When you’ve had a career such as Richard Thompson’s, supreme songwriter and guitar virtuoso, with many fellow musicians as fans, your 70th Birthday bash, of course, has to be held at the Royal Albert Hall. On 30th September, a star-studded line-up joined Thompson to play many of his songs along with some of his old favourites and adding a few of their own. Compèred by Thompson’s youngest son Jack – a self-described “Spawn of Thompson”- the night was split into two parts with the first half loosely following Thompson’s musical history in a chronological fashion. Continue reading “Richard Thompson – 70th Birthday Celebration, Royal Albert Hall, London, 30th September 2019”
You know how some birthday parties can be a bit of a washout? Well, that’s not going to happen whilst Richard Thompson is on the case, his invitation lays out his expectation for a good time: “Please join me” he has said “as I celebrate my 70th birthday with an evening of music! The venue is the Royal Albert Hall, London, the date is 30th September, there will be many guests covering 50 years plus of music and a memorable evening guaranteed.” 
Richard Thompson has announced an extensive UK tour for October and November 2018 in advance of a new studio album which will be released later this year on Proper Records, kicking off in lovely Liverpool’s Philharmonic on 11th October. Last year, Thompson released two volumes of acoustic recordings: ‘Acoustic Classics Vol. II’ featuring acoustic renderings of songs from the Richard Thompson catalogue, and ‘Acoustic Rarities’ featuring new recordings of some of the more obscure songs in his repertoire. He celebrated the 50th anniversary of Fairport Convention, the groundbreaking band he co-founded as a teenager in the ‘60s, with a performance at its annual Cropredy Festival last August. He also briefly did a remarkably authentic stint as Abe Simpson when he berated the state of modern music at the AMAUKs last year. 
As we reported last month, folk legend Richard Thompson will release Acoustic Classics Vol. II on his own Beeswing record label, distributed via Proper, on August 11. On the heels of Acoustic Classics in 2014, the follow-up will feature acoustic renderings of classic songs from his catalogue, some previously recorded by other singers, some previously available only in a band format. A second album Acoustic Rarities will be released later in the year featuring new recordings of some of the more obscure songs in the Thompson catalogue, some previously existing only as cover versions. 
Following the success of his Acoustic Classics album in 2014 when the celebrated singer songwriter and guitarist revisited his back catalogue Richard Thompson returns to the format with two new albums which will be released simultaneously on August 11th.