Roger Hodgson
Charles Roger Pomfret Hodgson (Portsmouth, Hampshire, March 21, 1950), better known as Roger Hodgson, is a British musician and composer, founder with Rick Davies of the progressive rock band Supertramp and composer of much of the group's musical catalog until their departure in 1983. He is also recognized for his high-pitched voice, a hallmark of Supertramp's music, as well as the subject matter of his songs., which usually relate spiritual and philosophical themes.
After leaving Supertramp in 1983, Hodgson launched a solo career with the release of the album In the Eye of the Storm, recording three studio albums to date. Despite several attempts to resume collaboration with Rick Davies, his former partner in Supertramp, Richard Hodgson has focused his artistic career since 1997 on offering periodic concerts during extensive annual tours, in which he combines solo performances with concerts backed by a support band.
Biography
1950–1969: Early years and musical origins
The son of Charles Hodgson and Jill Hodgson, Roger Hodgson was born on March 21, 1950 in Portsmouth, England and grew up in Oxford, in a middle-class family. He attended Woodcote House School, near Wallingford, where he learned to play the electric guitar, and later attended Stowe School, near Buckingham. At the age of 12 his father gave him his first guitar and he learned three basic chords from his teacher at school. compose their own music, and at the age of 13 offered their first concert at school performing nine of their own songs.
Hodgson formed his first band at school, called the H-Bombs and consisted of himself on guitar and Roy Hoby playing a snare drum. At the age of 19, he entered a recording studio for the first time as a guitarist for the group People Like Us, which he formed shortly after graduating from boarding school. The group recorded two songs, "Duck Bound" and "Send Me No Flowers", which were never released.
After People Like Us broke up, Hodgson auditioned for Island Records, thanks to the help of Traffic's manager. Island used him as lead singer for the group Argosy, formed by Reginald Dwight (later known as Elton John), Caleb Quaye and Nigel Olsson. The group's only recording was two songs, "Mr. Boyd" and "Imagine", composed by Hodgson and released as a single in 1969 by two independent labels, DJM in the UK and Congress in the US. "Mr. Boyd »was covered in 1997 by Jake Shillingford and his group My Life Story on their album The Golden Mile.
1969–1983: With Supertramp
After Argosy broke up, Hodgson responded to an ad placed in Melody Maker by Rick Davies, who was looking for a guitarist for a new progressive rock group under the name Supertramp. Hodgson got in The job initially, but the arrival the next day of Richard Palmer and his hiring as guitarist forced Hodgson to learn the bass guitar.
Although the songs on the group's first album, Supertramp, released in 1970, were credited to Hodgson, Palmer and Davies, the lyrics were composed by Palmer. Palmer's departure from the group allowed Hodgson to return to the guitar and focus, along with his partner Davies, on writing songs for Supertramp from their second album, Indelibly Stamped.
With a regular lineup consisting of John Helliwell on saxophone, Bob Siebenberg on drums and Dougie Thomson on bass, Supertramp achieved their first commercial success with the album Crime of the Century, which reached No. number one on the Canadian charts and number 38 on the Billboard 200 list. The group's success continued with their subsequent albums, Crisis? What Crisis? and Even in the Quietest Moments, and reached its apogee with the 1979 publication of Breakfast in America, which reached No. the Billboard 200 chart and has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide to date.
Between 1974 and 1983, all of Supertramp's songs were legally fixed with shared credit between Davies and Hodgson. However, the two composers never wrote in tandem, and roughly each wrote half of the band's music catalogue. group, belonging to Hodgson songs like "Give a Little Bit", "Breakfast in America", "The Logical Song", "Take the Long Way Home" and "It's Raining Again", among others.
Davies' use of songs composed by Hodgson, generally more commercial and recognized as a Supertramp trademark, became one of the main disputes with his former bandmate since Hodgson's departure. Throughout Supertramp's history, the friendly relationship between Davies and Hodgson grew prematurely estranged as their musical inclinations and their respective lifestyles became less and less the same.
After the tour to promote Breakfast in America and the 1980 release of the album Paris, Hodgson changed his residence and moved from Los Angeles to the northern mountains from California, where he built a home and recording studio and began to focus his activities on his family and spiritual life. Geographical distance further separated Hodgson from the group, and during the recording of ... Famous Last Words..., Davies and Hodgson found it difficult to reconcile their respective musical ideas. As Bob Siebenberg stated in relation to the musical approaches of Davies and Hodgson: “In the end, they both changed their formats and the image of what the album should be like. It became a watered down version of what they had thought."
Released in 1982, ...Famous Last Words... became Supertramp's last work with Hodgson, and was followed by a promotional tour in 1983 where Hodgson announced he was not going to continue with Supertramp. According to Hodgson, his departure was motivated by a desire to spend more time with his family and to publish solo work, and that there were never any personal or professional problems between him and Davies.
1984–1999: In the Eye of the Storm and Hai Hai
Since leaving Supertramp in 1983, Hodgson has recorded three albums in his private recording studio, the first shortly after leaving the group. Entitled Sleeping With The Enemy, the album was recorded in the months between the release of ...Famous Last Words... and its subsequent promotional tour, and was mixed during rehearsals with Supertramp hoping to promote a song during the group's concerts. However, at the last minute Hodgson had doubts about the quality of the album and decided to hold off on releasing it, dedicating more time to new songs after finish his last tour with Supertramp.
