“‘OBSCURE singer and journalist killed’,” says Linda Thompson, imagining the headlines as she takes Uncut’s arm to cross the perilous Fulham Road. “Mind you, it might help the new record… Gold before I’m cold!”
While Thompson is not quite a household name, “obscure” is way off the mark: along with her then-husband Richard, she was responsible for a clutch of folk-rock classics – 1974’s I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight, ’75’s Hokey Pokey and Pour Down Like Silver and 1982’s Shoot Out The Lights – that have all steadily increased in sales and acclaim in the decades since they first appeared. “Fifty years since Bright Lights?” she exclaims, genuinely surprised. “Fuck! How frightening.”
There are carpenters at her Chelsea flat, so Thompson is taking Uncut to a nearby Gail’s, one of her favourite lunch spots. She was a regular there with John Grant while he was in London recording his new album and was there again recently for a coffee with The Incredible String Band’s Rose Simpson.
“I hadn’t seen her for years, it was lovely! I knew Mike and Robin well back then. They were sensational, but they were always trying to talk to us about Scientology. Thank God we didn’t… Actually, would Scientology have been worse than Sufism? I don’t know at this point – I might have ended up with Tom Cruise.”
A persistent vocal issue, spasmodic dysphonia, has meant that Thompson’s solo albums have been rare delights. However, a new one – , her first proper album in over a decade – has just been released. As she’s now unable to sing, it features a host of artists performing 11 of her new songs: including daughter Kami and son Teddy, long-time friends Rufus and Martha Wainwright
