Julie Tippetts (born Julie Driscoll, 8 June 1947) is an English singer and actress, known for her 1960s versions of Bob Dylan and Rick Danko's "This Wheel's on Fire", and Donovan's "Season of the Witch", both with Brian Auger and The Trinity. Along with The Trinity, she was featured prominently in the 1969 television special 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee, singing "I'm a Believer" in a soul style with Micky Dolenz. She and Auger had previously worked in Steampacket, with Long John Baldry and Rod Stewart.
"This Wheel's on Fire" reached number five in the United Kingdom in June 1968. With distortion, the imagery of the title and the group's dress and performance, this version came to represent the psychedelic era in British rock music. Driscoll recorded the song again in the early 1990s with Adrian Edmondson as the theme to the BBC comedy series Absolutely Fabulous, the main characters of which are throwbacks to that era. (Read more at Wikipedia.)
Links to Peel[]
Peel first encountered Julie Driscoll in October 1967, when she did a guest spot on an evening at Middle Earth he was hosting; with the main attraction being the Blossom Toes. In his International Times column he wrote:
The Blossom Toes wove curious spells at the Middle Earth last week and they must be heard. They have a single release, “What On Earth”, which is not appearing in as many homes as it should be….....Julie Driscoll, also with impending Marmalade release, was singing some lonely, beseeching little songs she’d just written which are as beautiful as she is – I hope they are released [1]
After this, it wasn't long before Julie Driscoll appeared on Top Gear, her first session going out on 19 November 1967, but she didn't sing the self-penned material Peel described. The record released on Marmalade was Open, her first LP with Brian Auger's Trinity, and, like their Peel sessions and later LPs, it contained a number of cover versions. Driscoll and Auger's best-known tracks were written by others, notably "This Wheel's On Fire" which made Julie Driscoll a star, through appearances on Top Of The Pops and other TV shows. Peel wasn't the only one to be struck by her beauty; she was photographed in the Eastern-inspired clothes which were the London fashion scene's response to the hippy trend, and was dubbed "The Face of '68". She and Peel were photographed together when both were pollwinners in the Melody Maker Pop Awards of 1968 (picture here).
But this kind of celebrity didn't appeal to her, and she turned her back on stardom, leaving Auger's band in the middle of a US tour and issuing a solo album, 1969, which pointed to the less commercial, more experimental direction she was to pursue and was not issued until 1971. She married the jazz pianist Keith Tippett, who had worked with her on the album, adopted the name Julie Tippetts and began to work on her husband's projects. Although she was not present on either of the sessions Keith Tippett's group made for Top Gear in the early 1970s, she appeared at Robert Wyatt's Theatre Royal Drury Lane concert on 8 September 1974, which was introduced by Peel and was eventually released on CD. A decade later she sang on the Peel session by Working Week, a band whose members included some names from the experimental, free-improvising scene she was (and still is) involved with - a genre which barely appeared in Peel's later playlists.
Festive Fifty Entries[]
- None
Sessions[]
- None under own name - most of her work in this period was with groups rather than as a solo artist. Three with Brian Auger's Trinity, one with Working Week.
Other Shows Played[]
- Available tracklistings suggest none under own name. Possible exceptions may be tracks from her 1969 LP, which was released in 1971, a year for which few trackistings have so far appeared.
- 24 March 1968 (with Brian Auger & The Trinity): This Wheel's On Fire (7") Marmalade 598006
- 03 August 1969 (with Brian Auger & The Trinity): Ellis Island (album - Streetnoise) Marmalade 608005/6
- 17 August 1969 (with Brian Auger & The Trinity): Finally You Found Out (album - Streetnoise) Marmalade 608005/6
See Also[]
- Longest Gaps Between Peel Session Appearances
- The Hammond: A Vital Organ
- ABC Of Beauty
- Gigography 1967
- Gigography 1968
- International Times: Perfumed Garden Column