Every month we get inside the mind of one of the biggest names in music. This issue it’s Richard Thompson. Best known for co-founding Fairport Convention in the 60s, the British singer and guitarist has gone on to enjoy a successful solo career with his distinctive brand of progressive folk and was even awarded an OBE from Queen Elizabeth II in 2011. His latest release, Ship To Shore, finds him seeking inspiration from a diverse array of genres and styles. He looks back over his storied career so far and reveals why he has no interest in sitting on his laurels.

Words: Paul Sexton

From the very first mentions in the British music press of a young co-founder of Fairport Convention, Richard John Thompson was described as a teenage prodigy.

A summer 1968 reference to the Notting Hill native in Beat Instrumental, just after the release of the groundbreaking folk band’s debut album, said the lead guitarist was “reckoned by many to be the best in the country” and that “with little apparent effort he will switch in a flash from rhythm chords to a searing, whollyintegrated solo”. Soon that magazine’s Rick Sanders (not to be confused with later Fairport member Ric) was stating that “at the age of 19, he’s right up there with the heroes”.

A very youthful Fairport Convention performing at a music festival in 1967.

MICHAEL PUTLAND/GETTY IMAGES

More than 55 years later, Thompson’s status as one of the great players of his, or any generation has only become more exalted, not to mention his mastery of a distinctive and genre-blending style of song workmanship. The splendid, selfproduced and characterful new Ship To Shore is the 20th solo album of a remarkable career that, after his 1971 departure from the Fairports for what even he regarded as an uncertain future, has logged countless landmarks.

After 1972’s debut in his own name with Henry The Human Fly, his personal and professional relationship with Linda Peters/Thompson rendered six Richard and Linda Thompson albums that joined the early Fairport releases as progressive benchmarks. Their acrimonious split in the early 1980s was happily followed by a musical reconciliation in the 2010s, as Richard continued to expand a vast songbook that combines acoustic and electric illustration of both traditional and modernday ingredients.

He talks to Prog about the new album, his upbringing, the shadow still cast by the 1969 motorway accident that killed Fairport drummer Martin Lamble, and why stained glass manufacturing’s loss was music’s gain.

New album Ship To Shore.

You’ve had to be very patient to be able to unveil the follow-up to 13 Rivers, but it’s been worth the wait for all of us.

I’m really excited to be back with the band, because I’ve been doing solo stuff since lockdown, just stuff online. It’s been very frustrating, so it’s wonderful to be back electric.