his return he pursued a career in law enforcement. His first work as a policeman was with the Grantsville Police Department and later Springville, Utah police department (1979). While taking night classes at nearby Brigham Young University Kirby began writing columns for the local newspapers, first the Springville Daily Herald, and later the Utah County Journal (writing under the pen name Officer "Blitz" Kreeg).

In 1989 Kirby decided to leave police work and devote himself to full-time writing. He has written a column for the Salt Lake Tribune since 1994, and has written at least nine books.

Kirby is a popular convention speaker, and travels widely to appear at conventions and meetings.

Robert Kirby (comics)

Robert Kirby (born in Detroit, Michigan) is the creator of the syndicated comic Curbside which ran in the gay and alternative presses from 1991 to 2008.

Curbside is the story of two young men, Drew, an aspiring writer, and Nathan, an aspiring musician, who meet and eventually form a tumultuous relationship. The comic is syndicated in several periodicals, including Chicago Nightlines, Out In The Mountains, Lavender Magazine and others, as well as on the internet. The series has also been collected into two books. The first book was published after Kirby received a Xeric Foundation award. A third volume, consisting of a Spanish language translation of Curbside, has also been published.

In 2002, State Representative Nancy Sheltra (R-Derby) protested the presence of the publication Out In The Mountains in the Vermont Statehouse due to its inclusion of Kirby's strip featuring two bare-chested male cartoon characters kissing, which she deemed "pornographic".

Kirby, who is openly gay, had his first venture into producing comics with the comic zine Strange Looking Exile, which also featured work by Diane DiMassa, Roberta Gregory, Nick Leonard and Alison Bechdel. The zine ran from 1991 till 1994. At that time, Kirby ended Strange Looking Exile and began producing a new comic zine called Boy Trouble with co-editor David Kelly, a comics anthology that was published from issues one to four as a zine, issue five being released in the form of a book in 2004. Boy Trouble features contributions and collaborations from the editors as well as a number of other artists and writers including Anonymous Boy, Craig Bostick, Jennifer Camper, C. Bard Cole, Michael Fahy, Tim Fish, Leanne Franson, Andy Hartzell, G.B. Jones, Steve MacIsaac, Sina Shamsavari, Ivan Velez Jr. and others.

Robert Kirby (satirist)

Robert Kirby (26 April 1936 – 10 February 2007) was a famous South African satirist, playwright, comedian, novelist, columnist and musician who died in 2007 following complications from a heart operation, some four months prior.

Career

Kirby started his career in the early ’60s as a broadcaster at the SABC where he presented The Early Morning Programme. He became well known for his brand of satirical humour and his sharp wit—both of which were demonstrated in his later column in the South African newspaper, Mail & Guardian. Kirby is particularly remembered for his plays and reviews which were highly monitored due to his liberal attitude to apartheid.

Kirby also wrote specialist essays on fly fishing and on Aviation, whilst putting in many hours flying for the Red Cross.

Awards

Kirby was twice awarded the English Academy of Southern Africa’s Thomas Pringle Award for journalism, in 1996 and 2002, for his reviews and for an educational article respectively.

Quotes

Robert Kirby (disambiguation)

Robert Kirby (1948-2009) was a British musician and arranger.

Robert Kirby may also refer to:

See also