Linda Thompson (singer)
Linda Thompson is a
British singer.
Linda Pettifer was born of
Scottish parents in
Hackney in
1948. When she was six the family moved to a rough district of
Glasgow. In about
1966 she started singing in folk clubs and in
1967 began studying modern languages at
London University, but quit the latter after four months. She changed her name to Linda Peters. By day she sang advertising jingles, including one with
Manfred Mann. By night she sang folk songs in coffee houses, meeting up with key members of the folk scene including
Sandy Denny. During
1970 she had an affair with
Martin Carthy, and was
Joe Boyd's girlfriend in the early 1970s. Linda met
Richard Thompson in
1969 but they did not record together until
1972. By then she had recorded the
Bob Dylan song "You Ain't Going Nowhere", released as a single in 1972 by "Paul and Linda". This seems to be a sly reference to
Paul and
Linda McCartney but fooled nobody.
Her reputation led to her being invited join
The Bunch a loose supergroup of Folk rock luminaries including former Fairport Convention members
Sandy Denny,
Richard Thompson,
Ashley Hutchings that recorded an album called
Rock On. This was a set of 1950s rock and roll classics. A single was released from the album;
The Everly Brothers' hit
When Will I Be Loved which was a duet by Linda and Sandy. Later in 1972 Linda and Richard were backing singers on Sandy Denny's solo album
Sandy.
After leaving
Fairport Convention, Richard teamed up with
Simon Nicol and Linda Peters. Calling themselves "Hokey Pokey" they toured as a trio. Linda and Richard married in 1972. Richard's first solo album, also recorded in 1972, sold extremely poorly. The next album:
I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight (
1974) was credited to "Linda and Richard Thompson". Linda sang on Fairport's album
Rosie (
1973) but was not credited. Two albums followed in 1975:
Hokey Pokey and
Pour Down Like Silver. Richard had started to take an interest in
Sufiism, a mystical form of
Islam in 1973. The album cover of
Pour Down Like Silver showed him wearing a white
turban. After the tour, the couple went to a Sufi commune in
East Anglia for six months, then in
Maida Vale. Richard announced that he would never play again, but returned after three years. In those years Linda found herself in a community where all the food was prepared by the women. In Linda's words, the members were "white middle-class people trying to punish themselves, and everybody else. It taught me a lot. To stay away from sects, mostly." (Source:
)Their come-back album was called First Light (1978). Richard's writing has a strong thread of disdain for fame, wealth and worldly values. He attacks politics and hypocrisy, often in wildly abstract metaphors. Some writers try to attribute this to Islam, but it was already there before 1973. On tours and on the albums, Linda was given the slowest, and most melancholy songs. Sunnyvista followed in 1979, and Shoot Out The Lights in 1982.
Shoot out the lights was surprisingly successful in America and the Thompsons despite the fractured state of their relationship were offered a long and lucrative tour of the USA. Surprisingly Linda accepted the invitation and they embarked on an emotionally draining last tour with Richard. Simon Nicol described the final tour, in the summer of 1982, as "like walking on a tightrope". The couple were barely speaking to each other. Linda was drinking too much alcohol and Richard was having an affair with someone else. In fits of rage, Linda kicked Richard in the shins as he sang on stage and at other times she left the stage and sat in the audience glowering at Richard. Despite the emotional problems the actual music was reputedly astonishing and hearing this their record company arranged a mobile recording studio to record dates for a live album. The recording could not be arranged before the last date of the tour. The penultimate date of the tour was in Los Angeles (where Richard's new lover lived) Linda reportedly performed the greatest show of her life then went to stay with her friend Linda Ronstadt. At the final show, with the tape rolling Linda was emotionally spent and a shadow of her normal self. The tapes have never been released although a version of "Walking On A Wire" from earlier in the tour is on the Free Reed "RT" boxed set. While Linda was pregnant with their third child, Richard left her.Linda lost her voice for the next two years. Heroically, she made a new start in 1984, singing with "The Home Service" at the National Theatre's production of medieval mystery plays and in 1985 she released her solo album One Clear Moment, then fell silent for eleven years. One song from the album, called "Telling Me Lies", written with Betsy Cook, was also recorded by Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt for their Trio album in 1987. The recording was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Country Song category. She retired from music to run an antique jewellery shop in Bond Street London. She married an American, Steve Kenis who was an agent for recording artists. In the same year Richard married an American folk club organiser Nancy Covey. Happily, both marriages have survived. A compilation of her earlier work, Dreams Fly Away (1996), included both previously released songs and alternate versions of some of her better-known songs. It was received politely but did not sell well. In 1999 Linda's mother died. This provoked an outpouring of sorrow and regenerated her determination to sing. Linda was diagnosed with hysterical dysphonia, preventing her from singing. An obscure cure was found. By injecting botox into her throat she could regain her normal singing voice for a few months. Give Me a Sad Song (2001) was very positively reviewed. In 2003, apparently reconciled with Richard, she recorded Fashionably Late. Richard, their son Teddy Thompson and daughter Kamila were on the album. For the first time since the sixties, she sings some traditional folk songs. Unlike Richard, Linda has no love of religion. Her new-found determination is more stoical. With Rami Yacoub and Andreas Carlsson she wrote "Drowning" a minor hit for the Backstreet Boys in 2002.
She is not related to Linda Diana Thompson, the American actress.Richard and Linda Thompson
I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight (1974)
Hokey Pokey (1975)
Pour Down Like Silver (1975)
First Light (1978)
Sunnyvista (1979)
Shoot Out The Lights (1982)
Solo albums
One Clear Moment (1985)
Dreams Fly Away (1996)
Give Me A Sad Song (2001)
Fashionably Late (2003)
Singles - Richard and Linda Thompson
*"I Want to See The Bright Lights Tonight" / "When I Get to the Border" (1974)
*"Hokey Pokey" / "I'll Regret it in the Morning" (1975)
*"Don't Let a Thief Steal Into Your Heart" (1978)
*"Geordie on the Spree" / "Civilisation" (1979)*Artist profile at BBC
