Robert A. Burns

(aka  Kozmic, Toebrt Snrub)

Activist Film-Maker Cultural Promoter DJ Photographer Hippy

Robert A. Burns was born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England in 1950. Sent to a different school than his two brothers and two sisters, he learned to be independent from an young age. Since early teens he has had strong political and social views, which have guided him through his whole life, as a film-maker, arts supporter, music lover and civil rights activist.

By his mid teens his political activities created tension with his parents, in particular his father, who hoped his support for CND, Anti Aparthied and Civil Rights was just a teenage phase he was going through. Indeed many of the older generation (including his father) at that time saw Martin Luther King Jnr as a criminal. Over a period of a few years his parents found it difficult to cope with him. They realised his position had become more entrenched with time, so they asked him to leave the family home two weeks after his 17th birthday. This lack of understanding was hurtful for Rob, he had never in his young life won the trust of his mother, but she was an exiled Palestinian, ejected from Israel in 1948 with many others, perhaps he believed this was something that would finally gain her respect, in reality it widened the division between that was never totally healed right to the time of her death in 1991. His father maintained a respectful relationship with Rob for the rest of his life (he died in 2006), but never talked about the past or politics with him.

Life in bedsit world was not so bad for Rob, it gave him a freedom to express himself in a way not possible before. We were after all in the middle of the sixties, everything was possible. His other great passion of that time was music which he could blast out now without complaints. Alongside Jimi Hendrix, Captain Beefheart, 13th Floor Elevators and other Psychedelic greats was his insatiable appetite for folk music,  traditional, contemporary and protest songs. Woody Guthrie, W.Terry Fox, Bob Dylan, Martin Carthy, Bert Jansch, John Martyn, Tim Hardin, Phil Ochs, Buffy Saint-marie and many others were his constant companions, lifting his spirit, saying the things he needed to hear, taking the fight to an increasingly aware public.

Roberts stubborn streak and entrenched political views could be attributed to his Palestinian/Celtic bloodline, however it does not seem to have affected his brothers and sisters in the same way. In truth he does not feel either Celtic or Palestinian, his main contact with these cultures has been civil rights, and what he views as right and wrong. The conflicts in these areas, have had to sit alongside South Africa, Vietnam, Biafra, USA, Ethiopia, Iraq, Cambodia and other just causes that have occupied the civil rights movement. These entrenched views are often seen as an obstacle to his progress by family, friends and enemies alike, but in reality for the most part he is where he wants to be with his life. 

Moving away from home so young was the start of a nomadic life style for Rob, until 2006 he had not lived at any address longer than one year, many homes much less than that. He has also had long spells living in many different areas of  England and Europe including Paris, Athens,  London, Gdańsk and Le Havre, mostly connected to art/political activities.

From the early seventies he realised a different approach was needed to get people to stand up and be counted. Television had come of age, instead of protesting, people locked themselves indoors watching their favourite programmes. The problems of the world were lost to them in their own comfort zone, they no longer marched in great numbers for freedom and justice. So Rob decide to start making films. It was not a difficult jump as he had for a long time been a useful photographer, his enitial ambitions were to use the skills as a support for his cultural/political activities. His first series of films were for the CAB (Citizens Advice Bureau), with whom he also became a volunteer worker. These films surfaced under such riveting titles as 'Squatters Rights', 'Living With Bereavment', 'The Welfare System' etc. shot on Super 8 Sound around 10 films in all, useful but nothing to set the world alight.

In the late seventies Rob moved between Doncaster, London and Plymouth finally ending back in Stoke-on-Trent in the early eighties. Always a keen fitness man he got involved in the setting up of the Potteries Marathon in 1982, and the formation of the Potteries Marathon Club. Typically he mixed his social conscience in with the project. He founded the Potteries Marathon Athletic Club (PMAC) with close friend Phil Chen, for runners of all standards to get help, advice, coaching and encouragement for free. Within a very short period the club became the largest athletic club in the midlands, meeting daily to give help and support. The clubs size now required more delegation and after 4 months they formed their first committee of volunteers. The club soon grew strong enough to have it's own elected committee and in November they elected people who were to become legends in it's history, in particular Geoff Millington, Tony Chen (brother to Phil), Mike Lightfoot and the late Mike Sadula.

