Library Rock's Backpages

Richard Thompson

Richard Thompson

40 articles

Free articles

Richard Thompson: Hand Of Kindness

Review by Richard Cook, New Musical Express, 30 July 1983

From a maker of acclaimed albums, something that is more of the same, as dependable as any itching in the heart, toothache, telephone bill: it ...

Richard Thompson

Interview by Joe Matera, Australian Musician, Spring 2003

HE'S ALREADY ACHIEVED more as a songwriter and instrumentalist than most musicians could do in a lifetime. His sound is familiar, with ties to practically ...

Audio interviews

Richard Thompson (1988)

Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages audio, December 1988

Richard Thompson talks to Mat Snow about growing up in North London, learning guitar and forming Fairport Convention. Along the way he meets Sandy Denny and Joe Boyd...

File format: mp3 File size: 85.7mb, interview length: 1h 29' 15", sound quality: ***

List of articles in the library

By date | By writer | Most recently added

Richard Thompson: The Session Great That Nobody Knows

Interview by Tony Norman, New Musical Express, 22 June 1972

THE TERM "GUITAR hero" is used with increasing regularity. Pete Townshend's splintering aggressive antics have won him the tag; Alvin "up and down the fretboard ...

British Folk Rock: Robin Hood Rides A Chopper

Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 18 January 1973

Plainsong: In Search of Amelia Earhart (Elektra)Richard Thompson: Henry, the Human Fly (Warner Bros.)Steeleye Span: Below the Salt (Chrysalis)Incredible String Band: Earthspan (Reprise)Pentangle: Solomon's Seal ...

Richard and Linda Thompson: Life without Fairport

Interview by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 15 June 1974

RICHARD THOMPSON wrote 'Meet On The Ledge', in case you'd forgotten. On that basis alone the man would be due a certain portion of immortality. ...

Richard Thompson: The Guitar Hero as Mystic Recluse

Interview by Colin Irwin, Melody Maker, 7 October 1978

Richard Thompson is one of the world's finest guitarists, but a few years ago he "got cheesed off" and packed it all in. Now he's ...

Richard Thompson: A New Light

Interview by Steve Burgess, Dark Star, December 1978

I HAVE THIS adrenaline-fueled, hyper-hallucinatory recall of the first time I saw Richard Thompson away from club stages and makeshift podiums in Hyde Park. He ...

Richard and Linda Thompson's Flight From Convention

Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 5 April 1979

"IF I DON'T seem a part of the recording industry, it's probably because I don't feel a part of it," says Richard Thompson, the guitarist/songwriter/singer ...

Richard Thompson: Strict Tempo (Elixir LP I)

Review by Chas de Whalley, Record Mirror, 17 October 1981

ALBUMS LIKE this are comparatively rare these days. Strict Tempo simply presents good music for its own sake, showcasing the style and skill of a ...

Richard Thompson: McCabe's, Santa Monica, CA

Live Review by Mark Leviton, BAM, 15 January 1982

"IT'S TIME TO ring some changes" was, in the words of the opening song of the set, the basic theme of Richard Thompson's first group ...

Richard Thompson: Rockin' Guitar In The Celt Tradition

Interview by Gene Santoro, Downbeat, February 1985

IT'S NOT that he's unknown, exactly. Time magazine featured him and then-wife Linda in its August 30, 1982 issue, saying that his music "has the ...

Richard Thompson: A Rock Veteran's New Beginning

Profile and Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 17 March 1985

RICHARD AND Linda Thompson, whose 10-year marriage and musical partnership ended in 1982, were a decidedly low-profile couple by rock standards. In fact, they were ...

"The Most Exciting Thing Is Playing Live" — Richard Thompson Downplays Studio Work

Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 30 March 1985

NEW YORK — Considering that Richard Thompson's albums invariably end up near the top of year-end critics' polls, one would think that the veteran British ...

"The Most Exciting Thing Is Playing Live": Richard Thompson Downplays Studio Work

Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Billboard, 30 March 1985

NEW YORK — Considering that Richard Thompson's albums invariably end up near the top of year-end critics' polls, one would think that the veteran British ...

Richard Thompson: Across A Crowded Room (Polydor)

Review by Sean O'Hagan, New Musical Express, 4 May 1985

DICK GETS DULL ...

Meet Mr. Hip, Mitchell Froom, the Man of a Thousand Mixes

Interview by Alan di Perna, Musician, November 1988

"WITH ALBUMS, you can't just play it straight on every track. If a song wants to be a hit, if it seems like — done ...

Richard Thompson: The Minstrel’s Tale

Profile and Interview by Mat Snow, Q, December 1988

He is, by all accounts, a brilliant songwriter, a breathtaking guitarist, profoundly unphotogenic, a Moslem, an awkward old sod. Richard Thompson has spent 20 eventful ...

Richard Thompson: Royal Festival Hall, London

Live Review by Len Brown, New Musical Express, 14 October 1989

"IT'S TAKEN me a long time to clamber my way back to the top of showbiz," announces Richard wryly, "see under Wyman, Bill." Although he ...

