Marianne Faithfull Biography
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Marianne Faithfull’s long and distinguished career has seen her emerge as one of the most original female singersongwriters this country has produced; Utterly unsentimental yet somehow affectionate, Marianne possesses that rare ability to transform any lyric into something compelling and utterly personal; and not just on her own songs, for she has become a master of the art of finding herself in the words and music of others. Marianne Faithfull’s story, has of course, been well documented, not least in her entertaining and insightful autobiography FAITHFULL (1994). Born in Hampstead in December 1946 Faithfull’s career as the crown princess of swinging London was launched with As Tears Go By; the first song ever written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, five albums followed whilst Marianne also embarked on a parallel career as an actress, both on film in GIRL ON A MOTORCYCLE (1968) and on stage in Chekhov’s THREE SISTERS (1967) and HAMLET (1969) By the end of the Sixties personal problems halted Marianne’s career and her drug addiction took over. Faithfull emerged tentatively in the mid-Seventies with a country album called DREAMIN’ MY DREAMS (1976) but it was her furious re-surfacing on BROKEN ENGLISH in 1979 that definitively brought her back. Further new wave explorations followed with DANGEROUS ACQUAINTANCES (1981) and A CHILD’S ADVENTURE (1983). But despite her new creative vigour, Marianne was not entirely free of the chemicals that had ravaged her in the sixties. Displaying a sadness tempered by optimism, and a despair rescued by humour Marianne returned, finally clean with a collection of classic pop, blues and art songs on the critically lauded STRANGE WEATHER (1987). A live retrospective followed on BLAZING AWAY (CD&VHS 1990), which ably displayed why Faithfull has become one of the most sought after concert artists of the last 30 years. MARIANNE FAITHFULL BIOGRAPHY New directions were taken on A SECRET LIFE (1995) co-written with the Italian composer Angelo Badalementi, and in her exploration of the music of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht; Beginning in 1991 with her performance in the Threepenny Opera, at the Gate Theatre in Dublin and continuing with 20TH CENTURY BLUES (1996). This journey concluded with her important recording of the opera THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS (1998). Marianne returned to her mainstream musical career with the release of one of her most admired albums, VAGABOND WAYS in 1999. The millennium ushered in a period of renewed creative vigour that saw Marianne return to her acting career in INTIMACY (2001), MARIE ANTOINETTE (2006), and her acclaimed starring role in IRINA PALM (2006) for which she was nominated at the EFA for best actress. Two acclaimed albums followed based around collaborations with other artists that put her firmly back in the rock idiom KISSIN TIME (2002) with Billy Corgan, Beck, Pulp and Blur and more successfully with PJ Harvey, Nick Cave, Damon Albarn and Jon Brion on BEFORE THE POISON (2004). Marianne also returned to the stage in THE BLACK RIDER (2004), a Faustian musical written by old friends Tom Waits and the late William Burroughs. Health scares put Marianne out of action for much of 2005 and 2006 but in 2007 Marianne toured the world and released a second volume of memoirs detailing a more personal side of her life called MEMORIES DREAMS AND REFLECTIONS (2007). A recent trip to the BBC archives showed that almost all Marianne’s live broadcasts from the sixties had survived. In a return to the label that made her name, Decca classics will be releasing the 20 track collection MARIANNE FAITHFULL LIVE AT THE BBC in the summer of 2008. The collection includes all her early hits and many less well known recordings. Marianne is backed throughout by the Mike Leander Orchestra with guitarist Jon Mark and delivers strong confident performances that in several cases go beyond the interpretations she put down on record. Marianne’s new album EASY COME, EASY GO will be released at the end of 2008. Recorded over a two week period at the