Richard Thompson

Fairport Convention

Richard John Thompson was born on 3 April 1949 at Ladbroke Crescent in Notting Hill, West London. His father was a Scottish detective at Scotland Yard and an amateur guitarist who had seen Django Reinhardt play in Glasgow in the 1930s. Thompson heard Buddy Holly in 1956 and began on guitar in 1960. At William Ellis School in Highgate he formed a band called Emil and the Detectives with Hugh Cornwell, later of the Stranglers.

In 1967 he co-founded Fairport Convention with Simon Nicol, Ashley Hutchings and Shaun Frater, and became its lead guitarist and principal songwriter. The producer Joe Boyd, impressed above all by Thompson's guitar playing, signed the group to his Witchseason company. The band made Fairport Convention and What We Did on Our Holidays in 1968, then Unhalfbricking and Liege & Lief in 1969. On 12 May 1969 their van crashed on the M1 after a Birmingham gig, killing drummer Martin Lamble and Thompson's girlfriend Jeannie Franklyn. The band regrouped and recorded Liege & Lief. Full House followed in 1970, with Thompson writing alongside Dave Swarbrick, and he left in January 1971.

Richard and Linda

His first solo album, Henry the Human Fly, appeared in April 1972. It sold poorly and the music press panned it. In October of that year he married Linda Peters, and as Richard and Linda Thompson they made six albums: I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight (1974), Hokey Pokey (1975), Pour Down Like Silver (1975), First Light (1978), Sunnyvista (1979) and Shoot Out the Lights (1982). In early 1974 the couple embraced Sufism, and they lived for a time in a Sufi community in East Anglia. Shoot Out the Lights was recorded at Olympic Studios in London in November 1981, produced by Boyd for his Hannibal label, and released in 1982 to wide acclaim. By then the marriage was over.

Solo years

Strict Tempo! (1981) was the first of a long run of solo records, among them Hand of Kindness (1983), Across a Crowded Room (1985), Daring Adventures (1986) and Amnesia (1988). He moved to California after marrying Nancy Covey in 1985. With Mitchell Froom producing, Rumor and Sigh (1991) reached number 32 in the UK, his first top 40 album there, and carried 1952 Vincent Black Lightning. In 1993 Hannibal issued the three-disc retrospective Watching the Dark, covering 1969 to 1992.

Mirror Blue, released in 1994 on Capitol, was also produced by Froom and carries one of his best-known songs, Beeswing. Thompson described the record as a deconstruction of the rock rhythm section. Reviews were often negative and centered on the production, especially the drum sound.

He kept working steadily afterward: You? Me? Us? (1996), Mock Tudor (1999), The Old Kit Bag (2003), Front Parlour Ballads (2005), Sweet Warrior (2007), Dream Attic (2010) and Electric (2013). In 2014 he recorded Acoustic Classics, a solo set of his older songs made at Rumiville Studio in Texas on his own Beeswing label. Still (2015), produced by Jeff Tweedy, became his first UK top ten album. Acoustic Classics II, Acoustic Rarities and 13 Rivers followed, then Ship to Shore in 2024 and Hippies, Thugs and Heroes, scheduled for October 2026.

Playing and standing

Thompson is known for a style that mixes pick and fingers, for alternate tunings and for playing a Fender Stratocaster. Neil McCormick called him a versatile virtuoso guitarist. His song Dimming of the Day has been covered by the Neville Brothers, Bonnie Raitt and David Gilmour, and Time included 1952 Vincent Black Lightning in its list of the all-time 100 songs.

He has taken part in Fairport reunions, contributing to Gladys' Leap in 1985 and joining the Cropredy performance of Liege & Lief in 2007. Honours include an Ivor Novello award, a BBC Radio 2 lifetime achievement award in 2006, the Mojo Les Paul Award in 2010 and an OBE in 2011. In 2021 he published the memoir Beeswing: Losing My Way and Finding My Voice 1967-1975, which takes its title from the song and covers his first years in music.