Carroll Thompson
@ the Indigo 02
27 October 2012 - 23 September 2011

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Biography

Carroll Thompson was raised in the gospel traditions of her grandmother’s house, and the church she was minister for, Thompson’s vocal and musical talents soon became evident.

Studying classical piano from the tender age of eight, by the time she was twelve she scored first place in the National Youth Convention with her own composition “I Know He Is With Me”. By the time she left college with a business degree, Thompson was running her own production company and Record label.
As songwriter and producer Thompson experienced her first real chart success. The timeless ‘I’m So Sorry” shooting straight to number one in the British Reggae Charts.

With the release of singles like “Simply In Love”, ‘Just A Little it”, ‘Happy Song”, Hopelessly In Love” and “Yesterday” and her classic debut solo album “Hopelessly In Love” she was quickly established as one of the UK’s finest female vocalist affectionately dubbed the Queen of Lovers Rock selling over 750,000 units worldwide.

The timeless album ‘Hopelessly in Love’ still remains a best seller and has now achieved iconic status, with Thompson’s warm vocals and honest songwriting, symbolising and capturing the magical era of Lover Rock.

Her talents as Music composer and music consultant where credited on the the UK Channel Four film and soundtrack “Babymother” and also the UK film “Knights And Emeralds” where the self penned and produced “Ready or not” featuring her lead vocal.

Carroll Thompson’s writing and production skills have been utilised by the likes of Channel Four, the BBC and Comedy Central USA to name just a few. Recent documentary credits include Kings and Queens of Comedy, History of Female Comedy and History of Jewish Comedy, The history of Hip Hop comedy (featuring the likes of Richard Pryor, Bernie Mac, Bill Cosby and many more.

After a brief stint collaborating and arranging vocals for Jools Holland and creating specialised remixes with the Mad Professor for acts including Sade and Massive Attack, Carroll started a new project writing and featuring on vocals with Japanese music guru Gota And The Heart Of Gold Band which also featured Heitor T.P. and Ian Kirkham (Simply Red) and Drummie Zeb and Tony Gad (Aswad) and Japanese guitar Guru Kenji Jammer. With the success of GOTA, Thompson’s production company signed to Toshiba/EMI and released three top charting solo albums in Japan.

Thompson’s vocal arranging talents being in demand can be currently heard on adverts such as “Celebrate Good Times” (Celebration Chocolates) “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” for DHL and “I’m Every Woman”.

When time permits Thompson works as A&R consultant, writing and producing for new talent and occasionally facilitating singing/song writing master classes and also ‘surviving the music industry’ workshops for aspiring musicians.
She regularly contributes on BBC Radio London ‘Sunday Night Special” and co presents a relationship program BBC 5 Live.

2007 saw her entrepreneurial spirit help launch Colourtelly.TV; ‘Britain’s first online television station for black interest programming’ created with her partner Dotun Adebayo MBE. Primarily due to the dissatisfaction of the lack of African/Caribbean presence on mainstream television This platform also screens the ever popular “Lovers Rock Lounge” a program which she hosts and produces, highlighting established and new Lovers Rock artists singing live in session once a month. A club session and program dear to Thompson’s heart, “An opportunity to keep alive and breathe life into a quintessentially British Genre which is much loved and under represented.” quotes Thompson.