Richard Thompson (musician)

Richard Thompson (born 3 April 1949) is an English singer, songwriter, and guitarist.

Thompson first gained prominence in the late 1960s as the lead guitarist and songwriter for the folk rock group Fairport Convention, which he had co-founded in 1967. After departing the group in 1971, Thompson released his debut solo album ''Henry the Human Fly'' in 1972. The next year, he formed a duo with his then-wife Linda Thompson, which produced six albums, including the critically acclaimed ''I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight'' (1974) and ''Shoot Out the Lights'' (1982). After the dissolution of the duo, Thompson revived his solo career with the release of ''Hand of Kindness'' in 1983. He has released a total of eighteen solo studio albums. Three of his albums''Rumor and Sigh'' (1991), '' You? Me? Us?'' (1996), and '' Dream Attic'' (2010)have been nominated for Grammy Awards, while ''Still'' (2015) was his first UK Top Ten album. He continues to write and record new material regularly and had frequently performed at venues throughout the world, although the COVID-19 pandemic forced him to suspend his touring.

Music critic Neil McCormick described Thompson as "a versatile virtuoso guitarist and a sharp observational singer-songwriter whose work burns with intelligence and dark emotion". His songwriting has earned him an Ivor Novello Award and, in 2006, a lifetime achievement award from BBC Radio. His 1991 song "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" was included in ''Time'' magazine's "All-TIME 100 Songs" list of the best English-language musical compositions released between 1923 and 2011. Thompson was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to music. Many varied musicians have recorded Thompson's compositions.

In 2021, his book ''Beeswing: Losing my Way and Finding my Voice, 1967-1975'' was released. Published by Algonquin Books, it is mainly a memoir of his life as a musician from 1967 to 1975.

Early life and career (1949 to 1972)

Richard Thompson was born in Ladbroke Crescent, Notting Hill, West London, England. His father, a Scot, was a Scotland Yard detective, and an amateur guitar player; several other family members had played music professionally. While attending William Ellis School in Highgate, he formed his first band, Emil and the Detectives (named after a book and a movie by the same title) with classmate Hugh Cornwell, later lead singer and guitarist of The Stranglers, on bass guitar.

Like so many musicians of his generation, Thompson was exposed to and embraced rock and roll music at an early age, and he was also exposed to his father's jazz and traditional Scottish music record collection. His father had seen Django Reinhardt play in Glasgow in the 1930s and played guitar himself. He was later described by his son as "a bad amateur player ... with three chords, though, unfortunately, not C, F and G." All these musical genres were to colour Thompson's playing in the years to come.

American producer Joe Boyd said:

At the age of 18 Thompson co-founded folk rock group Fairport Convention. Largely on the strength of Thompson's playing, Boyd took them under his wing and signed them to his Witchseason production and management company.

Boyd said:

Shortly thereafter Thompson, already acquiring a reputation as an outstanding guitar player, started writing songs seriously. This seems to have been out of necessity as Fairport Convention was at first essentially a cover band.

By early 1969, when Fairport's second album ''What We Did on Our Holidays'' was recorded and released, Thompson was starting to emerge as a songwriter of distinction. As Fairport's lineup and their sound evolved, Thompson continued to grow in stature as a player and as a songwriter with compositions like "Meet on the Ledge".

On 12 May 1969, between the recording and release of their next album ''Unhalfbricking'', Fairport's van crashed on the M1 motorway on the way home from a gig at Mothers, a club in Birmingham. Drummer Martin Lamble, aged 19, and Thompson's girlfriend Jeannie Franklyn were killed. The rest of the band suffered injuries of varying severity. Later in 1969, Fairport re-grouped with a new drummer, Dave Mattacks, and also invited the well known fiddle player, Dave Swarbrick, to join. Thompson and Swarbrick worked together to create songs such as "Crazy Man Michael" from the band's seminal 1969 folk-rock album ''Liege & Lief'' and "Sloth" from its 1970 follow-up ''Full House''.

