Richard Thompson

Richard Thompson is, to my ears, one of the great guitarists who never quite got the mainstream fame his playing deserves. Co-founding Fairport Convention in 1967 basically helped invent British folk rock, and his solo run starting with Henry the Human Fly in 1972 proved he had a singular songwriting voice to match the fretwork. The OBE and a 2012 Americana Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting confirm what longtime listeners already knew. What I value most is his refusal to soften; he writes dark, literate songs and plays guitar like nobody else. He's a musician's musician, and I mean that as the highest compliment.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Name (English)

Richard Thompson

Name (Japanese)

リチャード・トンプソン

Reading

りちゃーど・とんぷそん

Born

April 3, 1949 (age 77)

Origin

London, United Kingdom

Occupation

guitarist / mandolinist / songwriter / singer / singer-songwriter

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Aries / Ox

Awards & achievements

• Officer of the Order of the British Empire
• 2012 Americana Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting
• MOJO Awards

• Official sitehttps://www.richardthompson-music.com/
• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/rthompsonmusic/
• Xhttps://x.com/RthompsonMusic
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard%20Thompson%20(musician)
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%AA%E3%83%81%E3%83%A3%E3%83%BC%E3%83%89%E3%83%BB%E3%83%88%E3%83%B3%E3%83%97%E3%82%BD%E3%83%B3%20(%E3%83%9F%E3%83%A5%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B8%E3%82%B7%E3%83%A3%E3%83%B3)
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q539955

Tags

• guitarist
• mandolinist
• songwriter

Last updated

September 26, 2026

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.