Live at the BBC (Richard & Linda Thompson album)
Richard Thompson - Live at the BBC is a compilation of audio and video recordings made by Richard Thompson for the BBC. The set consists of three CDs and a DVD; the included material was recorded over a number of years. Most of the material was recorded for various TV and radio shows broadcast by the BBC. About 40 % of the included material was performed by Linda Thompson; the second half of disc two plays back at 3 -- 4 % faster than intended. The problem wasn't detected during the mastering portion of the release. All songs written by Richard Thompson except where noted "The Little Beggar Girl" "Dragging the River" "The Great Valerio" "The Neasden Hornpipe" "I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight" "Hokey Pokey" "Georgie On A Spree" "I'll Regret It All In The Morning" "A Heart Needs A Home" "Wishing" "I'm Turning Off A Memory" "A Man In Need" "Withered And Died" "New-Fangled Flogging Reel/Kerry Reel" "Shoot Out The Lights" "Just The Motion" "Back Street Slide" "Night Comes In" "Dimming Of The Day" "Modern Woman "Tracks 1 to 4 were recorded in January 1973 for John Peel's radio show.
Track 5 was recorded in January 1974. Tracks 6 to 11 were recorded in February 1975 for John Peel's radio show. Tracks 12 to 18 were recorded in concert at the Paris Theatre in May 1982. Tracks 19 and 20 were recorded for the BBC Radio show "Folk on 2" in 1982. All songs written by Richard Thompson "She Twists The Knife Again" "You Don't Say" "When The Spell Is Broken" "The Angels Took My Racehorse Away" "Valerie" "Jennie" "You Don't Say" "Fire In The Engine Room" "Wall Of Death" "Nearly In Love" "Valerie" "When The Spell Is Broken" "Two Left Feet" "Turning Of The Tide" "How Will I Ever Be Simple Again" "Ghosts In The Wind" "Shoot Out The Lights" "She Twists The Knife Again" "Withered And Died" "The End of the Rainbow "Tracks 1 to 3 were recorded in July 1985 for Andy Kershaw. Tracks 4 to 10 were recorded in concert at the Hammersmith Palais in November 1986. Tracks 11 to 20 were recorded in January 1987 for Andy Kershaw. All songs written by Richard Thompson except where noted "Gethsemane" "Outside of the Inside" "Wall Of Death" "Word Unspoken, Sight Unseen" "Kidzz" "Did She Jump Or Was She Pushed" "The End of the Rainbow" "One Door Opens" "Outside Of The Inside" "Let It Blow" "Old Thames Side" "Dad's Gonna Kill Me" "Down Where The Drunkards Roll" "I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight" "Needle and Thread" "So Ben Mi Ca Bon Tempo" "The Cutty Wren" "See My Friends" "Time’s Gonna Break You" "William Brown" "Meet On The Ledge"Tracks 1 to 3 were recorded in September 2001 for Andy Kershaw.
Tracks 4 to 7 were recorded in April 2003 for Andy Kershaw. Tracks 8 and 9 were recorded in May 2004. Tracks 10 to 15 were recorded in July 2007 for Tom Robinson's show on BBC 6 Music. Tracks 16 to 18 were recorded in December 2008 for Bob Harris. Tracks 19 to 21 were recorded in January 2009. All compositions by Richard Thompson except where noted "Jet Plane In A Rocking Chair" "A Heart Needs A Home" "Night Comes In" "I'm A Dreamer" "I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight" "Shoot Out The Lights" "You're Going to Need Somebody" "Dargai" "Dimming Of The Day" "Pavanne" "Just The Motion" "Fire In The Engine Room" "She Twists The Knife Again" "Wall Of Death" "When The Spell Is Broken" "Did She Jump Or Was She Pushed" "The Wrong Heartbeat" "Tear Stained Letter" "She Twists the Knife Again "Tracks 1 and 2 were recorded in March 1975 for The Old Grey Whistle Test. Tracks 3 to 9 were recorded in August 1981 for the show "A Little Night Music". Tracks 10 and 11 were recorded in January 1981 for Jake Songs.
