Roger Hodgson

Hodgson was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, on 21 March 1950, the son of Charles and Jill Hodgson (née Pomfret), and grew up in Oxford. He attended prep school Woodcote House School near Windlesham, Surrey, where he was the first boy to learn electric guitar, and public school Stowe School near Buckingham. Hodgson's first guitar, given to him when he was 12, was a parting gift from his father when his parents divorced.  He took it to boarding school with him, where his teacher taught him three chords. He began composing his own music and lyrics and within a year gave his first concert at school with nine original songs at the age of 13. Hodgson's first band at school consisted of him on guitar and his friend Roy Hovey playing snare drums. They were dubbed the "H-bombs" because of their last names.

When aged 19, Hodgson made his first appearance in a recording studio as guitarist for People Like Us, a band he joined shortly after leaving boarding school. The group recorded a single, "Duck Pond" and its B-side "Send Me No Flowers", which was never released.

After People Like Us disbanded, Hodgson auditioned for Island Records, with Traffic's road manager providing him a foot in the door with the label. Island set him up in a recording studio as vocalist for the one-off "flower power" pop band Argosy, which also included Reginald Dwight (later known as Elton John), Caleb Quaye and Nigel Olsson. Their sole single, "Mr. Boyd" and B-side "Imagine", consisted of two pieces of orchestrated pop (both penned by Hodgson) and was issued in 1969 on the DJM (UK) and Congress (US) record labels. "Mr. Boyd" was covered in 1997 by Jake Shillingford and his band My Life Story on their album The Golden Mile.