| Biography | Julie Tippetts (born Julie Driscoll, 8 June 1947, London, England) is an English singer and actress, known for her 1960s versions of Bob Dylan & Rick Danko's "This Wheel's on Fire", and Donovan's "Season of the Witch", both with Brian Auger & 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 music. Driscoll recorded the song again in the early '90s with Adrian Edmondson as the theme to the BBC comedy series Absolutely Fabulous, whose main characters are throwbacks to that era.
Since the 1970s, Driscoll has concentrated on experimental vocal music, married jazz musician Keith Tippett and collaborated with him. Her name is now 'Julie Tippetts', thus using the original spelling of her husband's surname. She participated in Keith Tippett's big band Centipede and, in 1974, took part in Robert Wyatt's Theatre Royal Drury Lane concert; released a solo album, Sunset Glow in 1975; and was lead vocalist on Carla Bley's album Tropic Appetites and in 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.
In the early 1980s, Julie Tippetts was a guest vocalist on an early single by pop-jazz band Working Week, on the song "Storm of Light", which brought them the attention of a wider audience. Though the band later continued with other vocalists - notably with Tracey Thorn of Everything but the Girl fame and the band's long term staple, another Julie, last name Roberts - it was this single that marked the band's arrival and a brief infatuation from the British and European public with stylish pop incorporating a strong jazz flavor, thus marking Julie Tippetts, née Driscoll, as a vocalist for every age. |