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Danny Thompson

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For other people named Daniel Thompson, see Daniel Thompson (disambiguation).
Danny Thompson

Daniel Henry Edward 'Danny' Thompson (born 4 April 1939, Teignmouth, Devon) is an English multi-instrumentalist best known as a double bassist. He has had a long musical career playing with a large variety of other musicians, particularly Richard Thompson (no relation) and John Martyn, but including many others: at various times has for example played with Roy Orbison, Julie Felix, Freddie and the Dreamers, Tubby Hayes, Ronnie Scott, Tom Paxton, Donovan, Vivian Stanshall, David Sylvian, Kate Bush, Mary Hopkin, Loreena McKennitt, Tim Buckley, and Davey Graham. For five years, he was a member of Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated, and he was a founding member of the British folk rock band Pentangle. Since 1987, he has also recorded four solo albums. He converted to Islam in 1990.[1]

Biography and career

Thompson's father, a miner, joined the Royal Navy at the start of World War II and was lost in action whilst crewing submarines. When Thompson was aged 6, the family moved to London and he was brought up in the working-class area of Battersea. At school he excelled at football and played as a junior for Chelsea, the team he has supported ever since. Whilst at school he learnt guitar, mandolin, trumpet and trombone before settling on the Upright bass as his instrument of choice.

While he has his own album releases, his highest profile recordings are currently with Richard Thompson e.g. Mirror Blue, The Old Kit Bag, and the concert DVD release Richard Thompson Live in Austin Texas, from the Austin City Limits televised concerts.

Like many musicians, Danny Thompson's life has featured brushes with substance abuse. During his partnership with John Martyn, their drinking and the excessive behaviour it spawned became the stuff of legend. In one incident related by Martyn, he woke up after passing out on a hotel room floor, to find himself under a rug which Thompson had nailed down, leaving only Martyn's head exposed. Thompson went about his business, eating breakfast etc., ignoring Martyn's pleas to let him loose. An acclaimed biography of Thompson was written by John Hillarby.

Danny Thompson spent some time living in 'Clopton, Suffolk' in Suffolk during the late 1970's early 80's with his wife Daphne and son Dan (Danny Junior who went on to be the drummer with 'Hawkwind') The lifestyle was that of a rock star with a country manor and a Bentley and eventually a recording studio in the grounds of Manor House. Despite the fame and fortune Danny was always the gentleman and the guy next door. Danny always made time for everyone he encountered and spent time socializing with the parishioners of The 'Clopton' Crown and The 'Otley, Suffolk' White Hart. Early in the 1980's Danny moved away from Suffolk and back to London as a base to work from. Thompson regularly watches Watford F.C. with his friend Ralph McTell.

Thompson received a Lifetime achievement award in the 2007 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.

"Victoria"

Danny Thompson's initial experience of bass playing was with a skiffle group, with whom he played a tea chest bass (a bass he built himself out of a tea chest, which folded up so he could carry it). In the early 1960s he bought a second-hand double bass from an old man in Battersea who let him have the instrument for £5 (despite the fact that it was worth much more than that), on the basis of his keenness to play it. He christened the instrument "Victoria" and it has remained his instrument of choice ever since. The bass was built by Gand, a French luthier, in 1865.

Victoria has been Thompson's sole instrument for the majority of his career, aside from three tours playing bass guitar for Roy Orbison in 1963.[2] In response to increasingly stringent airline luggage regulations, Danny acquired a Czech-Ease travel bass in early 2007. Victoria is now used for all his work in the UK, with the new bass, named "Alfie", used for all international engagements.[2]

In the early part of the 1980s he worked closely with documentary film-maker, Roy Deverell and composed music for two of his award-winning films, Echo of the Wild and A Passion to Protect. The films are about John Aspinall's pioneering work with endangered mammals.

Partial discography

Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated

  • Red Hot From Alex (1964)
  • Live at the Cavern (1964)
  • Sky High (1966)
  • Blues Incorporated (1967 - re-issue of Sky High)
  • I Wonder Who (1967)
  • 'A New Generation of Blues (1968)

Pentangle

Danny Thompson

  • Whatever (1987)
  • Whatever Next (1989)
  • Elemental (1990)
  • Whatever’s Best (1995)
  • Danny Thompson & Peter Knight (1995)

Richard Thompson and Danny Thompson

Others

Danny Thompson has played on dozens of albums and singles during his career. The following is only a small selection.

References

  1. ^ [1] "In 1999 Danny was interviewed for the BBC TV series Faces of Islam in which he discussed becoming a Muslim and his realisation of the fact that whilst he had only converted to Islam in 1990, the muslim faith had always been within him."
  2. ^ a b The Real Danny Thompson

External links

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