Tracks 12 to 18 were recorded in April 1985 for Polydor and broadcast on BBC Television in August 1985. Track 19 was recorded in August 1985 for The Old Grey Whistle Test. Musicians: Richard Thompson – guitar and vocals Linda Thompson – vocals Simon Nicol – guitar and backing vocals Timmy Donald – drums Pat Donaldson – bass guitar Ian Whiteman – piano John Kirkpatrick – accordion, concertina Pete Zorn – bass guitar and backing vocals Dave Mattacks – drums Clive Gregson – guitar and backing vocals Christine Collister – backing vocals and acoustic guitar Gerry Conway – drums Rory MacFarlane – bass guitar and backing vocals
Three Score and Ten
Three Score and Ten: A Voice to the People is a multi-CD box set album issued by Topic Records in 2009 to celebrate 70 years as an independent British record label. The album consists of a hardback book containing the seven CDs and a paper insert detailing the Topic release list complimented by a card insert to balance the release list; the boxed set provides examples of recordings from the beginning of the label in 1939. Topic Records headlines their web site as Traditional and Contemporary Folk from the British Isles but in its history many other genres have appeared on the label; the album provides many examples including tracks from British Music Hall, blues and World Music amongst others. The album was curated and produced by David Suff of Fledg'ling Records. David Suff gave an interview to Simon Holland for Properganda on 27 July which included details of the research and length of time involved in compiling the boxed set. Simon interviewed Tony Engle on 7 August about the album and the work of Topic records.
This interview included a track from each of the CDs in the boxed set. Mike Harding interviewed Tony Engle about the album and anniversary on 2 September 2009 on his BBC Radio 2 folk music show. Topic Records co-hosted three concerts at London's South Bank to celebrate the 70 year anniversary and promote the boxed set; these were held on Friday 11 September 2009 at the Royal Festival Hall featuring The Waterson Family and the Eliza Carthy Band, Thursday 17 September 2009 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall featuring the Martin Simpson Big Band and Friday 18 September 2009 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall featuring June Tabor. There were 2 additional concerts as part of this celebration. Saturday 19 September 2009 at the Purcell Rooms featuring Folklahoma and the Magpies Nest. Friday 25 September 2009 at the Kalamazoo Klub at the Union Chapel, London featuring Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick; the box set was received with a lot of positive comment by the general and specialist press Songlines review by Tim Cumming said "its one of the finest boxed sets I have seen".
Robin Denslow in the Guardian said "the oldest independent record label in the world, the most important company in the story of British folk music, celebrates its 70th birthday this summer, this fascinating, thoughtfully produced seven-CD set and 108-page hardback book marks the anniversary in style". The Doug Spencer on Australian ABC Radio National's Weekend Planet said "This is one of the more remarkable boxed compilations, ever, it has many English gems, but not only English ones". Redlick said "This is a huge labour of love and a wonderful tribute to a record label respected the world over". Charles de Lint in the Green Man review said "This is timeless music that will undoubtedly sound just as good and relevant in another seventy years"; the album won fRoots Reissues and Compilations of the Year and Best Packaged Album of the Year in 2009. The package consists of a 108-page hard-backed book with 4 CDs in the front cover and 3 CDs in the back cover together with a booklet cataloguing all the recordings issued by Topic up to the publication in 2009 and a card insert to balance the recordings list.
The dust jacket shows a photograph of Louis Killen and Frankie Armstrong and the book cover shows Reg Hall and Scan Tester. The book details the history of Topic records with a number of spotlight studies of key albums, brief biographies relating to Topic of artists and other personnel involved in the record label from the start up to the date of issue of the album; the hardback book provides a history of Topic Records from its start as a subscription label run by the Workers Music Association issuing 78rpm shellac records, through the introduction of vinyl and its associated formats to CDs and subsequent to the boxed set the release of some of the older albums as downloads. The book contains pictures of album covers and artists that recorded them for Topic with a chronological history of the label up to 2009; as part of this history there are spotlight studies of classic records and short biographies of key personnel and performers. The catalogue details all the releases from the first record through to 2009.
