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Happy 70th Richard Thompson!

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If the Afterword has a patron act it must surely be Richard Thompson. Even the fact that there are cloth-eared fools among us who dispute his brilliance fosters discussion and so is in keeping with the ethos of the site.

Today he reaches 70 years of age, and as anyone who has seen the trio format band recently will attest he can still rip up a stage with the best of them. I like to think that some people who haven’t been keeping up think that buying a ticket for an elderly ex-Fairporter will guarantee an evening of mellow acoustic folkiness. Those same people presumably stumble out two hours later with fixed, glazed expressions and whistling ears. He can deliver masterful mellow acoustic folkiness too of course, and I would be hard pressed to pick which version of his show to see if I was given a straight choice.

We spend a lot of time here celebrating the greats once they have gone, but here’s the chance to share your favourites from one of the all time best while he is still giving superb performances on record and stage.

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Comments

  1. Maybe it’s me. I turned down a ticket for a recent RT gig precisely because I suspected I’d have been subjected to the turgid phoned-in-ness of the 3 minutes and 19 seconds demonstrated in the video above. And yet I have enough RT albums to tile a small cottage in, say, Oxfordshire; I love his stuff. Mostly. But recently? I certainly don’t want my ears ringing from this nonsense.

    Many Happy Returns, Richard, anyway, and thanks for the Beeswing brilliance of your career. Just put the ‘leccy back in its stand and polish that Martin or whatever it is you strum these days. Turn it down and turn us on once more.

    • Ah, that’s the stuff I love most. It probably helps that my gateway drug for music was loud and electric, and also that I’m not a musician of any kind. I have no idea how technically clever or otherwise this is, just that it goes straight to the heart of what I most love in music.

      I do have limits though. Richard has just announced a 70th birthday celebration gig at the Royal Albert Hall in September, but at between £60 and £99 including a huge booking fee I fear I will have to pass. Should another free ticket which you don’t need come your way though …

  2. I am ambivalent about his more acoustic leanings these days and much prefer the electric stuff especially when Michael Jerome is in the band.
    The great songs he has written far exceeds 1952vbl and Beeswing brilliant though they are. How about I misunderstood Tear Stained letter, the dimming of the day, The turning of the tide, Valerie, Walking the long miles home,Persuasion, Gethsemane, the list is endless. I will be seeing him acoustic at Canbridge Folk festival but would prefer to see him electric unless of course che could get Linda to join him onstage.
    A true British great – and surely there is no argument on that.

  3. Happy 70th, but he’s not for me. Quite like the albums with his then wife from the 70s. saw him live in a trio a few years ago and while he is obviously a talented guitar player, it left me completely cold. His voice is clearly an acquired taste.

  4. Shall be at the Albert Hall gig, tickets permitting.
    Probably the last time I shall see him having seen him at least once every year (apart from 76 and one year in the 2010s where he didn’t tour over here).
    Diminishing returns in the last few years, as @Gatz knows I am not a fan of the three piece.
    Saw him on stage with Linda 10 years ago at the Barbican something I thought I would never see again, so hopes up for the AH gig.
    Happy Birthday.

    • Yes, Northern Ireland – and Lowden is the spelling. George Lowden split from his company some years back (musical differences?) and ‘went solo’; the company became Avalon Guitars. I have one – it’s terrific. If you want a fantastic acoustic guitar of Lowden quality but not with Lowden’s name on it, go for an Avalon.

  6. Really fancy this. I’ve seen him loads of times but this looks a bit special. We were at the same gig earlier this year @gatz – maybe we can find each other in the bar this time!

    • I like the idea of it, but the prices are very punchy and the RAH, which can be tricky to get to from many places, is a particular pain if you need to get back to Essex on a Monday night.

  7. I can never get really interested in guitar solos cut from actual songs (and therefore heard without context).
    I have quite a few of RT’s albums and a ridiculous amount of bootlegs, acquired over the years. I’ve seen him live a few times too, but I can’t summon any enthusiasm to go and see him any more. I think my taste has altered and he’s no longer near enough to the core of it.
    I wish him a happy birthday though, and plenty more of them.

    • I love the Zappa triple guitar solo compilation ‘Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar’, but you can definitely have too much of a good thing – I struggle with the successor ‘Guitar’ and haven’t yet bothered with the 3rd instalment ‘Trance Fusion’.

      • Oddly enough I had a dream about Frank Zappa the night before last. We were discussing what was apparently a well known lyric in the car park list at the town centre Tesco in Chelmsford. Apart from a single best-of that I haven’t played in years I’m not even particularly familiar with Frank Zappa’s music.

        • Love the specifics of it being the Chelmsford Tesco. I can see Zappa there in the same way I can see Keith Chegwin in a lunar module.

          Zappa Best Ofs are always a bit iffy, having to include material that makes long term fans cringe. If you’re curious, you could do worse than Spotify the Apostrophe album and go from there.

