Shoot Out the Lights

After Sunnyvista (1979) sold poorly, Richard and Linda Thompson were left without a record deal. In spring 1980 they toured as support to Gerry Rafferty, and in September and October 1980 they recorded an album at Chipping Norton Recording Studios in Oxfordshire with Rafferty financing and producing. Thompson found Rafferty's perfectionist pace hard to bear, and the tapes found no label. They later circulated as bootlegs under titles such as Rafferty's Folly.

In summer 1981 Joe Boyd signed the Thompsons to Hannibal. Boyd proposed recording in a matter of days so money could be saved for a US tour, and in November 1981 they cut the album at Olympic Studios in London. It held fresh versions of six songs from the Rafferty sessions and two newer ones. Linda was several months pregnant, which delayed release and the tour. By the time the record came out in 1982 the marriage was over.

Reception

It became their best-selling album. Robert Christgau made it a pick hit of the month, and it placed second in the 1982 Village Voice Pazz and Jop poll behind Elvis Costello's Imperial Bedroom. Rolling Stone ranked it number 9 among the best albums of the eighties and number 332 on its 500 greatest albums list, and Q placed the title song at number 99 among 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks in 2005. The US tour that followed, with Simon Nicol and Dave Mattacks in the band, is known to fans as the Tour from Hell.