Each record is assigned a number starting from 1 with a prefix. The catalogue details The Voice of the People series separately. Ewan MacColl’s Radio Ballads which were issued by Argos are listed as they are available though Topic. A separate section details the Topic World Series CDs. A section details the only recording issued under the WMA heading. Three further sections detail the String labels; the seven CDs are themed covering different aspects of the Topic catalogue with a title appropriate to the content. The composer of the track will be displayed under the track name with Traditional when appropriate. A reference to external numbering systems for songs will be used where identified for traditional songs; the references are from the three major numbering schemes for folk songs, the Roud Folk Song Index, Child Ballad Numbers originating from Francis James Child and the Laws Numbers from the George Malcolm Laws numbering system. The original recordings are detailed in the listings. Many of these were not available at the time of issue but are now available as downloads from the usual sources with the original sleeve notes being made available by Topic from their web site.
The disk contains a range of the music from various parts of the English speaking world that Topic Records has issued over its 70-year history. These include English folk songs, instrumentals including dance music, American blues, music hall and a recent composition, played by Irish folk groups. Track 2 is an instrumental issued as part of a joint album with Alexis Korner; this track and track 4 are now
Prospect Park (Brooklyn)
Prospect Park is a 526-acre public park in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Prospect Park is run and operated by the Prospect Park Alliance and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation; the park is situated between the neighborhoods of Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Prospect Lefferts Gardens and Windsor Terrace, is adjacent to the Brooklyn Museum, Grand Army Plaza, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. It is part of the Brooklyn-Queens Greenway, is the second largest public park in Brooklyn, behind Marine Park. First proposed in legislation passed in 1859, Prospect Park opened in 1867 after various changes to its design, it was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux after their completion of Manhattan's Central Park. The park subsequently underwent numerous expansions to its facilities. Several additions to the park were completed in the 1890s, in the City Beautiful architectural movement, further restorations were conducted in the mid- and late 20th centuries. Prospect Park was made a New York City Historic Landmark on November 25, 1975, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 17, 1980.
Main attractions of the park include the 90-acre Long Meadow. The park has sports facilities, including seven baseball fields in the Long Meadow, the Prospect Park Tennis Center, basketball courts, baseball fields, soccer fields, the New York Pétanque Club in the Parade Ground. There is a private Society of Friends cemetery on Quaker Hill near the ball fields. 17,000 years ago the terminal moraine of the receding Wisconsin Glacier that formed Long Island established a string of hills and kettles in the northern part of the park and a lower lying outwash plain in the southern part. Mount Prospect, near the intersection of Flatbush Avenue and Eastern Parkway, is one of the tallest hills in Brooklyn, rising 200 feet above sea level, it is the highest among a string of hills that extends into the park, including Sullivan and Lookout hills. The area was forested, but became open pasture after two centuries of European colonization. Significant stands of trees remained only in the peat bogs centered south of Ninth and Flatbush Avenues, as well as in a large bog north of Ninth Street, contained chestnut, white poplar, oak.
Some of these stands were preserved in the modern-day Prospect Park Ravine and nicknamed "The Last Forest of Brooklyn". During the American Revolutionary War, the park was a site of the Battle of Long Island. American forces attempted to hold Battle Pass, an opening in the terminal moraine where the old Flatbush Road passed from the villages of Brooklyn to Flatbush, it fell after some of the heaviest fighting in the engagement, its loss contributed to George Washington's decision to retreat. Though the Continental Army lost the battle, they were able to hold the British back long enough for Washington's army to escape across the East River to Manhattan. Plaques north of the zoo, as well as the Maryland Monument at Lookout Hill's foot, honor this event; the City of Brooklyn built a reservoir on Prospect Hill in 1856. The need to keep the lots around the reservoir free of development, as well as the preservation of the Battle Pass area, were cited as two reasons for establishing a large park nearby.
