Biography

Growing up in Hampshire, Robert John Gorham played trombone in brass bands as his father listened to The Beatles. Moving to London in the early 1990s, Rob enrolled on a BA French Studies and History of Art at Goldsmiths and started playing hip-hop and funk in the city’s clubs under the DJ pseudonym Rob da Bank.

Rob started his weekend club night Sunday Best in 1994 at the Tea Room des Artistes in Clapham- a night that quickly gained cult status and is credited with helping develop bar-based music culture, as opposed to “club culture”.

Graduating in 1995, Rob began a career as both a music journalist and, later, a presenter of BBC’s Radio One’s chilled-out Blue Room programme. He also hosted the station’s One Music Show on Thursday nights, and filled in on the John Peel Show after the DJ’s death in 2004.

In 2004 him and his wife launched Bestival on the Isle of Wight, an annual music festival that regularly picks up ‘Best UK Festival’ awards. Held in late summer, the first event attracted some 10,000 music lovers, growing to 50,000 in just a few years. Initially described as “boutique”, Bestival was a pioneer in the small to medium festival scene.