Westport High Grad (and Rock Legend) Performing Special Concerts in Europe

Westport High School graduate Charles Thompson IV is hitting the road for a pair of special concerts revisiting his classic album named after an award he won while a student at the school.

Thompson is better known as Black Francis, or sometimes Frank Black, the leader of the alternative rock band The Pixies.

The shows will be in recognition of the 30th anniversary of his solo album Teenager of the Year, which was named for an award he won at Westport High as a member of the Class of 1983.

Get our free mobile app

Any former classmates (or fans in general) who want to see these anniversary shows will need a passport; because they’re happening in Paris, France and London, England.

Francis will play Le Trianon in Paris on Tuesday, February 4, 2025, and the London Palladium on Thursday, February 6, 2025.

During those shows, he will play Teenager of the Year in its entirety.

Francis posted about the origin of the album’s name on his website.

“Sometime in the early 80s, I’d have to look up the date, I matriculated high school. This school held an awards banquet for some of the departing students at the school. I received an award called the TEENAGER OF THE YEAR award; my brother received the same award the following year,” he wrote.

“Our award was a 50 dollar credit for textbooks, a TEENAGER OF THE YEAR medallion (my mother still has this), and also the banquet hall dinner, soup to nuts,” he wrote. “My brother and I had no complaint about the award (it was given for being all-around-good-guy as best as we could determine). But for such a grand title to be given as TEENAGER OF THE YEAR, I felt the glory had not been amplified enough.”

READ MORE: Pixies Founder Black Francis Is a Westport High Graduate

Francis then gave an in-depth description of the recording of the 1993 solo sessions – he had already broken up The Pixies earlier that year – that eventually became the Teenager of the Year album, including dealing with brush fires and earthquakes.

“I called it TEENAGER OF THE YEAR. It is 30 years old now, and the original band will perform the record at various venues in early 2025. 4AD has remastered the LP for a fresh printing. Enjoy,” Francis wrote, signing it “Black Francis 2024 Meredith, New Hampshire.”

Pitchfork said the 1994 album “is now widely regarded as the defining statement of his solo career and the best album the Pixies never made,” placing it in their top 100 albums of the 1990s.

Not bad for a kid from Westport High.