In 1983 Rob expanded the clubs vision abroad. He decide to set up a cultural and sports link with Limoges, France. To impress the French and to move the project forward more quickly he organised a relay of runners to deliver a message to the Mayor, inviting him or his representative to Stoke. The 1,000+ plus miles journey and return was going to be tough. Mike Sadula was asked to coach the runners and be part of the team , Geoff Millingtion led it and CAB/Human rights solicitor the late Richard Wise reported back for the local paper, the coup however was convincing poet/painter and top class athlete Kelvin Bowers to come out of retirement and be the visible star of the event. Rob also produced a video in partnership with Staffordshire Polytechnic, directed by Graham Petit and Dave Simmonds titled 'Take The Runners Line'. The event was a massive success and led to Rob setting up free language clubs in each city, Club Stoke in Limoges and Club Limoges in Stoke. These clubs paved the way for many mutual cultural exchanges. Indeed the relay was repeated twice more, once by the French.

The problem for Rob in the athletics world was that he did not quite fit in. His main work did not sit happily with the runners world and he was having great moral dilemas over the clubs directions and ambitions to be taken more seriously as an athletic club, conflicting with what Rob saw as it's social responsabilities. The club by now was an independent animal in it's own right, it wanted different things to Robs vision, it had found it's own level and it's own needs, and had strong people and good organisers in place to go it's own way. During this period Rob also operated as a free independent social adviser to those in need, as part of his civil rights work. The two worlds eventually collided when Rob was languishing in a Greek jail, having been arrested for his womens rights activities with civil rights group ACCA in Pareas, and on exatly the same day in England he was being elected as secretary to Staffordshire Amateur Athletic Association. Unaware of the latter Rob was busy escaping from Greece through it's Northern border with Yugoslavia, he would admit later, it was not one of his best plans. Within smelling distance of the Austrian border he was picked up along with two companians by the Yugoslavian secret police (leather coats and all). When he was finally released and returned to Britain he realised he was now in charge of  an athletics organisation that neither liked nor respected him, somewhere between a rock and a hard place, the next twelve months were amongst the most challenging and pointless of his life. 

This period did however end on a strong note, with a positive marraige between Robs social conscience and the athletics world, 'Sport Aid'. This was part of the Bob Geldof project to raise money for the famine in Ethiopia. The city of Stoke-on-Trent had been very slow to react to the project and contacted Rob to see if he could pull the project together in just 12 weeks. He agreed, but it created a dilemma for him, he realised that sucess depended on him recruiting organisers from the athletics world, two in particular he knew had the capabilities to pull this almost impossible task off, Geoff Millington and Mike Lightfoot both of whom Rob had had serious conflicts with regarding the direction of PMAC. Rob decided that the project was more important than any grievancies he may harbour, so he crossed humble pie bridge to meet with them. There was no cause to be nervous, as both Mike and Geoff thought the event too important to let differences get in the way. With three of the best organisers in the region working together, the project was easily completed in time and was a massive success. Raising over £100,000, with thousands of people taking part, including politicians and stars. The whole exercise was repeated again the following year 1987 when Rob co-ordinated the event with 'World Runners Against Hunger' , and their representative in Stoke, Dutch athlete Adri Hardtvelt and artist/athlete Kelvin Bowers.

Later in 1987 Rob made a major life changing decision, he moved to the south of England to Christchurch, to wait for a place as a mature student at Bournemoth University on their renowned media course. During this period he worked with the local community programme and NACRO, teaching English to illiterate ex-prisoners, helping the long term unemployed and setting up twinning and social clubs. There was at the time a cultural link with Saint Lo in Le Manche, France. He put together a crew to make a cultural film about the region, including his friends from the running world Geoff and Trish Millington. Geoff was the narrator and anchor man of 'Saint Lo The Perfect Base' and followed through by heading up another film about Aalen, Germany, produced by Rob.

