Julie Driscoll

Career

Julie Driscoll first made her mark in the 1960s with two iconic covers: Bob Dylan and Rick Danko's "This Wheel's on Fire" and Donovan's "Season of the Witch," both recorded with Brian Auger and the Trinity. That same group appeared with her in the 1969 TV special 33⅓ Revolutions per Monkee, where she delivered a soulful take on "I'm a Believer" alongside Micky Dolenz. Before that, she and Auger were part of Steampacket, a band that also included Long John Baldry and Rod Stewart.

Their version of "This Wheel's on Fire" hit number five in the UK in June 1968, reached number 13 in Canada, and bubbled under the US Billboard Hot 100 at number 106 that August. With its distorted sound, vivid title imagery, and the group's distinctive style and dress, the track became a defining sound of British psychedelic rock. Driscoll later re-recorded the song in the early 1990s with Adrian Edmondson for the theme of the BBC comedy Absolutely Fabulous.

A major shift came when she met Keith Tippett, whose group played as session musicians on her first solo album, 1969, released in 1971. She married Tippett soon after and began focusing on experimental vocal music, performing under the name Julie Tippetts—using the original spelling of her husband's surname. She collaborated with him extensively, both as a duo (including the 1987 album Couple in Spirit) and on many of his group projects, continuing until his death in 2020.

In 2009, she started working with saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Martin Archer, a partnership that has produced six albums through 2022. Driscoll also sang in Keith Tippett's big band Centipede and performed at Robert Wyatt's Theatre Royal Drury Lane concert in 1974. She released a solo album, Sunset Glow, in 1975, served as lead vocalist on Carla Bley's Tropic Appetites, and appeared on John Wolf Brennan's "HeXtet." Later in the 1970s, she toured with her own band and was part of the vocal quartet Voice, alongside Maggie Nichols, Phil Minton, and Brian Eley.

She reunited with Auger for the 1978 album Encore. In the early 1980s, now as Julie Tippett, she was a guest vocalist on the pop-jazz band Working Week's 1984 single "Storm of Light," a track that helped bring the group wider attention. She also sang on their final album, Fire in the Mountain, released in 1989.