The original impetus to build Prospect Park stemmed from an April 18, 1859, act of the New York State Legislature, empowering a twelve-member commission to recommend sites for parks in the City of Brooklyn. At the time, Brooklyn was the world's first commuter suburb, it became the third largest city in the country after New York and Philadelphia. During this time, concepts concerning public parks gained popularity. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux had created Central Park in Manhattan, which became the first landscaped park in the United States. James S. T. Stranahan President of the Brooklyn Board of Park Commissioners, believed that a park in Brooklyn "would become a favorite resort for all classes of our community, enabling thousands to enjoy pure air, with healthful exercise, at all seasons of the year..." He thought a public park would attract wealthy residents. In February 1860. A group of fifteen commissioners submitted suggestions for locations of four large parks and three small parks in Brooklyn, as well as a series of boulevards to connect said parks.
The largest of these proposed parks was a 320-acre plot centered on Mount Prospect and bounded by Warren Street to the north. Egbert Viele began drawing plans for "Mount Prospect Park", as the space was called, published his proposal in 1861; the park was to straddle Flatbush Avenue and include Prospect Hill, as well as the land now occupied by the Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Brooklyn Museum. By late 1860, land had been purchased for Viele's plan. However, the onset of the Civil War stopped further activity, the boulevards and smaller parks were pushed back; the delay prompted some reflection. Vaux took issue with Flatbush Avenue's division of the park, thought that the park should have a lake, urged for southward expansion beyond the city limits and into the then-independent town of Flatbush. Vaux's February 1865 proposal reflected the present layout of the park: three distinctive regions, meadow in the north
I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight
I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight is the second album released by Richard Thompson and the first including and credited with his wife, Linda Thompson as Richard and Linda Thompson. It was released by Island Records in the UK in 1974. Although never commercially successful and critically ignored upon its release, it is now considered by a number of critics to be a masterpiece and one of the finest works of both Richard and Linda singularly or together; the album has been included on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. After the marked lack of success achieved by his first album, Henry the Human Fly, British singer/songwriter/guitarist Richard Thompson started a personal and professional relationship with Linda Peters, a session singer. I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight was the first album by the duo of Richard and Linda Thompson. Sessions for the album took place in Spring 1973 at the Sound Techniques studio, in Chelsea, London with house engineer John Wood co-producing with Thompson.
The album, provisionally titled Hokey Pokey, was recorded on a shoestring budget in a matter of days, but because of vinyl shortages, the album was not released until 1974. Where his first album was treated harshly by the critics, the second was hailed as a masterpiece, it is now regarded as one of the Thompsons' finest achievements. In the sleeve notes for the 2004 CD re-release, David Suff writes: "Throughout the album Richard's sombre, dark songs are driven by his masterful understated guitar and Linda's haunting spiritual vocals; the songs detail a beautiful yet desolate world of life before the fall, the lives of the homeless, the thief and the inebriate. The songs are English in their mood and responsibility, wry observations of the hopelessness of the human condition." Considering the song "End of the Rainbow", Suff writes: Richard denies that the song is pessimistic, "there's always hope in the third verse of my songs" yet the overall effect is a magnificent evocation of disillusionment.
Thompson's songs are despairing but not self-pitying, leaving the listener with an abiding sense of peace and, paradoxically hope. Ignored by reviewers, I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight came to be regarded. Robert Christgau rated it when it was re-released as one-half of Live! Noting that " don't sentimentalize about time gone—they encompass it in an endless present." When it was re-released in 1984, along with other albums in the Thompsons' catalogue, Kurt Loder writing in Rolling Stone described it as a "timeless masterpiece" with "not a single track that's less than luminous". More recent reviews are complimentary. AllMusic notes that the album is "nothing short of a masterpiece" and calls it "music of striking and unmistakable beauty". Q: "After his 1971 departure from Fairport Convention, Richard Thompson found his ideal foil in recent bride Linda. A hugely inventive guitarist, he gives full vent to his talent on this dark. Indeed, he never quite recaptured the murky demons inside the likes of'Withered and Died' again."
