While down in Chelsea looking for
Oscar Wilde's former home I went down to the Embankment to look at the River
Thames. As I'm a nosy nerd who carries lists of things to tick off I saw a blob
in my notebook which noted an album cover had been shot there. I'd only walked
across the road and found myself fairly much at the spot where the photographer
must have stood to take the album cover for Richard Thompson's Hand Of Kindness album.
Richard's a British singer and songwriter
but doesn’t operate in the mainstreams of music. He made his début as a
recording artist as a member of Fairport Convention in September 1967, is still
creative today and performs live at venues across the world. He’s a bit of a
Nick Drake but not as well known; he’s one of those musicians the masses will
come to appreciate twenty years after his death. His longevity at songwriting has earned him an Ivor
Novello Award, a lifetime achievement award from BBC
Radio and an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) from the Queen.
Hand
of Kindness was his second solo studio album by Richard Thompson and it was
released in 1983. As I was in Chelsea I just had to take a photo or two.
The photo was taken across the road
from Keith Richard's former home on Cheyne Walk...