After a year at Bournemouth a conflict with University  directors and department heads led to Rob switching universities, moving to Staffordshire Universities multi disciplinary media course under the guidance of John Jordan and Murray Carden. The change was the right move and he gained a First Class Honors Degree in audio visual communication in 1991.

After his mothers death led to further family conflicts, Rob needed to recharge his batteries. In 1992 he drove his old  Mercedes van to Middlesborough,  had it loaded into the hold of the cargo ship 'Inowrowlaw', and sailed with it banana boat style to a new challenge in Gdańsk, Poland.  This move was to prove one of the most fruitful of his life. In Gdańsk he found a new spiritual home, he was again amongst people who still knew how to fight for their rights against injustice, who loved art in all forms, and shared his passion for psychedelic, folk and blues music.

His first contact with the arts world was through Żak the famous old student club, based in what was the old League Of Nations building in Gdansk.  Żak needed to survive against intolerable financial and external pressure, and a belief from the authorities that there was no place for such things in the new Poland. Rob loved the spirit of the place and joined the committee of misfits, left in charge after the communist collapse. Alongside him on this quest were  Mietek (Mietek Blues Band), Roman Puchowski (Von Ziet), Basia (Film-maker Romans wife), Grażyna Tomaszewska, Horacy Chrząstek and the formidable Magda Renk (Cinema). All worked tirelessly to safeguard the future of this iconic venue, founded in the fifties by Lucjan Bokiniec . For his part in these efforts Rob looked to projects from his past and rejigged the idea of the language (Club Limoges) by setting up Klub Angielski, a free English language club, to help the locals with no 

money topractice spoken English. Along with pub quizzies and other ideas to keep the evenings fresh, Rob also enlisted the help of singer/guitarist Jarek Zietek, a 'NoLeftEar' member to play and sing in English. Unfortunately the club set him quickly at odds with the British Council and many private English schools who felt it would harm their businesses, and believed that Rob was not qualified to run such a project. However some teachers and schools did support and believe in the project. Their efforts were rewarded when 2 to 3 hundred people turned up weekly. Rob also took time out to regress to his sixties/seventies DJ work, setting up the Psychedelic Flower Power Party at Zak as DJ Kozmic which eventually gained cult status, with many hundreds of young and old turning up twice weekly to listen to Canned Heat, The doors, Frank Zappa and others, reliving the hippy ideals. His main aim in these projects was to get Żak noticed to a wider group of people, and make it more politically important to the cities new guardians, as well as helping the cash flow.

1993 saw two of Robs videos shown on Polish TV and selected for the Badalona Film Festival in Spain. They were 'Real Men Wash In The Sea', a documentary about Poet/Writer/Painter Kelvin Bowers shot with the mixed use of film and video. The second piece was a personal statement by Rob, about our ability to wish we were in the sixties, fighting Vietnam but are somehow blind to the worlds current problems. It's title 'The Good 'ol Sixties...and on and on', a montage of news footage and original video and film footage.

An uneasy truce was achieved with the British Council over the next couple of years, and in 1995 supported by the British Embassy they recruited Rob to help them organise the 'British Weeks Festival' in Poland. This was a tough project for him as he quickly discovered the British Embassy and Council were totally inept organisers. Rob found a reliable ally in Honorary British Consular  Andrzej Kanthak and co-ordinated the project through him and Ambassador Craig Murray. In the Pommerania region Rob organised 109 events in 31 days, including sport, theatre, film and music. Amongst the musicians performing were the folk band 'Set The Milkmaids Free' which included W.Terry Fox and Adam Fenn both of 'NoLeftEar'.