In 2003 the album was placed at number 479 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The album appeared in the Mojo "100 Greatest Albums Ever Made"; the title track has been covered by, among others, Lucy Kaplansky, Dori Freeman, Weddings Parties Anything, Arlo Guthrie, Matt Pond PA, Ocean Colour Scene, Julie Covington and Sleater-Kinney. Caitlin Cary, Kate Rusby and Elvis Costello have all covered "Withered and Died". Kelly Willis has sung an acapella version in concert. Costello has covered "The End of the Rainbow," as has Barbara Manning. Maria McKee covered "Has He Got a Friend for Me" on her first solo album Maria McKee; the Fatima Mansions covered "The Great Valerio" on their 1991 mini-album Bertie's Brochures. All tracks written by Richard Thompson. Bonus tracks were recorded at the Roundhouse, London, on 7 September 1975. Richard Thompson – guitar, Hammered dulcimer, tin whistle, electric piano, harmonium Linda Thompson – vocals Timmy Donald – drums Pat Donaldson – bass guitar John Kirkpatrick – accordion, concertina Simon Nicol – dulcimer Brian Gulland – krummhorn Richard Harvey – krummhorn Royston Wood – harmony bass vocals Trevor Lucas - harmony vocals The CWS Silver Band Bonus tracks: Richard and Linda Thompson with John Kirkpatrick, Dave Pegg and Dave Mattacks.
John Wood - producer and engineer Richard Thompson - producer Cover design - unknown2004 CD re-release: Tim Chacksfield - research and project co-ordination Joe Black - project co-ordination for Universal David Suff - sleeve note and archive assistance Phil Smee - CD package design Richard Thompson – The Biography by Patrick Humphries. Schirmer Books. 0-02-864752-1 The Great Valerio – A Study of the Songs of Richard Thompson by Dave Smith. 1001 Albums by Robert Dimery and Michael Lydon
Hokey Pokey (album)
Hokey Pokey is the second album by the British duo of singer Linda Thompson and singer/songwriter/guitarist Richard Thompson. It was recorded in the autumn of 1974 and released in 1975. Listeners keen to try to find connections between the albums by the Thompsons and their personal lives may be confused by the delays between writing and release of the early albums. I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight was conceived and recorded prior to the Thompsons' embracing of Islam, but the album's release was delayed. By the time that album was released the Thompsons were living in an Islamic commune in London. In the meantime, the Thompsons had toured as a trio with Fairport Convention guitarist Simon Nicol. Nicol recalls that period: we did the folk clubs as a trio... It was just after they got married, it was lovely. I look back on that period with great affection... It was powerful. You could hear a pin drop at most of those gigs. Rapt attention. Two acoustic guitars, the bass pedals went through a little backline combo amp, we’d use house microphones...
It was stuff from Bright Lights... and Hokey Pokey, in the process of creation, Hank Williams’ songs... So much of the material on the Hokey Pokey album was written sometime before the album was recorded and predates the conversion to Islam. To add to the confusion the release of the eventual album was again delayed and so the song and the themes of the album lagged behind the development of the Thompsons's personal lives; the album is thematically cohesive for the most part. The first eight songs present a bleak world view with constant images of people living a shallow existence and seeking some kind of gratification - in drugs or sexual encounters, or experiencing a hard and cruel life with the cruelty being dealt out by their fellow humans. "Never Again" portrays an old man looking back on a life devastated by the unexpected loss of loved ones. "A Heart Needs a Home", the ninth song, serves as Richard Thompson's declaration of faith whilst harking back to the unfulfilling existence portrayed in the preceding songs: In terms of musical style Thompson's songwriting on this album reflects a number of British styles despite not being in the English folk-rock style of "Bright Lights": Music Hall, English hymns, traditional brass bands, pub sing-alongs and the double entendres of George Formby are all discernible.
