Rob made his live DJ debut at Amsterdam Vinyl Club on 6 November 2025, and his set shone a light on an overlooked British band and paid tribute to a new friend he made Down Under.

An interview with Rob

Tell us about yourself.
I’m Rob and I live in Amsterdam. I love music and a really wide variety of genres, and I’m really excited that tonight is my first time playing in public.

What have you got in store for us this evening?
My set tonight is from one band, The Equals, who were mostly active in the 1960s. Aside from the band’s big hit – ‘Baby, Come Back’, which everyone knows – I really didn’t know who The Equals were. But when I went to Australia to visit friends, I found out that a member of their family was the original dummer in The Equals and one of the four founding members.

John Hall formed the band with two brothers, Derv and Lincoln Gordon, and their friend Eddy Grant – who’s quite well known now and obviously went on to more famous things.

The Equals are famous because ‘Baby, Come Back’ is a song that everyone knows, mostly because it’s been used in many films and has been covered by other artists over the years.

I got to know John when I was in Australia, and I heard him telling all these stories about touring around Europe. After than I started exploring the band’s back catalogue.

As this is my first live set I felt there should be a story behind it, and that’s why I chose to focus on The Equals. All the records I’m playing are from the period when John Hall was in the band, before he left in the mid-70s to emigrate to Australia.

What’s it like to hang with a pop star?
John is a great guy to hang out with. He’s spent most of his life in Australia now and is a great storyteller. He tells stories about The Equals touring all around Europe, sharing a big bus with Gerry and the Pacemakers.

These days he loves playing Gran Turismo and spends most of his time racing against people online! But he’s an interesting guy, and this evening I’m looking forward to sharing a little of the music he made – there’s a lot of cool stuff in there.

Aside from The Equals, what sort of music turns you on?
It could be anything, I guess. At home I play a lot of dance music – but I don’t think I’m good enough yet to mix live! But maybe I’ll do that for my next set – the skills will come if I practice more.

In terms of what I like and what I listen to, I’ve gone through a lot of different music over the years – but one band that’s been constant for most of my life is the Manic Street Preachers. I used to have a lot of their stuff on vinyl, which I lost when moving around over the years. ‘Lipstick Traces’ is one album I’d really love to get a hold of, but it’s expensive – ridiculously so! That goes for something like €600 on Discogs.