The final result was In the Eye of the Storm, published in 1984 and mostly self-produced by Hodgson himself, both instrumentally and compositionally. Despite being promoted as the first The work of a former Supertramp member, In the Eye of the Storm did not achieve notable commercial success in either the United Kingdom or the United States. His previous work with Supertramp, the first single, "Had a Dream (Sleeping With the Enemy)", reached number 48 in the United States, while other singles such as "In Jeopardy" and "Hooked On A Problem" did not chart. the charts.
Still not achieving the commercial success of his previous efforts under the Supertramp moniker, In the Eye of the Storm became the biggest critical success of his solo career. Bret Adams wrote for Allmusic a positive review stating that the quality of the album was due to Hodgson's use of most of the instruments, and that although the music lacked progressive rock elements, "the spirit of the musical genre's experimentation is alive on the album, with five out of seven songs exceeding six minutes".
His second album, Hai Hai, was released in 1987 and marked a change in sound towards synthpop-oriented musical trends, while still maintaining Hodgson's usual compositional line. After the release of the album, Hodgson suffered a domestic accident, breaking both of his wrists, which prevented him from promoting his work. As a result, Hai Hai reached only number 163 on the list. Billboard 200 , and Hodgson decided to take a break from touring and recording and spend more time with his children while he recovered from his injuries.
In 1990, Hodgson was offered vocals by the group Yes, but he declined the offer. However, he collaborated with Trevor Rabin to compose the song "Walls", released on the Yes album Talk. A version of the song, featuring Hodgson and Rabin on vocals, was released on the album 90125, featuring demos and studio work by Rabin.
The first attempt to redo the classic Supertramp line-up took place in 1993, after meeting Davies at a tribute concert for Jerry Moss, founder of A&M Records, in which they performed "The Logical Song" and "Goodbye Stranger After the concert, Hodgson and Davies collaborated in the studio developing songs like "In The Light" and "You Win I Lose", later released on the album Some Things Never Change., the collaboration did not give the expected result and Hodgson preferred to continue alone.
After a long break, Hodgson undertook his first tour in ten years in 1994 and released in 1997 Rites of Passage, a live album of songs performed on tour. Rites of Passage was recorded in Nevada City, California and featured a backing band featuring his son Andrew and fellow Supertramp member John Helliwell. Despite not achieving notable commercial success in the UK and US, the album peaked at number 34 in Germany.
Two years later, Hodgson played the role of King Arthur in the rock opera Excalibur: La Legende Des Celtes, a project led by Alan Simon and released in 1999, and appeared on two songs on the album, "The Elements" and "The Will of God". In addition, he contributed backing vocals to the song "The Moon Says Hello" on the album Mayo Longo by Spanish musician Carlos Núñez.
2000 onwards: Open the Door and return to the stage
His third solo album, Open the Door, was released in 2000, following in the wake of his previous works, and features the collaboration of Alan Simon and Trevor Rabin. In August of the same year, Hodgson participated in the Fairport Convention performing the songs "Breakfast In America", "The Logical Song", "Open The Door" and "Give A Little Bit".
During 2001, Hodgson toured as a member of Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band. From 2004 to the present, Hodgson has undertaken annual tours combining solo performances, performing songs on guitar or with the piano, and concerts with a backing band and even, on occasion, with an orchestra, leaving aside any work in the recording studio. His 2004 tour took him to stages in Central Europe and Canada, while in 2005 he expanded his concerts to the United States and gave his first concert in twenty years in London, recorded for a future DVD release that was scrapped. Instead, the concert given at Montreal's Place Des Arts on June 6, 2006 was released on the DVD Take The Long Way Home - Live in Montreal, certified platinum by the Canadian Recording Industry Association. The DVD was released globally by Eagle Vision in 2007 and was certified gold record in german to and France.
In May 2006, Hodgson was honored by ASCAP in recognition of his song "Give A Little Bit", for being one of the most performed songs in the ASCAP catalog in 2005. Two years later he was awarded again by ASCAP. for the Gym Class Heroes song "Cupid's Chokehold", a remake of the widely commercialized song "Breakfast in America" in 2007.
During her 2007 tour, Hodgson participated in the Concert for Diana organized on July 1 at Wembley Stadium, performing a medley of her best-known songs: "The Logical Song", " Dreamer", "Breakfast in America", and "Give A Little Bit".
In 2009 he offered concerts in Europe and North America, visited countries such as Ecuador and Venezuela for the first time and participated in the Viña del Mar International Song Festival in Chile and in the Zacatecas Cultural Festival in Mexico. In 2010 she organized a new world tour with new concerts in North America, South America and Europe, visiting countries like Panama for the first time.
In 2010, bandmate Rick Davies reformed Supertramp again to tour for the group's 40th anniversary. Promoting the tour with Hodgson's songs angered Roger, according to whom the use of his songs breaks a verbal agreement between him and Rick not to perform them in exchange for Davies keeping the Supertramp name. He maintained the line of previous years and offered solo concerts worldwide, and published Classics Live in October, an album in digital format with songs performed during the 2010 tour.
On April 10, 2012, Hodgson began the Breakfast In America Tour in South America, passing through countries such as Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. On May 4, 2012, he was named a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture in recognition of his contribution to the world of art.