Richard Thompson (musician)

Richard Thompson 2005

Richard John Thompson OBE (* 3. April 1949 in London ) is an English folk rock - musicians .

biography

In 1967, Thompson was one of the founding cast of Fairport Convention . He stayed with the band for five studio albums and one live album until he decided to embark on a solo career in 1971. During the recording of his solo debut Henry the Human Fly , Thompson also worked as a studio musician for his former Fairport Convention colleagues Sandy Denny and Ian Matthews . Henry the Human Fly was released in 1972, a commercial flop - Thompson once described it as the fastest off-market album in the history of his American record company Warner Brothers . In the same year Thompson was also a member of the short-lived folk rock formations The Bunch and Morris On, in which various greats of the English folk scene played. At the end of the year, Thompson toured the United States and Great Britain with Sandy Denny, and began recording with Linda Peters , whom he married shortly afterwards.

In 1973 Richard and Linda Thompson began recording their first joint album, I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight , which was released in 1974. This was followed by Hokey Pokey and Pour Down Like Silver in the following year. At the end of 1975, the two temporarily withdrew from the music scene to live with a Muslim community near London. Meanwhile, Island Records released two albums in 1976, which contained previously unreleased demo tapes and live recordings; Guitar, Vocal [did not appear in the US until 1984] contained pieces by Fairport Convention, Richard and Linda Thompson and two newly recorded short instrumentals, while on Live (More or Less) the complete Richard and Linda Thompson album I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight and some of the tracks included by Guitar, Vocal , Live (More or Less) was released in 1976 only in the US and Canada.

Richard Thompson (2007)

In 1978 the Thompsons returned to the studio with a new record deal with Chrysalis Records . On First Light you can hear British folk rock influenced by Islamic music. After the production of Sunnyvista in 79 , the couple were fired from Chrysalis. For the next album they were able to win Gerry Rafferty as producer. Thompson, however, was not satisfied with the result and let it disappear into oblivion. Some of the songs later appeared in other production on Shoot Out the Lights and on Hand of Kindness . Some original recordings appeared on Watching the Dark . Instead, Thompson took the purely instrumental solo album Strict Tempo! which appeared in 1981. The next LP Shoot out the Lights was produced by Joe Boyd . It was released in 1982 on his Hannibal Records label and is Richard and Linda Thompson's best-selling album to date. Only a little later the two separated on a personal as well as a musical level.

Richard Thompson stayed with Hannibal for his next solo work, Hand of Kindness , which came out in 1983. Just before he left the label in 1984 to sign with Polydor Records , Small Town Romance was released, on which various live acoustic recordings from 1982 can be heard. Boyd was the producer of Across a Crowded Room , Thompson's debut on Polydor. The album was relatively successful, but after the 86 successor Daring Adventures flopped, Thompson was fired one more time.

The following year, Thompson worked on a soundtrack for the BBC and teamed up with John French , Fred Frith and Henry Kaiser , with whom he recorded Live, Love, Larf and Loaf . In 1988 he got a new contract, this time with Capitol Records , and released Amnesia that same year . After another album by French, Frith, Kaiser and Thompson and a stake in Hard Cash (on which various British folk performers can be heard) Rumor and Sigh was finally released in 1991 , which became a commercial success. This was followed by the soundtrack for the 1992 film Sweet Talker . In 1993, Hannibal Records released further Thompson recordings under the title Watching the Dark , and thereafter three other solo productions by Thompson were released on Capitol: Mirror Blue (1994), You? Me? Us? (1995) and Mock Tudor (1999). In 2001, Thompson was also fired from Capitol.

In 1997, Thompson teamed up with Danny Thompson to form a short-lived duo that recorded the concept album Industry . In addition, the albums The Old Kit Bag (2003) and Front Parlor Ballads (2005) as well as a number of live albums on various labels were released on the indie label Cooking Vinyl . There are also two Richard Thompson tribute albums: The World Is a Wonderful Place was released in 1993. Victoria Williams , Christine Collister , Tom Robinson and Plainsong are among the interpreters who play Thompson songs here. In 1994 Beat the Retreat was released, paying tribute to bands and musicians such as REM , Bob Mold , X , June Tabor , Bonnie Raitt , Dinosaur Jr. and Martin Carthy Thompson.

The Rolling Stone listed Thompson 69th of the 100 best guitarists of all time . In a list from 2003 he was ranked 19th.

Discography

With Fairport Convention

• Fairport Convention (1968)
• What We Did on Our Holiday (1968)
• Unhalfbricking (1969)
• Liege and Lief (1969)
• Full House (1970)
• Live at the LA Troubadour (recorded 1970, released 1976)
• Live at Broughton Castle (1981)
• The Boot (1983)
• Gladys' Leap (1985; guest on 1 track)
• Expletive Delighted (1986; guest on 1 track)
• The Other Boot (1986)
• The Third Leg (1987)
• 25th Anniversary Concert (1992)
• The Cropredy Box (1997)
• Cropredy 2002: Another Year Another Palindrome (2002)
• Fairport UnConventional (Free Reed 4-CD box; 2003)
• Cropredy Capers (Free Reed 4-CD box; 2005)

With The Bunch

• The Bunch (1972)

With Morris On

• Morris On (1972)

