Richard Thompson, co-founder of the legendary English folk-rock band Fairport Convention, made his Elbphilharmonie debut in summer 2022 with a solo concert in the Recital Hall. Fans and high-ranking colleagues alike regard him as the consummate guitarist. Thompson is not a magician, however, but someone who really works on his acoustic instrument; you can hear from the first notes that he has spent his entire life practising and playing, writing and refining songs. And that makes him all the more honest and direct as a performer.
He recently published his autobiography, where he looks back at a good 50 years of British folk and rock history and at his own, not insignificant role in it. In the »Elbphilharmonie Talk« he speaks a lot about the very readable book, and tells us how he felt looking back over such a long period of time in order to make a narrative out of it. What role does memory play – your own, and that of companions – when you never kept a diary and may find there are some things you may have forgotten completely?
Richard Thompson is just the same in an interview as he is on stage: a friendly, (self-) ironic emcee on his own behalf. He was never a superstar, as folk-rock is simply not superstar music, and he seems completely at ease with that. What prompted this icon of utterly British music and culture to leave his native England years ago and move to America? Thompson explains how he manages effortlessly to preserve his Britishness among the Yankees. And at the end of the interview, this grandiose guitarist tells us which instrument he would most like to play.