historic Sear Sound studios in New York, All the songs have been chosen by Marianne and Hal. The album includes interpretations of songs from such varied artists as Billie Holiday’s ‘Solitude’, Merle Haggard’s ‘Sing Me Back Home’, Bessie Smith’s ‘Easy Come Easy Go Blues’ (the title track), Morrissey ‘Dear God Please Help Me’ and Dolly Parton ‘Down From Dover’. Using a brass band and string section, the band also reunites Marianne with Marc Ribot, and Barry Reynolds. Both Marianne and Hal feel the album is one of their best to date. Marianne will also be doing some special readings throughout 2008 of Shakespeare's love sonnets, accompanied by a cello. While the defining statements of many artists are made during their early years, Marianne Faithfull continues to develop her own voice: She sets herself aside from her contemporaries in her continuing quest to explore new creative areas in a career that has always been a positive process of self-assertion. Andrew Batt WEBSITE www.mariannefaithfull.org.uk www.myspace.com/mariannefaithfullofficial www.facebook.com Search: Marianne Faithfull -Official-Page COME MY WAY — 1965 THE WORLD OF — 1969 MARIANNE FAITHFULL — 1965 NORTH COUNTRY MAID — 1966 LOVEINAMIST — 1967 RICH KID BLUES — 1971 DREAMIN’ MY DREAMS— 1976 FAITHLESS — 1978 BROKEN ENGLISH — 1979 DANGEROUS ACQUAINTANCES A CHILDS ADVENTURE — 1983 STRANGE WEATHER — 1987 20TH CENTURY BLUES — 1996 A SECRET LIFE — 1995 FAITHFULL — 1994 BLAZING AWAY — 1990 SEVEN DEADLY SINS — 1998 A PERFECT STRANGER — 1998 VAGABOND WAYS — 1999 KISSIN’ TIME — 2002 BEFORE THE POISON — 2004 LIVE AT THE BBC— 2008 LIVE IN HOLLYWOOD CD/DVD 2005 DISCOGRAPHY 2008-1965 EASY COME, EASY GO - 2008 REVIEWS: MEMORIES DREAMS & REFLECTIONS Daily Telegraph, Melissa Katsoulis A rare talent for lyrical, inventive prose gives Marianne’s anecdotes wings: a powerful, radical and quite beautiful work of biographical art. The Sunday Times, Mary Ford Many of Faithfull’s stories belong to folklore rather than history, but it’s hard to resist such a witty, dotty storyteller. As entertaining footnotes to history – sorry, mythology – they can’t be faulted. The Guardian, Hadley Freeman Faithfull's story is so well known it tips into cliché territory but this impressionistic book is redeemed by the author's bald, PR-free honesty. Rarely has a celebrity image been remade more defiantly. The Observer, Rowan Walker Faithfull to the last, Marianne opens up a box of mini-memoirs about her life and the characters she has met: But she is not looking for sympathy. Faithfull is able to produce something of grit and newsworthiness. Time Out 'Amusing close encounters in the '70's with Burroughs, Ginsberg and Corso at the Jack Kerouac School of disembodied Poetics...funny...poignant.' AUTOBIOGRAPHY REVIEWS: FAITHFULL The Times, Ray Connolly ‘Marianne Faithfull gives an astonishingly honest and vital description of what it was like to be at the centre of that loony court of the hip, rich, vain and beautiful people of the 60’s… her account of sitting with the other disciples at the feet of Bob Dylan at the Savoy hotel is very funny.’ The Sunday Telegraph, James Delingpole ‘ Witty, intelligent and grippingly readable, this is not only a model rock autobiography but perhaps the best social history ever written about the beau monde of the sixties.’ The Observer, Ray Fox-Cumming ‘A sad, sad story, but leavened with a hopeful ending and a confident, breezy style… Her story is at it’s most moving at the dawn of her redemption in the mid-eighties.’ The Financial Times, Peter Aspden ‘Faithfull is a humorous, self-effacing… account of a life lived in near pharmaceutical turmoil, punctuated with sharp observations… and sprinkled with a variety of sex, drugs and rock n’ roll stories. It is a winning autobiography.’ Q magazine, John Bauldie ‘Hugely entertaining… stacks of stories that defy you to suspend disbelief.’ Mojo magazine ‘A wry observer of all around her…(this is) a deeply likeable book that canters candidly through her screwy family background to her first hey-day as a pop star… and her induction into the Rolling Stones’ inner sanctum.’ UK Hardback and paperback cover UK hardback cover UK paperback cover.