Richard Thompson Rings Some Changes

Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, January 1990

The acoustic eclectic appreciates purists, but wouldn't want to be one ...

Richard Thompson: The Unsung Thompson

Interview by Mark Cooper, Daily Telegraph, 11 May 1991

Mark Cooper meets the folk hero who is now sharply observing home from abroad. ...

Richard Thompson: Rumor and Sigh (Capitol) ***½

Review by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 11 July 1991

AN EXCEPTIONAL guitarist whose memorable songs have been widely covered, Richard Thompson is — more than twenty years into the personal odyssey that outlines his ...

Watching The Dark: The History of Richard Thompson

Review by Geoffrey Himes, Request, June 1993

LIKE MUCH OF his later writing, Greil Marcus' introductory notes to the new Richard Thompson box set, Watching the Dark, are a hodge-podge of strained ...

Richard Thompson

Interview by David Sinclair, MOJO, April 1994

THEY SAY THERE'S ONE IN EVERY CROWD. BUT HE'S ALWAYS hard to spot because he looks so normal. Quiet, polite, a little shy even. You ...

The Many Moods of Richard Thompson

Report and Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 15 April 1994

RICHARD THOMPSON, godfather of grunge? "Well, I think so," the droll singer-guitarist says, on the phone from Columbus, Ohio, during a tour stop. "I was ...

Richard Thompson: Palladium, London — Two hours before a master

Live Review by David Cavanagh, The Independent, 14 May 1994

THE POSTCARD handed to each arriving punter at the Palladium said wistfully of Richard Thompson: "When will the world wise up to this remarkable man?" ...

Watcher Of The Dark: Richard Thompson, Guitar God From Planet Eureka

Book Excerpt by Gerrie Lim, 'Inside the Outsider' (BigO Books) , 1997

IT'S NIGH HIGH impossible to summarize Richard Thompson's vast repertoire and immense talent, not to mention demented humor, but one particular sentence from Thompson himself ...

Industry: A Tale of Two Thompsons

Review by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, 4 July 1997

DANNY THOMPSON grew up in the world described in the movie Brassed Off--the northern British villages where men scrub off the soot of the ...

Richard Thompson: Waterfront Hall, Belfast

Live Review by Colin Harper, The Independent, 21 January 1998

BELFAST'S WATERFRONT Hall embodies all the characteristics of a provincial Barbican – a kind of clinical, beige Gormenghast of a place where corridors lead to ...

Richard Thompson: The Old Kit Bag

Review by David Sinclair, The Word, March 2003

ONE OF THE MANY extraordinary things about Richard Thompson is how resistant he is to the image-making process. After all, here is a man who ...

Richard Thompson: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London

Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 17 March 2003

WHITE, MIDDLE-AGED English men dominate a crowd who have packed this venue to bursting for a man barely known outside their tribe. ...

Richard Thompson: Lyric, Hammersmith, London

Live Review by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 29 August 2005

ALTHOUGH ONLY one of them was named on the ticket, there were two beard-y Thompsons on stage at the Lyric Hammersmith. ...

Richard Thompson: RT

Review by Toby Manning, The Word, February 2006

A celebration of the life and music of Richard Thompson: folk rock legend so culty they boxed him twice: this time for fans only. ...

The Dust Of History: Forty Years Of Richard Thompson's Guitar/Vocal

Essay by Steve Redhead, Rock's Backpages, 23 July 2007

'But I'll be a friend and tell you what's in storeThere's nothing at the end of the rainbowThere's nothing to grow up for anymore''The End ...

Richard Thompson: Walking On A Wire

Review and Interview by Rob Young, Uncut, August 2009

Atop the emotional tightrope... an expansive, career-spanning four-CD set for Anglicana's finest guitar warrior. ...

Richard and Linda Thompson: Keeping Up with the Thompsons

Interview by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, October 2009

Once flippantly but affectionately called "the Sonny & Cher of the folk world", Richard & Linda Thompson are worshipped as living legends, a jewel in ...

The Family Business: Richard Thompson and Relatives

Retrospective and Interview by Larry Jaffee, Audiophile Review, April 2010

Sept. 2011 note: I spent 18 months working on this piece. Richard was the easiest to get hold of. When I shared this tidbit with ...

Richard Thompson Goes to Camp

Report and Interview by Charles Bermant, No Depression, 6 April 2012

RICHARD THOMPSON is messing with the standard performer/audience equation in two ways this year. There was his participation in the Cayamo Songwriters' cruise in February, ...

Richard Thompson: Electric

Review by Charles Bermant, No Depression, 29 January 2013

YOU GOTTA FEEL for someone who doesn't own any Bob Dylan or Neil Young albums and hasn't a clue where to start. There are too ...

Richard Thompson: Gawsworth Hall, Cheshire

Live Review by Jude Rogers, The Observer, 12 August 2018

Half a century after his first gig with Fairport Convention, folk-rocker Richard Thompson is as cool and contemporary as ever. ...

see also Fairport Convention

see also Richard and Linda Thompson

see also Teddy Thompson

RSS

back to LIBRARY

COPYRIGHT NOTICE