THE BUNCH
ROCK ON
ISLAND, 1972
ISLAND
A gathering of folk heavy hitters – including Sandy Denny, Ashley Hutchings, Richard Thompson, Trevor Lucas and Dave Mattacks – convene for a rollicking LP of oldie rock’n’roll covers. Thompson is credited as Linda Peters I came to London from Glasgow when I was 18, and I started singing at the local clubs, mostly the Troubadour. I met Sandy at the Troubadour, Johnny Silvo and all those people. We just started hanging out together. At first, I did advertising jingles. It was fantastic money and you got paid every time it was on telly. I did that with Manfred Mann and Elton John. We did dozens of them, but then Richard said to me, “You’ve got to stop doing those, that’s not good. There’s a credibility gap there.” ‘But think of the money,’ I thought. Then I think Richard, or perhaps it was Trevor [Lucas], decided that he wanted to do a kind of rock’n’roll record with everybody, covering The Everly Brothers, Elvis, Buddy Holly and all that. I remember singing “The Locomotion”. Island just gave us some money and we went off and did it, at the Manor in Chipping Norton. Back then the label would pay for everything. It was fun, but I’d already chosen folk music. I’m not really an ambitious person. I knew that people don’t get into the charts by singing murder ballads with 37 verses, I knew that it was a niche market. Mind you, on tour early on we made a fortune! We made 15 quid a night in folk clubs. It was tons of money.
RICHARD & LINDA THOMPSON
I WANT TO SEE THE BRIGHT LIGHTS TONIGHT
ISLAND, 1974
A deep and enduring masterpiece. Having married in 1972 and started touring as a duo, they make their recording debut with a timeless mix of spare, stark ballads and vaulting, folk-fringed rock, fleshed out with silver bands, accordions and hurdy-gurdy Famously, it cost £2,500 to make.