(b Notting Hill Gate, London, 3 April 1949). English folk and rock guitarist, singer, songwriter. As a founding member of Fairport Convention between 1967 and 1970, Thompson played on the band’s first five albums. After his initial solo album, Henry the Human Fly (Island, 1972), he retreated from concert halls to the folk club circuit where he performed with his wife, the singer Linda Peters. Their first album, I Want to See the Bright Light Tonight (Island, 1974), packed with doomy, foreboding songs such as ‘Withered and Died’ and ‘When I Get to the Border’, mixed the energy and passion of the new rock and roll era with strong echoes of earlier English popular song.
Following their next album, Hokey Pokey (Island, 1975), Thompson became a devotee of the Sufi strand of Islam. His conversion was reflected by the album Pour Down like Silver (Island, 1975), followed – after a three year gap – by three further albums by the duo. Their last album together, Shoot Out the Lights (Hanniball, 1982), helped to establish Richard Thompson’s growing reputation in the USA. He went on to tour and record with his own band, with bass player Danny Thompson, and as part of the experimental band French, Frith, Kaiser, Thompson. Thompson has achieved almost legendary status among both folk and rock audiences, both for his inventive guitar style and sturdy, often melancholy songs, influenced by traditional music, hymns and rock.
ROBIN DENSELOW