Ask Robin Trower to explain his late-period creative burst and the legendary British guitarist can only shrug: “I think you’ve either got to keep pushing – or give up.”


Now 81, with a mythology that spans from the clubs of Swinging London, through 1974’s gold-selling Bridge Of Sighs and onward into a vital post-millennial solo catalogue, the veteran bluesman’s place amongst the all-time greats is beyond doubt.


Yet while his ’60s peers have long softened into greatest-hits autopilot, this restless artist still starts each morning the same way: stood in his workroom with a battle-scarred signature Strat, hunting down the magic note that will spark his next song. “Then I’ll wake up in the middle of the night,” he smiles, “with a line for the lyric.”


No wonder Trower’s back catalogue is fast closing in on 30 releases (not to count collaborations with Jack Bruce, Bryan Ferry, Maxi Priest and more). Nor that the past decade alone has yielded no less than eight studio albums. “Trower is to be treasured,” wrote Classic Rock of 2025’s Come And Find Me, while even the self-effacing bluesman allows himself a flash of satisfaction: “I think, over the past few years, I have set quite a high standard. Now I’m determined to keep that going. To still have the energy to work, that is a real blessing.”


After last year’s triumphant tours of the States – a victory lap documented in visceral style by One Moment In Time: Live In The USA – the guitarist was in the form of his life (“I was playing better than I've ever played, and that is incredibly rewarding”). As such, he wasted no time breaking ground on latest album Shine, released September 25th on Provogue Records. “It's a good overview, that title,” he reflects. “I wanted this album to sparkle and have a bit of oomph about it.”


Kicking off the sessions at his favoured Studio 91 in Newbury – then moving to engineer Sam Winfield’s new facility The Pines to fix the holes – Trower’s thumbprint is all over a powerful, intimate new album where molten guitar solos drive songs urging us to meet the modern world head-on. “I agree with people that it’s a very dark time. But I don’t want to make gloomy music. I think that most of these songs are positive.”


Today, Trower occupies the almost-unique position of having lived through the entire rock ‘n’ roll era and survived to tell the tale. Raised in Southend-on-Sea through the ’40s and ’50s, he looked across the ocean to rock ‘n’ rollers like Elvis sideman Scotty Moore and the deep phrasing of blues titans like B.B. King. “I just remember hearing the bends and vibrato on 3 O’Clock Blues and thinking, ‘How the hell is he doing that?’”