Chris Thompson

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1973 cover of the self titled "Chris Thompson" album


Chris Thompson started out in the Kon-Tiki Folk Club in Hamilton in 1965, then turned professional in 1968. In the early seventies he moved to England, where he played guitar in the band of Californian folk singer Julie Felix. While in England, Chris played with British Folk-Blues legends Wizz Jones and Davey Graham and in 1973 made his first album, which is recognised internationally as an underground classic and is currently in its fourth edition. In New Zealand in 1974 Chris toured with Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee; and maintained a lifelong friendship with Brownie, for whom he wrote a song ("Letter to Brownie"), which became a video directed by Adam Hyde (then a student at Waikato Polytech) and filmed by Wayne Green, and was screened on TVNZ.

Chris is an old boy of Southwell School and has spent most of his life in and around Hamilton, where he recorded Hometown Voodoo in 1981; this album contains the song Hamilton, about the city. This song has become widely known due to a version played by Big Muffin Serious Band. He moved to Auckland in 1985, and married a Canadian-born musician and songwriter Lynne, with whom he has released two albums, but has since moved back to Hamilton and Raglan.

In 1984, Chris toured New Zealand with Stevie Ray Vaughan, opening the show in a major nationwide concert tour. Thompson has had three albums reach the finals of the New Zealand Music Industry awards, and has had his songs recorded by New Zealand artists Mike Harding, Big Muffin Serious Band, Jimmy Young and James Wilkinson, Chris Priestley, and in America, by Meg Baird of the Philadelphia neo-folk group The Espers. In England, The Straw Bear Band and Ben Thistle have recorded Chris' songs. Recently (and again, in America) Chris' song Where is my Wild Rose? has been recorded by Robin Pecknold of The Fleet Foxes. In mid-2015, Little Ballerina, a song Chris wrote for his daughter Lora (who plays in the Hamilton band Cheshire Grimm) was covered by Willard Ribeiro, a singer from Brazil.

Releases

Chris Thompson (Anthology) cover art

as Chris and Lynne Thompson:


Compilations:

External Links

White Sapphire cover

Internet

Videos on Youtube:


This Chris Thompson should not be confused with Chris Thompson, the vocalist from Manfred Mann, who also spent time in Hamilton, including attending Hamilton Boys High School.