With Linda Thompson

• I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight (1974, No. 479 of the Rolling Stone 500 (2004), UK: silver)
• Hokey Pokey (1975)
• Pour Down Like Silver (1975)
• Live (More or Less) (1976, live and studio recordings)
• First Light (1978)
• Sunnyvista (1979)
• Shoot Out the Lights (1982, 333rd place in the Rolling Stone 500 (2004))
• Strange Affair (1994, live album)
• The End of the Rainbow (2000)

With GP's (Ralph McTell, Dave Pegg, Dave Mattacks)

• Saturday Rolling Around (1998, live album)

With French, Frith, Kaiser, Thompson

• Live, Love, Larf and Loaf (1987)
• Invisible Means (1990)

With Ashley Hutchings' Big Beat Combo

• Twangin 'n' A-Traddin ' (1994)

With Danny Thompson

• Industry (1997)

With Philip Pickett

• The Bones of All Men (1998)

solo

• Henry the Human Fly (1972)
• Guitar, Vocal (1976, live and studio recordings)
• Strict pace! (1981)
• Hand of Kindness (1983)
• Small Town Romance (1984, live recordings)
• Across a Crowded Room (1985)
• Daring Adventures (1986)
• Amnesia (1988)
• Rumor and Sigh (1991)
• Sweet Talker: Original Music from the Movie (1992)
• Watching the Dark (1993)
• Mirror Blue (1994)
• Live at Crawley 1993 (1995, live album)
• You? Me? Us? (1996)
• Two Letter Words (1996, live album)
• Industry (1997)
• Celtschmerz (1998)
• Mock Tudor (1999)
• Action Packed - The Best of the Capitol Years (2001)
• Guitar, Vocal (2002)
• Semi-Detached Mock Tudor (2002, live album)
• The Old Kit Bag (2003)
• 1000 Years of Popular Music (2003, live album)
• More Guitar (2003, live album)
• Ducknapped (2003, live album)
• The Chrono Show (2004, live album)
• Faithless (2004, live album)
• Live from Austin, TX (2005, live album)
• Front Parlor Ballads (2005)
• Grizzly Man (2005, Original Soundtrack)
• Some Enchanted Evenings (2006, live album, MFSL)
• Sweet Warrior (May 2007)
• Live Warrior (2009, live album)
• Walking on a Wire (2009)
• Dream Attic (2010)
• Electric (2013)
• Acoustic Classics (2014)
• Still (2015)
• 13 Rivers (2018)

Chart placements

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)				Remarks
		DE	CH	UK	US
1983	Hand of Kindness	-	-	-	US186 (5 weeks) US
1985	Across a crowded room	-	-	UK80 (2 weeks) UK	US102 (13 weeks) US
1986	Daring Adventures	-	-	UK92 (1 week) UK	US142 (6 weeks) US
1988	Amnesia	-	-	UK89 (1 week) UK	US182 (5 weeks) US
1991	Rumor and Sigh	-	-	UK32 (3 weeks) UK	-
1994	Mirror Blue	-	-	UK23 (3 weeks) UK	US109 (3 weeks) US
1996	You? Me? Us?	-	-	UK32 (2 weeks) UK	US97 (1 week) US
1997	Industry	-	-	UK69 (1 week) UK	-	Richard & Danny Thompson
1999	Mock Tudor	-	-	UK28 (2 weeks) UK	-
2003	The Old Kit Bag	-	-	UK52 (1 week) UK	US121 (2 weeks) US
2005	Front Parlor Ballads	-	-	UK54 (2 weeks) UK	US197 (1 week) US
2007	Sweet Warrior	-	-	UK39 (2 weeks) UK	US111 (1 week) US
2010	Dream Attic	-	-	UK20 (2 weeks) UK	US83 (1 week) US
2013	Electric	DE94 (1 week) DE	-	UK16 (3 weeks) UK	US75 (2 weeks) US
2014	Acoustic Classics	-	-	UK16 (3 weeks) UK	US103 (1 week) US
2015	Quiet	DE91 (1 week) DE	-	UK10 (3 weeks) UK	US82 (1 week) US
2017	Acoustic Classics 2	-	-	UK24 (1 week) UK	-
	Acoustic rarities	-	-	UK84 (1 week) UK	-
2018	13 rivers	-	CH96 (1 week) CH	UK18 (1 week) UK	-

swell

1. ↑ Richard Thompson - (Guitar, Vocal) A Collection Of Unreleased And Rare Material 1967-1976. Retrieved August 25, 2016 . 
2. ^ Richard Thompson - Richard Thompson Live! (More Or Less). Retrieved August 25, 2016 . 
3. ↑ 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Rolling Stone , December 18, 2015, accessed August 8, 2017 . 
4. ↑ 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time - David Fricke's Picks. Rolling Stone , December 2, 2010, accessed August 8, 2017 . 
5. ↑ Music Sales Awards: UK
6. ↑ Chart sources: Germany Switzerland Great Britain USA
7. ^ The Billboard Albums by Joel Whitburn , 6th Edition, Record Research 2006, ISBN 0-89820-166-7 .
8. ^ Industry (Richard & Danny Thompson) in the UK charts

Web links

Commons : Richard Thompson  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Official Richard Thompson Page
• Richard Thompson at Discogs (English)