He'd been ill for a while and took a bad turn over a weekend. Tom Robinson was tweeting regular updates until the end.
I was fortunate enough to meet him once, in '79. My first job, aged 18, was on a music magazine and he came in one day for a photo shoot and an interview, of sorts, with one of the writers, which was conducted in a nearby pub. He brought along a mate, Brian Robertson, of Thin Lizzy fame. In those days, the pubs closed at 3pm, after which the three of them rolled back in to the office and proceeded to cause mayhem in the reception area. The shoot was set for 2pm so, as you can imagine, the photographer was a bit pissed off at this point, but they then grabbed a couple of guitars, camped it up like crazy and the shot made a great cover.
I seem to recall that when the pubs reopened at 5pm, they headed back that way....