Robs efforts gained royal recognition when he was invited to meet the Queen in Warsaw during her 1996 state visit to Poland, he was accompanied by Andrzej Kanthak, the invitation horrified the embassy and British Council as Rob was known to be an anti royalist. A few weeks later when Ambassador Craig Murray presented Rob with a photograph bof him talking to the Queen, he vasked Rob what the conversation was about, Rob explained that the Queen had told him that the corgis had scratched her copy of Led Zepplin III and wondered if he had a spare mint copy he could send her, Rob had replied "no problem". This explanation was accepted and eased Craigs worried mind, he was later transferred to become ambassado of Uzbekistan, from where he fell out of favour with Tony Blair. 1996 saw many projects pass through Robs hands including 'Baltic Cities of Culture-Copenhagen 1996', helping produce the programme for 'Gdansk 1000 Years Festival', organised 'USA Week', and co-ordinating art and poetry projects with another 'NoLeftEar' member, artist Elzbieta Tegowska. It was also in 1996 that Rob was arrested with two friends on a train to Kalingrad. The train was stoppoed by the military in the middle of a forest in Russian territory, they were removed from it without explanation and held in a military camp. Eventually they were taken to the Polish border to prepared for deportation, this turned out to be more farce than spy movie, with the Polish and Russian officers arguing across a white line painted on the road whilst tossing their passports at each other. During this long drawn out spat which led to the Russian Officer nervously smoking at least two packs of cigarettes, Rob and his friends were kept at gunpoint in a Russian jeep about 100 metres away. Eventually the authorities agreed to their return to Polish territory and they were made to walk the long road across the white line to Poland. As they crossed a Trabant passed in the opposite direction and to this day Rob reckons it was a fair swop.

During his five years in Gdansk, Rob also had strong links with the media industry. From 1993 until the week he left Gdansk in 1997, Rob worked at the rebellious alternative radio station 'Radio ARnet'. Here he met rock legend and radio boss Jarek Janiszewski (Beilizna, Czarno Czarni, Gremplina, Doktor Granite), a long time 'NoLeftEar' member, and other great radio broadcasters including Robert Kantereit who now works as a journalist/presenter for TVN. Robs programme 'Cosmic Vibrations' was the only radio show in Poland to play only vinyl music, drawn from his massive personal collection. The music was mixed with documentary projects including 'Poland And Democracy'  and a live rockumentary with the singer/guitarist Jose Feliciano. His TV work was more spasmodic because of his heavy workload, but he did co produce two arts documentaries, and presented the rockumentary 'Collouseam'. This documentary about the final gig of this iconic cult English progressive music band, whose members include Jon Hiseman, Chris Farlowe, Clem Clemson and Dick Heckstall-Smith, was shown on national and local TV. The rocumentary is probably the only serious archive existing of this great band.

On moving to Le Havre, France in 1997 Rob imediatly got involved with an underground arts group Le Bókal organised by Olivier Bire, he worked on many alternative projects with them until they were forcibly closed by the city. From there Rob organised is own centre and HQ under the name of Strangley Strange But Oddly Normal Cafe (SSBONC), helped by good friends from Le Bokal, Laurent, Loic, Nico, Marek, Helene, Florent, Bertrand, Jibe and later Baptiste and Jeg. These individuals like Rob were also artists/organisers and most at one time or another performed in the cafe.

Rob was joined by the late Serge Marias and Marc Prevost fellow artists as well as 'NoLeftEar Originals'. They became invaluable co-organisers and pioneered many new projects. Serge set up Enfance de L'Art and worked with teenage graffiti artists on exhibitions, Marc developed the live music programme. SSBONC worked tirelessly supporting artists from Gdańsk transporting art and setting up several exhibitions including 4+3 an exhibition on two sites featuring seven  Pommeranain artists, Rue des L'Art Polonaises Gdansk artists featured in all the cafes in one street Rue Casimir Delavigne and La Brise de Gdańsk four female artists exhibited in Le Havre town hall. Rob also used the venue to organise world music events with artists from Mali and Arabic countries.