John Joseph Thompson
8 April 1964 – 4 February 2021

Dear friends,

We invite you to attend the livestream of the funeral service for our beloved John. A musician, songwriter, poet, comedian, actor, historian, partner, son, brother and friend, John’s larger than life personality and beautiful singing and storytelling had a profound impact on many during his life.
Please share this link with everyone as widely as you can.

There will be a memorial event in April at which you are all invited to gather and carouse.

The funeral is for close family, but everyone is welcome to join the live stream online, and the video will also be available afterwards.

John has requested no flowers. If you would like to make a donation, John’s chosen charities are Karuna Hospice, St Vincent’s Private Hospital Palliative Care Unit and Cancer Council Queensland. Their links are below.

If you would like to offer support to Nicole and Emma, their paypal links are also below.

Music and Links
This is the music that will be used through the service. You may wish to have it ready in case our permissions are over-ridden and the stream is cut...

'Dream 1 (before the wind blows it all away)' by Max Richter. Used with permission.

'Smile' by Charles Chaplin, recorded by Nat King Cole. Used with permission.

'Time is a Tempest' by John Broomhall with additional words by John Thompson, recorded by cloudstreet. Used with permission.


‘Remembering John Thompson’
filmed by Steve Williams (recommended)
Stream will start at 9.45am (with photos) on Friday 12 February.



Alex Gow Funerals live stream
will run concurrently from 10am
pin number required to join - 7095



The funeral is for close family, but everyone is welcome to join the live stream online, and the video will also be available afterwards.

John has requested no flowers. If you would like to make a donation, John’s chosen charities are Karuna Hospice, St Vincent’s Private Hospital Palliative Care Unit and Cancer Council Queensland. Their links are below.

If you would like to offer support to Nicole and Emma, their paypal links are also below.
Karuna Hospice

St Vincent's Private Hospital Palliative Care Unit

Cancer Council Queensland
Support Emma and Nicole through Paypal.


paypal.me/EmmaNixonMusic

paypal.me/NicoleMurrayArtMusic


OBITUARY

John Thompson

1964 - 2021



John Thompson, acclaimed singer, musician, songwriter, poet, comedian, actor, historian, and lawyer, and performer on the world stage, died on 4 February 2021.

John’s earliest musical memories are of sing-alongs around the family piano in the Brisbane suburb of Moorooka. As a result, a disturbing number of music-hall favourites formed his early repertoire (including traditional numbers like, “If You’re Irish, Come Into the Parlour”)

In 1975, John joined the St. Stephen’s Cathedral Boys’ Choir in Brisbane. Singing with them over the next six years, he developed a love of harmony singing and unaccompanied vocals.

After leaving both the choir and school in 1981, John’s life was relatively music-free until he walked into the New Exchange Hotel one Saturday afternoon in 1983 to find a traditional folk session in full swing. He stayed on and has maintained his involvement in Brisbane sessions ever since.

John’s next musical move was into busking, with the madness of Contraband in the Queen Street Mall. Away from the street, John joined a second group, which quickly evolved into No Right Turn. Their tight harmonies and political punch made them a mainstay of the Brisbane folk scene. After No Right Turn, John was a founding member of One Step Forward, developing his trademark harmonies with Maree Robertson and Ann Bermingham.

While all of this music was going on, John was also studying law at the University of Queensland and working with the Legal Aid Office. In 1992, his legal work took him to Townsville where he launched himself into the local folk scene. One Step Forward continued to perform at festivals around Australia and in 1994 played at the National Folk Festival in Canberra. John’s unique vocal style and strength earned him the inaugural Lis Johnson Memorial Award for Vocal Excellence.

It was in Townsville that John started to perform with Martin Pearson, their madcap adventures in satire and storytelling evolving into Never the Twain. (A difficult-to-describe duo; they managed to come up with ‘like two ping pong balls in a washing machine’ )

It was also in Townsville that John met and fell in love with Nicole Murray. In the early years of their relationship, they each performed with different groups before Maree Robertson asked them to support Chris While and Julie Matthews at that duo's first Brisbane performance.The collaboration went well, and shortly after Cloudstreet came into being as a vehicle for their ongoing musical work.

