The Guardian is inviting readers to send questions to Richard Thompson, the British folk guitarist and songwriter, before his new album Hippies, Thugs and Heroes comes out on 16 October. Questions must be posted in the comments under the newspaper’s callout before 10am BST on Monday 12 October, and Thompson’s answers will be published in print and online.
What happened
The Guardian has opened a reader interview with Richard Thompson. The newspaper calls him an undisputed icon of British folk music and says he will answer questions about the new record and about anything else from his long career.
Hippies, Thugs and Heroes is Thompson’s 20th solo studio album. According to The Guardian, it is full of picaresque characters and storytelling, and its songs are instinctive and were often recorded in just a couple of takes. Thompson is now 77, and the paper notes that his solo albums still trouble the UK charts.
His career began in his teens, when he formed Fairport Convention. The Guardian says the band chose to write new material instead of relying on covers and folk standards. Their records, including Liege and Lief from 1969, then became part of the British folk canon themselves.
Thompson later went solo after what the newspaper describes as a “gut decision”. He soon formed a duo with Linda, whom he had married in 1972. Together they released albums including I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight and Pour Down Like Silver. The Guardian also reports that Thompson converted to Islam, specifically Sufism, and stepped away from music for a time before returning in the late 1970s. After he and Linda split, he moved to the United States with his new partner.
The Guardian describes his body of work as radically cosmopolitan. He draws on music from around the world, the fringes of rock and several folk traditions, all carried by what the paper calls astoundingly accomplished guitar playing. He has worked with the film-maker Werner Herzog, the musician David Byrne and the actor and writer Harry Shearer. His stage show 1000 Years of Popular Music tried to cover a whole millennium of song, from the medieval Sumer is Icumen In to Oops! I Did It Again.
Why it matters if you live in United Kingdom
If you are new to the country and want to understand its music, Thompson is a good place to start. The Guardian presents his early work with Fairport Convention as part of the British folk canon, and Liege and Lief is the album it names. Those records are a direct route into a tradition that shaped a great deal of the music that followed in Britain.
The callout also lets you put a question to a major musician yourself, and anyone can take part. Post your question in the comments under The Guardian’s article before 10am BST on Monday 12 October. BST is British Summer Time, which the UK uses until the clocks go back at the end of October. If you have only recently arrived, check that you are working in UK time and not the time zone you came from.
The answers will appear in the Film & Music section of the Friday edition that follows the deadline, and also online. Readers who like a printed paper can pick up that edition. Everyone else can read the interview on The Guardian’s website.
The timing suits new listeners too. The album is out on 16 October, so you can play it alongside the interview, or work back through the earlier records The Guardian mentions first. The newspaper’s summary of his career makes a short listening guide on its own: Fairport Convention, the albums with Linda, and then the long run of solo records that ends with this one.
What to watch next
The two dates to note are close together. The question deadline is 10am BST on Monday 12 October, and Hippies, Thugs and Heroes comes out on 16 October. Thompson’s answers will follow in the next Friday edition of The Guardian’s Film & Music section and on the paper’s website.
Because The Guardian says his solo albums still trouble the UK charts, it will be worth seeing how his 20th solo studio album does after release. The interview may also show how Thompson, now based in the US, sees his British folk roots after six decades of work, and how the quick, few-take approach behind the new songs compares with the records that made his name.
For more coverage of arts and culture in the UK, visit Mylistingo.
Source: The Guardian
Sources
- The Guardian: Post your questions for Richard Thompson, accessed 9 October 2026
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