Roger Hodgson

Charles Roger Pomfret Hodgson (born 21 March 1950) is an English singer, musician and songwriter, best known as the former co-frontman and founding member of the progressive rock band Supertramp.

Hodgson composed and sang the majority of the band’s hits, including "Dreamer", "Give a Little Bit", "Take the Long Way Home", "The Logical Song", "It's Raining Again", and "Breakfast in America".

Hodgson was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, on 21 March 1950, the son of Charles and Jill Hodgson (née Pomfret), and grew up in Oxford.

He attended the boarding schools Woodcote House near Windlesham, Surrey, where he was the first boy to learn electric guitar, and Stowe School near Buckingham.

Hodgson's first guitar, given to him when he was 12, was a parting gift from his father when his parents divorced.

He took it to boarding school with him, where his teacher taught him three chords.

He began composing his own music and lyrics and within a year gave his first concert at school with nine original songs at the age of 13.

Hodgson's first band at school consisted of him on guitar and his friend Roy Hovey playing snare drums.

They were dubbed the "H-bombs" because of their last names.

When aged 19, Hodgson made his first appearance in a recording studio as guitarist for People Like Us, a band he joined shortly after leaving boarding school.

The group recorded a single, "Duck Pond" and its B-side "Send Me No Flowers", which was never released.

After People Like Us disbanded, Hodgson auditioned for Island Records, with Traffic's road manager providing him a foot in the door with the label.

Island set him up in a recording studio as vocalist for the one-off "flower power" pop band Argosy, which also included Reginald Dwight (later known as Elton John), Caleb Quaye and Nigel Olsson.

Hodgson has stated the song was inspired by the Beatles' "All You Need Is Love", released during the love and peace movement of the 1960s.

Their sole single, "Mr. Boyd" and B-side "Imagine", consisted of two pieces of orchestrated pop (both penned by Hodgson) and was issued in 1969 on the DJM (UK) and Congress (US) record labels.

All the songs on Supertramp's self-titled first album, released in 1970, were composed by Hodgson, Davies, and Palmer.

Hodgson and Davies collaborated on the composing while Palmer wrote the lyrics.

Palmer left shortly after the album's recording, allowing Hodgson to switch back to guitar (as well as providing keyboards with Davies).

From their second album Indelibly Stamped forward, Hodgson and Davies wrote separately with each singing lead vocals on their own compositions.

Crime of the Century, released in 1974, was the first of their albums to feature the line-up of Hodgson, Davies and new members Bob Siebenberg (drums), Dougie Thomson (bass) and John Helliwell (saxophone, clarinet, keyboards, backing vocals).

This line-up would remain unchanged for the remainder of Hodgson's tenure in the group.

Hodgson's song "Dreamer" became the band's first hit and drove the album to the tops of the charts.

It was one of the first keyboard songs Hodgson wrote on his new Wurlitzer piano that he bought when he was 19 years old.

"Dreamer" was written after setting the keyboard up at his mother's house, at the first opportunity he had to play it.

At the time, Hodgson had a two-track tape recorder and made a "very magical" demo of the song on the spot with multiple vocal harmonies, using tin cans, lampshades and cardboard boxes for percussion.

He has said he loves playing the song in concert because it "just brings out the dreamer in everyone. So often we let go of that side of ourselves and it kind of reminds the audience and reminds me when I'm singing it, too, to keep that place in us alive."

The follow-up Crisis? What Crisis?, their first album to be recorded in the US, was released in 1975.

The album charted on both the UK Top Twenty and the US Top Fifty.

By their 1977 release Even in the Quietest Moments, the band had permanently relocated to the United States.

Hodgson's opening song on the album, "Give a Little Bit", became an international hit single (number 15 US, number 29 UK, number8 in Canada) and was written at 19 or 20 years of age; he introduced it to the band for recording five to six years later.

In 1983, Hodgson left Supertramp and moved his family away from Los Angeles to live a simpler lifestyle close to nature.

After releasing two solo albums in 1984 and 1987, he took a break from his music career to spend time with his children as they were growing up.

He returned to touring in 1997, and released a third solo album in 2000.

Hodgson often writes about spiritual and philosophical topics, and his lyrics have been described as personal and meaningful.

"Mr. Boyd" was covered in 1997 by Jake Shillingford and his band My Life Story on their album The Golden Mile.

After the break-up of Argosy, Hodgson, responding to an advert placed in Melody Maker by Rick Davies, auditioned for the guitarist spot in the progressive rock band Supertramp.

Similar to fellow British prog rockers Genesis' search for a new lead vocalist, 93 guitarists auditioned before Hodgson was chosen for the role, but when Richard Palmer arrived the next day to audition for the same spot, Hodgson agreed to learn bass instead.

Diana, Princess of Wales loved the song, and Hodgson performed it in her honour at the 2007 Concert for Diana at Wembley Stadium.

Hodgson said of the performance: "It was very wonderful when the audience all stood up, and the princes also, to sing 'Give a Little Bit' with me. That was a magical moment."

Hodgson has said it is a wonderful feeling as an artist to close his concerts with the song: "I look out and people just start hugging each other and they start singing with me. It's a very unifying song with a beautiful, simple message that I'm very proud of and really enjoy playing today."