Julie Driscoll


Julie Driscoll Tippett is an English singer and actress, known for her work with Brian Auger and her husband, Keith Tippett.

Career

Driscoll is 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 33⅓ 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, number 13 in Canada, and Bubbled Under the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States at number 106 that August. 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.
A turning point for Driscoll was meeting Keith Tippett when his group were among the session players on her first solo album 1969 released in 1971. She soon after married Tippett and has since that time concentrated on experimental vocal music, using the name Julie Tippetts, which adopts the original spelling of her husband's surname. She frequently collaborated with Tippett, not only as a duo - which includes 1987's Couple in Spirit album - but also on many of his group projects, up until his death in 2020. In 2009 she also started collaborating with saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist Martin Archer up until the present, releasing a half-dozen albums up through 2022.
She took part in Keith Tippett's big band Centipede, and sang in Robert Wyatt's Theatre Royal Drury Lane concert in 1974. She released a solo album, Sunset Glow, in 1975; was lead vocalist on Carla Bley's album Tropic Appetites; and performed on John Wolf Brennan's "HeXtet".
Later in the 1970s, she toured with her own band and recorded and performed as one of the vocal quartet Voice, with Maggie Nichols, Phil Minton, and Brian Eley. She reunited with Auger for the 1978 album Encore.
In the early 1980s, Julie Tippetts was a guest vocalist on an early single by pop-jazz band Working Week, on the 1984 song "Storm of Light", which brought them to the attention of a wider audience. She also sang on Working Week's final album from 1989, Fire in the Mountain.

Discography

LP/CD releases of note

Below is a selected list of Driscoll's work, sorted mostly by recording date:
  • 1963 – "Take Me by the Hand "
  • 1967 – Open
  • 1968 – "This Wheel's on Fire"
  • 1968 – "Road To Cairo"
  • 1969 – Streetnoise
  • 1969 – Jools & Brian – compilation of early UK singles : Five Parlophone titles by Driscoll, and six Columbia titles by Auger & The Trinity
  • 1970 – The Best of Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity – compilation
  • 1971 – 1969
  • 1971 – Quartet Sequence
  • 1971 – Septober Energy
  • 1972 – Blueprint
  • 1974 – Tropic Appetites
  • 1974 – Genesis: Brian Auger & The Trinity Featuring Julie Driscoll – compilation
  • 1975 – The Rock Peter and The Wolf
  • 1976 – Ovary Lodge
  • 1976 – Sunset Glow
  • 1978 – Frames: Music for an Imaginary Film
  • 1978 – Encore
  • 1982 – with Company
  • 1984 – "Storm of Light" – single with Working Week
  • 1987 – Couple in Spirit
  • 1989 – Fire in the Mountain
  • 1989 – Women With Voices
  • 1991 – The Bristol Concert
  • 1992 – Best of Julie Driscoll & Brian Auger – compilation
  • 1992 – Spirits Rejoice
  • 1993 – Twilight Etchings
  • 1994 – Ixesha
  • 1996 – Couple in Spirit II
  • 1998 – The First Full Turn
  • 1998 – First Weaving: Live at Le Mans Jazz Festival
  • 1998 – "HeXtet: Through the Ear of a Raindrop"
  • 1999 – The Mod Years – compilation
  • 1999 – Shadow Puppeteer – solo
  • 2001 – If Your Memory Serves You Well – compilation
  • 2002 – Fluvium
  • 2003 – The Dartington Trio – Live at the BBC & live at The Vortex
  • 2004 – Dartington Improvising Trio – Live at The Priory
  • 2004 – A Kind of Love-In 1967–1971 – compilation
  • 2004 – Viva La Black: Live at Ruvo Jazz Festival in Ruvo di Puglia, Bari, Apulia, Italy
  • 2005 – Mahogany Rain
  • 2008 – Couple in Spirit – Live at the Purcell Room
  • 2008 – Nostalgia 77 Sessions featuring Keith & Julie Tippett
  • 2009 – Ghosts of Gold
  • 2011 – Tales of FiNiN
  • 2011 – From Granite to Wind
  • 2012 – Serpentine
  • 2015 – Vestigium
  • 2016 – The Nine Dances of Patrick O'Gonogon
  • 2022 – ''Illusion''

    Early UK singles

Parlophone Records:
  • Jun 1965 – R 5296 – "Don't Do It No More" / "I Know You"
  • May 1966 – R 5444 – "I Didn't Want To Have To Do It" / "Don't Do It No More"
  • Apr 1967 – R 5588 – "I Know You Love Me Not" / "If You Should Ever Leave Me"