In January 1971, Thompson announced that he was leaving Fairport Convention. His decision was instinctive, rather than a calculated career move:

In April 1972, he released his first solo album ''Henry the Human Fly'', recording with Sandy Denny, Pat Donaldson, Sue Draheim, John Kirkpatrick, Barry Dransfield, Ashley Hutchings, Linda Peters, Andy Roberts, and others. The album sold poorly and was panned by the press, especially the influential ''Melody Maker'' magazine. With time ''Henry'' has come to be more highly regarded, but at the time the critics' response hurt both Thompson and his career.

1970s: Richard and Linda Thompson

By the 1970s, Thompson had begun a relationship with the singer Linda Peters, who had sung on ''Henry the Human Fly''. In October 1972 the couple were married, and Thompson, with Linda now effectively his front woman, regrouped for his next album and the next phase of his career.

The first Richard and Linda Thompson album, ''I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight'', was recorded in May 1973 in short time and on a small budget. Largely because of the petrol shortage in Britain and its impact on the availability of vinyl for records, ''Bright Lights'' was held back by Island Records for nearly a year before being released in April 1974. The album was well received by critics, though sales were less than stellar.

Thompson's lyrics expressed a rather dismal world view, and it has been suggested that the bleak subject matter of his songs helped to keep his recordings off the hit parade. A more likely explanation was given by ex-Island A&R man Richard Williams in the 2003 BBC TV documentary ''Solitary Life'': Thompson was just not interested in fame and its trappings.

The Thompsons recorded two more albums—'' Hokey Pokey'' and '' Pour Down Like Silver'', both released in 1975—before Richard Thompson decided to leave the music business. The couple moved to a Sufi community in East Anglia.

It was not apparent from their records at first, but the Thompsons had embraced an esoteric Sufi strand of Islam in early 1974. ''I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight'' was recorded before this conversion, but released some time afterwards. The songs for the second Richard and Linda album, ''Hokey Pokey'', were similarly written some time ahead of the album's recording and eventual release. It was ''Pour Down Like Silver'', with its cover photo of a turbaned Richard Thompson, that tipped the public off to the Thompsons' growing preoccupation with their faith.

The trilogy of albums released before and after his sojourn in the commune was heavily influenced by Thompson's beliefs and by Sufi scripture, but in the long run his religious beliefs have not influenced his work in an obvious manner. The outlook expressed in his songs, his musical style, the subjects addressed by his lyrics have not shown any fundamental change. He remains a committed Muslim.

Thompson started to re-engage with the world of professional music in 1977. He played on an album by Sandy Denny, and had undertaken a short tour and started recording with a group of musicians who were also Sufis. Thompson asked Joe Boyd to produce these sessions, and two days were spent on the initial recordings. Boyd recalls that the sessions were not a success: "It was really, I felt, very poor. I didn't have much confidence in the musicians that he was working with. The atmosphere was very strange and it just didn't seem to work."

At about this time the Thompsons and their family moved out of the commune and back to their old home in Hampstead. Boyd had already invited Richard Thompson to play on Julie Covington's debut album. With spare studio time and the American session musicians hired to work on the Covington album available, the Thompsons went back into the studio to record under their own name for the first time in three years.

The resulting album, '' First Light'', was warmly received by critics but did not sell particularly well. Neither did its follow up, 1979's harder-edged and more cynical '' Sunnyvista''. Chrysalis Records did not take up their option to renew the contract, and the Thompsons found themselves without one.

1980s

Gerry Rafferty had booked the Thompsons as the support act for his 1980 tour, and had also used Richard as a session player on his '' Night Owl'' album. Rafferty offered to finance the recording of a new Richard and Linda Thompson album which he would then use to secure a contract for the Thompsons. Richard Thompson fell out with Rafferty during this project and was not happy with the finished product. Nevertheless, Rafferty kept his side of the bargain and presented the album to several record companies – none of which expressed interest in signing the Thompsons. Rafferty did not recover his investment.

