Julie Driscoll was born on 8 June 1947 in London, and her first taste of the music business was when she was employed by producer/manager Giorgio Gomelsky as administrator of the Yardbirds' fan club in the early 60's. Spotting something about her, Gomelssy suggested a singing career, and her first single was 'Take Me By The Hand', which was recorded with The Harold Geller Group and released on the Columbia label in 1963. Two years later she released 'Don't Do It No More', and the following year saw a cover of The Lovin' Spoonful's 'I Didn't Want To Have To Do It'. In 1967 she recorded an early Randy Newman composition 'If You Should Ever Leave Me', which appeared on the b-side of her 'I Know You Love Me Not' single, although this period is better known for her membership of Steam Packet, an R&B-styled revue band which also featured Long John Baldry, Rod Stewart and the Brian Auger Trinity. She used the Trinity as the backing band for her 'Save Me' single in 1967, which was split into two parts and spread over both sides of a 7", and sticking with the Trinity she scored her biggest hit with their version of Bob Dylan's 'This Wheel's On Fire', hitting the top 5 of the UK charts. Two more singles with the Trinity followed that success, with 'Road To Cairo' appearing in 1968, and 'Take Me To The Water', backed with Richie Havens' 'Indian Rope Man' in 1969. Following a couple of albums with Brian Auger and The Trinity in 1967 and 1969, she released the jazz-rock album '1969' (recorded in that year with The Keith Tippett Group, later going on to marry Tippett in 1970) in 1971. In the late 60's her striking appearance engendered much publicity, and a cool, almost disinterested vocal style formed the ideal counterpoint to Auger's jazz-based ambitions, but as you can hear from these early singles, Gomelsky was right to suggest a career in music, as she had that 'cool' image right from the beginning.
01 Take Me By The Hand (single with The Harold Geller Group 1963)
02 Stay Away From Me (b-side of 'Take Me By The Hand')
03 Don't Do It No More (single 1965)
04 I Know You (b-side of 'Don't Do It No More')
05 I Didn't Want To Have To Do It (single 1966)
06 I Know You Love Me Not (single 1967)
07 If You Should Ever Leave Me (b-side of 'I Know You Love Me Not')
08 Save Me (Parts 1 & 2) (single 1967)
09 I Don't Know Where You Are (Giorgio Gomelsky session 1967)
10 This Wheel's On Fire (single version 1968)
11 A Kind Of Love In (b-side of 'This Wheel's On Fire')
12 Road To Cairo (single 1968)
13 Shadows Of You (b-side of 'Road To Cairo')
14 Take Me To The Water (single version 1969)
Paul over at albumsthatshouldexist has just posted a couple of albums from Julie Driscoll with Brian Auger and the Trinity, but only a few songs actually overlap, and so this will be a nice companion to his posts.
Paul here. Actually, there's a lot of overlap with what I've posted. All but two of the songs here are on the albums I made. (Those two are the first two, from 1963.) But don't worry about it - basically, I posted two albums of her stray tracks, and you have the more streamlined one album version.
ReplyDeleteThere are also a couple of Trinity tracks at the end as well - 'A Kind Of Love In' and Take Me To The Water' - but as you say, this is a one-album overview as part of my UK Girl Singers of the 60's series.
ReplyDeleteI didn't include those two because they're on the studio albums Open and Streetnoise, respectively. But I guess you have alternate versions.
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ReplyDeleteOne of my favourite singers. Thank you so much!
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