Linda Thompson (singer)

Linda Thompson (née Pettifer, born 23 August 1947) is an English singer-songwriter.

This was a set of 1950s rock and roll classics.

A single was released from the album: The Everly Brothers' hit "When Will I Be Loved", which was a duet by Linda and Sandy.

A second single was released soon afterwards "The Loco-Motion", sung by Linda alone.

Two versions exist, one with "Sweet Little Rock 'n' Roller" as the B-side and in a picture sleeve, another with "Don't Be Cruel" on the flip.

Actor Brian Pettifer (born 1953) is her brother.

Around 1966 she started singing in folk clubs, and in 1967 began studying modern languages at the University of London, but dropped out after four months.

She changed her name to Linda Peters.

By day she sang advertising jingles, including one with Manfred Mann.

She recorded the Bob Dylan song "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere", released as an MGM single in 1968 by Paul McNeill and Linda Peters, McNeill being another friend of Sandy Denny and Alex Campbell.

They released a second single as Paul and Linda in 1969 on Page One, featuring the John D. Loudermilk song "You're Taking My Bag".

She met Richard Thompson in 1969, but they did not record together until 1972.

Her reputation led to her being invited to join the Bunch, a loose supergroup of folk rock artists including former Fairport Convention members Sandy Denny, Richard Thompson, and Ashley Hutchings which recorded an album called Rock On.

Thompson is one of the most recognised names and voices in the British folk rock movement of the 1970s and 1980s, in collaboration with fellow British folk rock musician, guitarist Richard Thompson, to whom she was married for ten years, and later as a solo artist.

Born in Hackney, London, she moved with her family to her mother's home city of Glasgow, Scotland, at the age of six.

Later in 1972 Linda and Richard were backing singers on Sandy Denny's solo album Sandy.

Linda teamed up with Simon Nicol and Richard (after he had left Fairport Convention).

Calling themselves "Hokey Pokey", they toured as a trio.

Linda and Richard married in 1972.

Linda sang on Fairport's album Rosie (1973), credited as Linda Peters.

Richard had started to take an interest in Sufism, a mystical form of Islam, in 1973.

After the tour, the couple went to a Sufi commune in East Anglia for six months, then to another in Maida Vale.

Richard announced that he would never play again, but returned after three years.

Linda found herself in a community where all the food was prepared by the women.

In her words, the members were "white middle-class people trying to punish themselves, and everybody else. It taught me a lot. To stay away from sects, mostly."

The next album, I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight (1974) was credited to "Richard and Linda Thompson".

Two albums followed in 1975: Hokey Pokey and Pour Down Like Silver.

Their come-back album was called First Light (1978).

Richard's writing has a strong thread of disdain for fame, wealth and worldly values and attacks political hypocrisy, often in wildly abstract metaphors.

Sunnyvista followed in 1979, and Shoot Out the Lights in 1982.

Shoot Out The Lights was surprisingly successful in America, and the Thompsons, despite the fractured state of their relationship, were offered a long and lucrative tour of the U.S. Simon Nicol described the final tour, in the summer of 1982, as being "like walking on a tightrope", and that as a result the first thing he did on stage was "look for the exit".

The couple had separated by the time that the American tour started, and were barely speaking to each other.

The penultimate date of the tour was in Los Angeles.

Linda then went to stay with her friend Linda Ronstadt.

She made a new start in 1984, singing with "Home Service" at the National Theatre's production of The Mysteries and in 1985 she released her solo album One Clear Moment, then fell silent for eleven years.

One song from the album, called "Telling Me Lies", written with Betsy Cook, was recorded by Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt for their Trio album in 1987.

The recording was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Country Song category.

The tapes were finally released in October 2010 in the Shoot Out The Lights box set, although a version of "Walking on a Wire" from earlier in the tour is on the Free Reed RT boxed set.

When Richard left Linda, she had just given birth to their third child, Kamila.

Linda lost her voice for the next two years as a result of spasmodic dysphonia.