INTRO
Q&A
JULIE TIPPETTS
Former actress and the voice behind arguably the most famous cover of This Wheel’s On Fire discusses her work with Martin Archer and her current reissue campaign.
Words: Sid Smith
Portrait: Eva Vermandel/Contour by Getty Images
Julie Tippetts has been on a long and varied artistic journey. As Julie Driscoll, she first gained exposure in the early 1960s singing in Steampacket alongside Rod Stewart and Long John Baldry. However, it was with Brian Auger And The Trinity and their Mellotron-drenched cover of Bob Dylan’s This Wheel’s On Fire that she really came to public prominence in 1968. In the 1970s she became known to a different audience as Julie Tippetts after meeting her future husband and musical partner, pianist Keith Tippett, during the recording of 1969, her first solo album. By then she had already stepped away from the hectic pop limelight to explore a freer, jazzier mode of expression through Centipede, Ovary Lodge and countless collaborations, including working with Carla Bley and Robert Wyatt, as well as releasing more solo albums, including Sunset Glow in 1975, described by Wyatt as a companion piece to his own Rock Bottom.