In many cases, Thompson juxtaposes an upbeat tune with a bleak lyric. All songs written by Richard Thompson except. "Hokey Pokey" "I'll Regret It All in the Morning" "Smiffy's Glass Eye" "The Egypt Room" "Never Again" "Georgie on a Spree" "Old Man Inside a Young Man" "The Sun Never Shines on the Poor" "A Heart Needs a Home" "Mole in a Hole" "Wishing" "I'm Turning Off a Memory" "A Heart Needs a Home" "Hokey Pokey" "It'll Be Me" All extra tracks are live and unreleased. Richard Thompson - guitar, mandolin, hammered dulcimer, Electric dulcimer, piano Linda Thompson - vocals Timi Donald - drums Pat Donaldson - bass guitar Simon Nicol - guitar, Hammond organ, vocals John Kirkpatrick - accordion Ian Whiteman - piano, Calliope Sidonie Goossens - harp Aly Bain - fiddle The CWS Silver Band Richard Thompson - The Biography by Patrick Humphries. Schirmer Books. 0-02-864752-1 The Great Valerio - A Study of the Songs of Richard Thompson by Dave Smith
13 Rivers
13 Rivers is the eighteenth solo studio album by British singer/songwriter Richard Thompson. It was released on 14 September 2018 by New West Records in the US and by Proper in the UK. 13 Rivers was written after a period of difficulty for Thompson's family with songs that stick "close to a vision of darkness and noise". Thompson explains that the songs were written in a "fairly tight time period of about six months", giving them a sense of commonality, he states that "many of these songs came to him as a pleasant surprise and that feeling of grabbing the creative urge and running with it is what comes across throughout the running time". The album was self-produced by Thompson with the album and some minor overdubs being recorded on analogue equipment over a 10 day period; the album title derives from the song count, with Thompson explaining that "there are 13 songs on the record, each one is like a river. Some flow faster than others"; this is illustrated further by the album's internal artwork which features a map, "showing the individual songs on the album flowing into a central lake".
On Metacritic, which aggregates reviews from critics and assigns a normalised rating out of 100, 13 Rivers received a score of 81, based on 1 mixed and 6 positive reviews. The album received favourable reviews from the press, with it being described as "brilliant" and "engaging" by PopMatters who state that 13 Rivers is "a raw, unfiltered affair from a veteran artist who shows no signs of slowing down". Folk Radio UK call 13 Rivers "a toothy energetic album" and Uncut write that "13 Rivers is a sparse and noisy record"; the Irish Times agreed that "the tone is ominous from the get-go"" and Mojo write that "this may be Richard Thompson's most creative album in decades" describing the record as being "driven along by a renewed sense of urgency and purpose". NPR feel that the album has captured Thompson's live sound, explaining that "the live show is always spectacular, on 13 Rivers, Thompson more than manages to bring that live energy and those searing and soaring guitar solos to life in the studio".
AllMusic write that "Thompson's vocals are superb throughout" claiming that "13 Rivers is striking music from a musician who remains fresh and peerless". All tracks written by Richard Thompson "The Storm Won't Come" – 6:11 "The Rattle Within" – 3:06 "Her Love Was Meant for Me" – 5:01 "Bones of Gilead" – 4:21 "The Dog in You" – 4:54 "Trying" – 3:35 "Do All These Tears Belong to You?" – 4:13 "My Rock, My Rope" – 3:19 "You Can't Reach Me" – 3:58 "O, Cinderella" – 3:49 "No Matter" – 3:46 "Pride" – 3:17 "Shaking the Gates" – 4:00 Richard Thompson – vocals and keyboards Michael Jerome – drums and vocals Taras Prodaniuk – bass guitar and vocals Bobby Eichorn – guitar Siobhan Maher Kennedy – harmony vocal Judith Owen – harmony vocal on "No Matter" Zara Phillips – harmony vocal