About a year later, Joe Boyd signed the Thompsons to his small Hannibal label and a new album was recorded. ''Shoot Out the Lights'' included new recordings of many of the songs recorded in 1980. Linda Thompson was pregnant at the time of the recording, so the album's release was delayed until they could tour behind the album. Breathing problems arising from her pregnancy also meant that Linda could not sing the lead part on some of these songs as she had done on demo tapes and the Rafferty-produced recordings.

As an interim measure, Richard Thompson agreed to a short (5-day), low-key solo tour of the U.S. This tour was set up by Nancy Covey, then concert director for McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica. Covey, who had been in the UK in 1981 trying to sign Thompson to play at McCabe's, arranged for Thompson well-received 5 and 6 December shows. It was during this tour that Thompson and Covey developed an intimate relationship, and during that month, Richard and Linda Thompson separated.

Upon its release in 1982, ''Shoot Out the Lights'' was lauded by critics and sold quite well – especially in the U.S.

The Thompsons, now a couple for professional purposes only, toured the United States in support of the album, their only American tour together. Both the album and their live shows were well received by the American media, and ''Shoot Out the Lights'' effectively relaunched their career – just as their marriage was falling apart. The performances, with a backing band including both Simon Nicol and Dave Mattacks of Fairport Convention, were seen as strong, but the tension between Richard and Linda was all too obvious. For this reason, the Thompsons' fans often refer to the ''Shoot Out the Lights'' tour as "The Tour from Hell". Upon returning home, Richard and Linda went their separate ways.

Richard Thompson continued recording as a solo artist. His 1983 album ''Hand of Kindness'' saw him working with Boyd again, but with a revised backing band and a more extroverted and up-tempo song selection.

With his separation from Linda finalized, Richard Thompson began to commute between twin bases in London and Los Angeles and to tour regularly in the USA. Encouraged by the success of his solo shows in late 1981 and early 1982, he began to perform solo with increasing frequency and continued to tour with a band. In 1983 and 1984, he toured the US and Europe with the Richard Thompson Big Band, which included two saxophone players in addition to the more usual rhythm section, second guitar and accordion. Set lists included covers of classic rock 'n roll songs and jazz standards such as "Tuxedo Junction".

In 1985, Thompson signed with PolyGram and received a sizeable advance. He and Nancy Covey married at an alcohol-free wedding that included a who's who of roots-music performers who Covey knew well from McCabe's and the Los Angeles music scene, and had introduced to Thompson. After their wedding, Thompson moved his home and working base to California. As part of the settlement that allowed Thompson to leave Boyd's Hannibal label for Polygram, the live album '' Small Town Romance'' was released. This comprised recordings made during Thompson's solo shows in the US in late 1981 and early 1982. ''Across a Crowded Room'' (1985) was his last album to be recorded in England and the last to have Boyd as producer. Thompson put together a new look backing band for the tour to promote this album, and some shows were filmed for a live video release (see Richard Thompson discography).

In 1986, he released '' Daring Adventures'', which was recorded in Los Angeles and produced by Mitchell Froom. ''Daring Adventures'', with a rich sound, markedly different production and use of American session players, was perceived by some as evidence of Thompson's increasing "Americanisation". Perhaps more significantly, the album continued the trend, begun with ''Across A Crowded Room,'' of Thompson's songs moving away from the seemingly personal material and towards the character sketches and narratives for which he has since become famous. Froom and PolyGram had plans to target college and the growing "alternative" markets with ''Daring Adventures''. Sales improved, but not substantially. Polygram declined an option to renew the contract. Thompson's management negotiated a new deal with Capitol Records.

In 1985, Fairport Convention reformed and recorded the album ''Gladys' Leap''. Thompson did not rejoin Fairport, but he did contribute a song to the project and played guitar on another track on the album.

1988 saw the release of Thompson's first album for Capitol, '' Amnesia''. Froom was retained as producer, and once again the album was recorded in Los Angeles with many of the same players that Froom had called upon for the ''Daring Adventures'' sessions.

1990s

Thompson contributed music to BBC
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