Latest Release
- 30 JUN 2023
- 10 Songs
- Yearbook · 2022
- Yearbook · 2022
- Lifeline · 2020
- Echo Chamber · 2017
- Live at Abbey Road · 2023
- Live at Abbey Road · 2023
- Live at Abbey Road · 2023
- Live at Abbey Road · 2023
- Live at Abbey Road · 2023
- Live at Abbey Road · 2023
Albums
Singles & EPs
Live Albums
About RJ Thompson
Raised in the north east of England, this multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter purveys a brand of soulful, '80s-inspired, radio-friendly pop/rock, underpinned by an earnest nature akin to that found in traditional English folk music. Christened Richard John Thompson -- the same birth name as the famed Fairport Convention guitarist -- he decided to opt for the RJ Thompson moniker ahead of a 2007 tour of Germany with Midge Ure. 2011 saw his first national airplay with singles included on The Cognitive Rules EP. By 2014, he was touring large venues, like the Royal Albert Hall, with Jools Holland. Thompson's subsequent full-length studio release -- 2017's Echo Chamber -- brought further exposure before 2020's Lifeline hit number five on the U.K. Album Chart after it was issued physically the following year. Born in 1985 in the market town of Bishop Auckland, County Durham, RJ Thompson was inspired to pursue a career in music, equally inspired by the canons of Michael Jackson and Bruce Springsteen from a young age. Naturally, he gravitated toward the Newcastle music scene -- his hometown's nearest city -- and by the age of 18, he'd self-released 2003's Hidden Daylight as Richard John Thompson, on his own Chicken Wire label. Three years later, he issued Illogical Life, an album produced by Fred Purser at Trinity Heights that he would later discount as a collection of demos. 2007's Acoustic Sessions EP was his first to use the name RJ Thompson on the cover, and he spent subsequent years touring the U.K. with artists such as the Proclaimers, Gabriella Cilmi, and Sandi Thom. He enjoyed muted success with 2011's The Cognitive Rules EP, but it was 2014's House Upon the Hill EP which really started to get him noticed. It contained a set of songs that he'd begun demo'ing in May 2012, and in the build-up to its release -- as well as prestigious dates with Holland -- he toured with acts such as Deacon Blue and Ultravox. House Upon the Hill also caught him in a transitional period. While tracks such as "No Man's Land" and "Born Alone" had similarities to the commercial English folk of Seth Lakeman, the title track was an early indicator of the unashamed '80s pop-inspired sound with which Thompson would ultimately taste success. 2015 brought a European tour with Joan Armatrading before the release of a 2016 in-concert document, simply titled Live. 2017's synth- and falsetto-driven Echo Chamber recalled, in places, Phil Collins-era Genesis, and was what Thompson considered his debut studio album. However, it was late-2020's Lifeline which crystalized the production sheen that had brought him into the mainstream. The record nodded to the mid-'80s output of artists such as Stevie Winwood and Feargal Sharkey, particularly on its singles "Kids" and "So Right." ~ James Wilkinson
- HOMETOWN
- Bishop Auckland, County Durham, England
- BORN
- 25 June 1985
- GENRE
- Singer/Songwriter