Bridget St John

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Bridget St John (2003)

Bridget St John (born 4. October 1946 in South London as Bridget Hobbs ) is a British singer-songwriter . From the late 1960s to the mid 1970s she was one of the best-known representatives of the British folk scene and was the protégé of radio presenter John Peel . From 1983 she took a break as a solo artist and has performed occasionally in the USA, Great Britain and Japan since the 1990s .

biography

St John was born Bridget Hobbs in South London. Both her mother and sisters played the piano , so the young St John took piano lessons too. However, since she did not get along with her piano teacher, she switched to the viola at the age of 11 . Shortly before graduating from high school , she eventually bought a guitar and taught herself to play the instrument while studying at the University of Sheffield . After a few years as a folk musician, she left Great Britain in the mid-1970s to live with her boyfriend in the USA . But he had a new girlfriend in the meantime, so St John first moved to Canada . She returned to the United States in 1976 and settled in Greenwich Village . In 1982 their daughter Chrissy was born. She remained on friendly terms with John Peel even after moving to the USA.

Musical work

In her sophomore year at university, she met John Martyn , from whom she says she learned a lot. She made her first musical steps in a club for folk music, which was run by David Bowie . Through an acquaintance, St John met the radio presenter John Peel, who invited her to a first peel session in 1968 and signed her to his own record label Dandelion Records a little later. Bridget St John released a total of three studio albums with Dandelion until its closure in 1972; her fourth album was released in 1974 on Chrysalis Records . The British music magazine Melody Maker ranked her 5th among the best female singers in the same year.

At Chrysalis, Bridget St John was contractually bound for another five years after the album was released. She found it frustrating that Chrysalis did not pull out the option of a second studio album and still retained the publishing rights to anything St John wrote and recorded during that time. Only after moving to the USA was she able to come to an agreement with the head of the American Chrysalis representative office and was allowed to record her own demos again . In June 1977 St John played her first concert in New York City . In 1983, one year after the birth of her daughter, she last performed live for almost ten years, and it wasn't until 1993 that she completed a short set at a concert to mark the 30th anniversary of the Strawbs .

The following year, their first two studio albums were re-released as a double album by the British label See For Miles Records, followed in 1995 by the fifth and so far last studio album, Take the 5ifth, on RGF Records. The album contained previously unreleased recordings from 1976 to 1982. Since the mid-1990s she has made a few live appearances, including a. 1999 at a concert in honor of Nick Drake . A live album was released for a concert in Japan in 2001, as well as a 2010 performance with the Japanese folk musician Taku Hayashi . In 2015 she played a joint tour with British guitarist Michael Chapman .

In addition to her solo career, she was an accompanist on albums by Mike Oldfield ( Ommadawn ), Kevin Ayers and Michael Chapman.

Musical classification

Bridget St John interpreted mostly self-written pieces, which is why she was referred to as a singer-songwriter, although her later albums are to be attributed to the folk. Although she covered pieces by other artists such as Donovan , Buddy Holly and John Martyn, she never recorded traditionals , as is usual in the folk scene . Their singing has been described as untypical for the genre because of their deep timbre.

Discography

Studio albums
  • 1969: Ask Me No Questions ( Dandelion Records )
  • 1971: Songs For the Gentle Man (Dandelion Records)
  • 1972: Thank You For ... (Dandelion Records)
  • 1974: Jumblequeen ( Chrysalis Records )
  • 1995: Take the 5th (RGF Records)
Live albums
  • 2009: Under Tokyo Skies ( P-Vine Records )
  • 2011: Jolie Madame Live in Japan 2010 (with Taku Hayashi, Alga Records)
Singles
  • 1969: To B Without a Hitch / Autumn Lullaby (Dandelion Records)
  • 1970: If You've Got Money ( Warner Bros. Records )
  • 1972: Nice (Dandelion Records)
  • 1972: Fly High (Dandelion Records)
  • 1996: The First Cut (Shagrat Records)
Compilations
  • 2010: BBC Radio 1968-1976 (Hux Records)
  • 2010: A Pocketful of Starlight - The Best of (Cherry Red Records)
  • 2015: Dandelion Albums & BBC Collection (4-CD box set, Cherry Red Records)

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b c d Sam Brumbaugh: bridget st. john interview. In: chickfactor # 12. 1999, accessed on September 2, 2016 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f John Tobler: Bridget St John in Conversation. In: Ptolemaic Terrascope. November 23, 1995, accessed September 2, 2016 .
  3. ^ Brian R Banks: Bridget St John - Dandelion Albums and BBC Collection (Cherry Red Records CRCDMBOX 17). In: folking.com. February 22, 2015, accessed September 29, 2016 .
  4. ↑ a b Kieron Tyler: Reissue CDs Weekly: Bridget St. John. In: theartsdesk.com. March 1, 2015, accessed September 26, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME St John, Bridget
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British singer-songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH October 4, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH South London