Linda Thompson is one of the best singers ever to stand in front of a microphone. Across six albums with her then husband Richard and then on four solo releases, she brought songs to life with a voice full of intense and often heartbreaking emotion. But these days Linda can’t sing at all. A rare neurological disorder called spasmodic dysphonia has silenced her for good.
Happily, she can still write songs. And with a new batch ready to record she called on her wide circle of family and friends to sing them in her place. Her son Teddy Thompson and daughter Kami Thompson are on her new album along with Rufus and Martha Wainwright, John Grant, The Proclaimers, Ren Harvieu, Eliza Carthy, Dori Freeman and The Unthanks. Ex-husband Richard and grandson Zak Hobbs contribute guitar. The album, released in June, bears the inspired title of “Proxy Music” and Linda (now 76) poses on the cover just like the pin-up girl on Roxy Music’s famous debut. She asked Bryan Ferry if he minded and he said he loved it.
Teddy, Kami and Hobbs, along with Grant, Harvieu and Carthy were on stage at Cadogan Hall for this show on a warm Friday evening. Folk scene stalwart Martin Simpson and Romeo Stodart of the Magic Numbers (Harvieu’s partner) also sang.
Super-slim in a shiny grey suit, Teddy Thompson was a hesitant but amusing host for a two-hour show celebrating his mother’s musical past and present. With a one-off band anchored by Chris Jones on drums, this was an evening that sparkled with musical magic: Eliza Carthy’s pure and plangent fiddle, Martin Simpson’s filigree slide guitar, Zak Hobbs’s biting Telecaster.
Teddy and his sister Kami harmonised beautifully on the opening number ‘Solitary Traveller’ and the guest vocalists worked their own magic on 16 more Linda-related songs, divided into two sets and two encores. Teddy developed a running joke about everyone else disturbing his carefully arranged cues and lyric sheets.
Five numbers in, he sang the show’s undoubted highlight. ‘The Great Valerio’ is a bleak but beautiful song about a tightrope walker, written by Richard Thompson and originally sung by Linda on their debut album as a duo in 1974. Hobbs channelled his granddad’s genius on acoustic guitar, Tom Rivière played tastefully restrained double bass and Ned Cartwright added a handful of piano notes on the coda. But the singing, oh the singing. Teddy’s heartfelt performance did his mother proud and moved me to actual tears. Amid a thunderous and prolonged ovation I wiped my eyes and heard someone cry out: “Bravo!” It was me.
John Grant introduced his first contribution as “the best gift anyone has ever given me”. This was a song from the new album which is all about him and is titled with bold simplicity ‘John Grant‘. Later he offered a gift of his own with a spellbinding version of ‘Telling Me Lies’, first heard on Linda’s debut solo album in 1985 and immediately covered on the bestselling “Trio” album by Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt.
Ren Harvieu, a new name to me, sang ‘I Used To Be So Pretty’ from “Proxy Music” a song written by Linda to lament the loss of her youthful beauty. The song seemed slightly incongruous coming from a Goth princess who is still very pretty indeed. She has a serene stage presence and a voice that somehow manages to be both powerful and ethereal. Her partner Stodart reached deep into the back catalogue for ‘Lover Won’t You Throw Me A Line’. He said that when he played it for Linda she said: “Oh, I don’t know this one.” That makes me feel better about not recognising it either but in fact it’s another cut from her solo debut.
Near the end of the second set, Eliza Carthy brought on a percussive dancer and a synth bass player for ‘That’s The Way The Polka Goes’, a co-write based on nursery rhymes from Linda’s Glasgow childhood.
The evening closed with everyone on stage for Richard and Linda’s best-loved song, ‘I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight’. This was sung as a duet by Kami Thompson and Ren Harvieu, with keys player Cartwright picking up a sax to stand in for the entire CWS (Manchester) Silver Band on the original. And finally we saw Linda on stage, a tiny figure in a baseball cap, flitting among friends and family to dance, hug, say thank-you’s and receive a bouquet of flowers.
Most shows like this are staged as tributes after an artist dies. Linda Thompson is very much alive and even though it’s sad to think we won’t hear her gorgeous voice on any new material, her superb recorded legacy is there to enjoy – and perhaps there are still more great songs to come.