          • Possibly similar to this, I had to stop myself mid-conversation in a suburban coffee shop opposite a Tesco in East Belfast yesterday when I suddenly noticed what seemed to be Soft Machine circa 1970 as the background muzak (raspy organ, etc.). I’ve no idea if it was, but it seemed odd…

          • I once had a dream where I was hosting Suede (Coming Up line-up) in Annie Sugden’s kitchen in Emmerdale Farm. Again, I quite specifically have never been a fan of Emmerdale with or without its Farm.

            Simon Gilbert was quite friendly, as I recall. The others seemed polite but tired, stopping off a whirlwind tour of the Dales no doubt.

  8. Happy 70th. Never been much of a fan, although the best of his 70s stuff with Linda is excellent, as was his contributions to Fairport, Nick Drake and the like.

    But I did love this from 2013, the near-to-collapse solo and all:

  9. Funny, was just reading my flyer email from his people about the RAH gig before opening afterword. I fully understand the ennui around his more recent works, having, I thought, tired of hi electric stuff for most of this century. Then, twice last year, I saw the trio and I was again in thrall to him. Am sort of wondering how and who he will have as his guests, but will imagine, as well as solo and the trio, there may well be a last men standing iteration of early Fairport, together with varied RTB cohorts from the intervening years, so Danny Thompson and Christine Collister. Probably the kids so a bit of Teddy and a bit of the Rails, Zak along for good measure. I wouldn’t consider Linda an impossibility either, they having shared the same stage in the last few years. Getting tempted as I think it through.

  12. I watched a performance of a Thompo song – a recent one, I guess – with his trio last week. It seemed to me pure Emperor’s New Clothes – it was a man in a beret effectively sneering ‘I don’t like Sting, yeah / I don’t Sting’ for about 5 minutes. It seemed both petulant and pointless as well as being so poorly written he shouldn’t have bothered.

    • He has denied that Geordie is about Sting, but surely the characterisation is too precise for it to be anyone else. I never like his character assassination sings (Geordie, Dear Janet Jackson, Madonna’s Wedding et al). At the very best they’re good for a one off smirk when played live, but somehow Geordie escaped onto disc.

      • If you’re going to write a song chastising someone, it needs to have a light touch or stand up artistically to be anything other than a bore. I think Sting’s a smug get as much as the next man, but if I’d written that song people would assume I can’t write songs – yet this is Dicky Thompo, who definitely *can*… His Quality Control man must have been off that day 🙂

        • When I saw him live he was doing some sort of tribute song to guitarists over the decades, doing a solo in their particular style. Was impressive playing, but the song was really nothing. Am sure everybody else here knows what it is called.

          • Guitar Heroes. Not a favourite of mine either, but before I forget why I posted the OP in the first place I’ll take a moment to remind myself that his most recent album had gems like The Storm Won’t Come, The Rattle Inside, The Dog in You … There can be very few artists of his longevity still producing so many great songs in the sixth decade of their career.

        • I think his quality control has always been a little tiny bit off. It’s rare to find an RT album without at least one duffer on it. There are stinkers.

          As for his guitar playing, he can bash out a pretty mean electric solo seemingly at the drop of a hat, but this remains my all-time favourite. Short and sweet.

  13. He wore a hat that wasn’t a beret
    The kind you find in a folky-rock store
    He wore a hat that wasn’t a beret
    I got stuck in the bar with an old guitar bore
    He wore a hat that wasn’t a beret
    It’s a bal-morrrr-al.

  15. First saw Richard and Linda around 78. Somehow he seemed old then; hard to believe he was still in his 20s. He’s produced a ton of great work since although I wish he still had Linda or a similar voice to lighten some of the material. He is a fascinating contrast – those dark songs of obsession and cruelty; songs of a weird England that could be now or 200 years ago; and then a series of absolutely gorgeous love songs. Like this one.

    • The concert I saw was the exact same one Nick Hornby was at and wrote about in his brilliant book (which I have recommended many times here) 31 Songs. He compares them to characters out of a Hardy novel –

      ‘Linda..was wearing a smock and headscarf, sat on a stool (she may have been pregnant) looking miserable, as though Thompson were trying to sell her just like Henchard sold his wife in The Mayor of Casterbridge. It was all very bleak and curiously memorable, and though I’m glad I saw them, I never felt for a moment as if I lived, or even wanted to live, in the country that produced their music. Does that matter? Probably not..it’s just a little uncomfortable, though, hearing music of and about your native land that makes your native land sound like the coldest and bleakest place on earth.’

  16. His recent albums have been patchy for me but still some fine songs, and the quality of his singing and playing has remained consistently high. This is from 2013

  18. Not always loved much of RT solo music but my admiration of his guitar playing knows no bounds – he must be up there in the Top 10 of all time players ??

    Always been fond of his acoustic playing in particular and the solo in this song suggests he may have been listening to John McLaughlin circa My Goals Beyond (looks to @Colin-H for affirmation)

    • Who knows? Funnily enough, I recall noticing a similarity between something Thompo played in 1969 and a bit of ‘In A Silent Way’, but I can’t remember offhand what it was. Probably coincidence. Andy Roberts told me that he took Thompo to see a very early performance of the Mahavishnu Orchestra in New York in summer 1971, when Plainsong were out there touring (presumably Thompo was supporting or just hanging-on). Naturally, they were blown away.

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