Three years of festivals and two albums later, in 2003 John left the legal world and took up full-time performing. Cloudstreet travelled to the UK for the first time that year and threw themselves into the folk scene there. As well as ten trips to the UK, touring has seen them perform around the globe, with performances in Japan, the USA, New Zealand, Denmark, Morocco and Germany, and performances at dozens of festivals and clubs around Australia.

John played guitar, English concertina and whistle and also began learning trombone and violin. Singing remained his passion and his remarkable vocal range provided some enthralling listening in Cloudstreet’s arrangements. On top of singing with Cloudstreet, John performed as a debater, master of ceremonies, songwriter, and parodist. He was also a registered marriage celebrant and the principal of Australian Ceremonies. In 2009, he toured the UK with the legendary Spooky Men’s Chorale .

In 2012, John was invited to join the Australian cast of War Horse, the National Theatre of Great Britain’s worldwide phenomenon. He played the role of the Song Man from December 2012 to the conclusion of the tour in August, 2013.

Other recent projects have include recording with One Step Forward and creating a one-man show and album, The Great War. In 2015, John was awarded a QANZAC100 fellowship by the State Library of Queensland to undertake a research and song-writing project around the conscription debate in Queensland in the First World War, and produced a show and album called Censors, Conscripts and Queensland. He co-founded the Maleny Celtic Winter School, an annual school for traditional music which ran for 7 years, and played Scottish music for community dances and weddings with The Ceilidh Clan for many years. After expanding to become a trio with Emma Nixon, Cloudstreet recorded two more albums in 2015 and 2019. John’s final concerts included a gala performance with Cloudstreet and a small orchestra at the State Library of Queensland in 2019, and taking the orchestra to his beloved Woodford Folk Festival that year.

He was diagnosed with advanced cancer after Cloudstreet’s 2017 UK tour. John died on 4 February, 2021.



Awards and Achievements

Bachelor of Arts, University of Qld, 1987.

Bachelor of Laws, University of Qld, 1991.

Graduate Diploma of Folk Life Studies, Curtin University.

• 1994 Inaugural recipient of the Lis Johnson Award for Vocal Excellence, National Folk Festival

• 2006 Trad and Now Album of the Year for Dance Up The Sun (with Nicole Murray)

• 2010 Artist of the Festival, Mt Beauty Music Muster (with Nicole Murray, as Cloudstreet)

• 2015 QANZAC 100 Fellowship, State Library of Queensland, for Censors, Conscripts and Queensland: JJ Stable and the Battle for Hansard.

• 2020 Recipient of 'The Order of Woodfordia' (presented to John Thompson for his outstanding contribution to the Qld Folk Federation and Woodfordia Inc, as a dedicated volunteer in many roles; and as a source of wise counsel. A much-loved performer and orator with a stunning voice, known for his strong social conscience, and proudly advocating for Woodfordia across the globe)

• 2021 Recipient of Folk Alliance Australia’s ‘Inaugural Services to Australian Folk Music Award’ for his lifetime contribution to folk music, as a singer, interpreter, songwriter, entertainer, organiser and thought-provoker.



Discography

Cloudstreet
(with Nicole Murray)
2000 Swallow the Concertina
2002 Violet Sarah and Muckle John
2004 The Fiddleship
2006 Dance Up The Sun
2007 Clouds on the Road
2010 Circus of Desires

(with Nicole Murray and Emma Nixon)
2012 The Land of Bright Gold
2015 Clouded House
2019 Cloudstreet and the Little Cloud Orchestra

Never the Twain (with Martin Pearson)
1996 Never the Twain
1998 Live at the Pod

One Step Forward (with Maree Robertson and Ann Bermingham)
2015 Retrospective

Solo work
2011 An Australia Folk Song A Day, blog and double album. http://ozfolksongaday.blogspot.com/
2014 The Great War - solo stage show and album
2015 Censors Conscripts and Queensland


https://mailchi.mp/42d987343acc/vale-john-thompson-online-funeral-link?e=26e9439737