Interview with Peter Thompson
Peter Thompson:
-00:00 - Background information
-00:30 - Born 4/24/1947, in Oxford, England- currently 46 years old
-01:00 - Musical influences from older brother's records (three years older)- Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, London/Decca labels
-02:15 - Guitar playing skiffle (guitar, washboard, tea chest string bass)
-03:00 - The Outcasts- had a hard time finding practice space: cheap acoustic, then Burns electric guitar
-04:00 - Played for school functions, then US Air Force bases Upper Heyford and Glouster. Introduction to the US on bases
-05:22 - playing bass in early sixties, covers, talent contest, etc.
-06:00 - Four piece rock band covering Chuck Berry, etc.
-07:00 - School functions and clubs
-07:30 - Manager had driving school and the band used his cars to move equipment- still as The Outcasts
-09:00 - Opened for The Big Three, Eric Delany Band, TV talent contest on "Ready, Steady, Go!" TV show, Screaming Lord Sutch
-10:30 - Band broke up, discovered blues around 1965
-11:30 - More interested in blues than Beatles pop
-12:00 - Marble Arch and Sue record labels for blues
-13:30 - Bought tape recorder and started recording and working on songs- fascinated with taping
-14:30 - Marriage at 20 or 21 in 1968/1969- met wife at a gig
-15:00 - Brother working in New Jersey, so they came over to see the US, stay with brother and see what happens
-17:00 - Visited Canada to stay legal- might stay a year- lived in Toronto a while
-18:37 - Acme Blues Band in Toronto- friend Brian Wickham (vocals and harmonica) who played lots of records for him
-20:15 - Ed's had deep record collection
-20:45 - Working in retail
-22:00 - Played smaller clubs in Toronto; Hawk's Nest, Le Coq d'Or
-24:00 - Mike Levine from Triumph, The Band rehearsed across from the shop in a club- got to know them
-26:00 - Moved back to England (1979) for a break, then started to set up a studio
-27:30 - Interested in Reggae, so went to the West Indies: Antigua, Jamaica, Trinidad-
-29:00 - Wife, Diana, cut hair to pay rent while he hung out with other musicians
-30:00 - Island transportation- airfare then
-31:00 - Grenada to England
-31:30 - Culture shock after time in Canada
-32:00 - Jamaican artist Jason Barnes was first to record- in Mad Professor's studio in Brixton- dub
-33:45 - Set up own studio in Redding 1984- basement of house is studio- 16 tracks
-35:30 - Recorded project with members of Status Quo, singer songwriters and local band demos
-38:00 - now working remixing
-40:30 - 1988 Jazz Festival New Orleans visit- someone told him about Floyd's Record store in Ville Platte bought Charles Mann- "Walk of Life"
-44:00 - Wrote to Lee Lavergne at Lanor Records about licensing and make an album of Charles Mann
