Julie Felix

Julie Ann Felix (June 14, 1938 – March 22, 2020)

Early life and education Felix was born in Santa Barbara, California, to a father of Mexican origin and mother of English and Welsh ancestry. Both her parents claimed Native American ancestry. She graduated in 1956 from high school in Westchester, Los Angeles.

Career Felix grew up in a musical household: her father was a professional mariachi musician, and her mother was an amateur singer who loved the music of Burl Ives. Her father taught her to play ukulele and then guitar, and she wrote her first song at the age of seven.

After studying speech and drama at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Felix worked as a sports mistress at a school for disabled children. She began her music career by singing at night in coffee shops in her native Los Angeles, where she met a young David Crosby.

After saving up $1000 from her job, she left the United States in June 1962 and travelled extensively around Europe for around two years, often playing in bars and coffee shops to earn extra money. It was during her stay on the Greek island of Hydra that she met Leonard Cohen, who at this time had become part of the 'salon' that formed around expatriate Australian writers George Johnston and Charmian Clift.

She arrived in the United Kingdom in 1964, and became the first solo folk performer signed to a major British record label when she gained a recording contract with Decca Records, for whom she recorded three solo albums. Her first major break was a headlining appearance at the Fairfield Halls in Croydon in 1965, and later that year her first solo show gave her the distinction of being the first folksinger to fill the Royal Albert Hall, and she was described by The Times as "Britain's First Lady of Folk". The premiere episode was transmitted on December 9, 1967. It was the first BBC TV series made in colour, and one of the first British shows of that genre to be hosted by a female pop performer. (Dusty Springfield's show Dusty, also produced and directed by Dorfman, had premiered 18 months earlier, in June 1966).

In an interview promoting her 80th birthday concert in 2018, Felix recalled that the BBC gave her one of the first colour televisions in Britain at the time, and she recounted how her Chelsea flat was "packed" with friends and guests who came to watch the Boxing Day 1967 premiere broadcast of The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour on her colour TV.

On March 24, 2008, she appeared on a BBC Four programme in which stars of The Frost Report gathered for a night celebrating the 40th anniversary of Frost Over England; Felix sang "Blowin' in the Wind". She appeared at the Wynd Theatre, Melrose, Scottish Borders, on an annual basis in the 2000s.

After her return to the UK, Felix lived in Chorleywood, Hertfordshire, England until her death, still recording and performing.

Her 75th birthday in 2013 was marked by a concert at the Leicester Square Theatre. In 2018, she celebrated her 80th birthday with a special concert at the Charing Cross Theatre, which featured guest appearances by John Paul Jones, singer Madeline Bell and composer-arranger-musician John Cameron (famed for his collaborations with Donovan and Hot Chocolate).

Julie Felix died on March 22, 2020, after a short illness.

Discography Albums 1964 Julie Felix (Decca) including version of "Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)" 1965 2nd Album (Decca) 1966 3rd Album (Decca) 1966 Changes (Fontana) – UK No. 27 1967 In Concert (World) 1967 Flowers (Fontana) 1968 This World Goes Round and Round (Fontana) 1968 Julie Felix's World (Fontana) 1969 Going to the Zoo (Fontana) 1972 Clotho's Web (RAK) 1974 Lightning (EMI) 1977 Hota Chocolata (Monte Rosa) 1980 Colours in the Rain (Scranta) 1982 Blowing in the Wind (Scranta/Dingle's) 1987 Amazing Grace (Starburst) 1989 Bright Shadows (Remarkable) 1993 Branches in the Mist (Remarkable) 1995 Windy Morning (Remarkable) 1998 Fire – My Spirit (Remarkable) 2002 Starry Eyed and Laughing: Songs by Bob Dylan (Remarkable) 2008 Highway of Diamonds (Remarkable) 2013 La Que Sabe (She Who Knows) (Remarkable) 2013 In The Spotlight (juliefelix.com) 2018 Rock Me Goddess (Talking Elephant)

EPs 1965 Sings Dylan & Guthrie (Decca) 1966 Songs from the Frost Report (Fontana) 1967 Songs from the Frost Report, Vol. 2 (Fontana)

Singles 1965 "Someday Soon" (Decca) 1966 "I Can't Touch the Sun" (Fontana) 1967 "Saturday Night" (Fontana) 1967 "The Magic of the Playground" (Fontana) 1968 "That's No Way to Say Goodbye" (Fontana) 1970 "If I Could (El Cóndor Pasa)" (RAK) – UK No. 19 1970 "Heaven Is Here" (RAK) – UK No. 22 1971 "Snakeskin" (RAK) 1971 "Moonlight" (RAK) 1972 "Fire Water Earth and Air" (RAK) 1974 "Lady With the Braid" (EMI) 1974 "Finally Getting to Know One Another" (EMI) 1974 "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine" (EMI) 1977 "Hota Chocolata" (Talent) 1978 "Come Out" (Talent) 1981 "Yoke (We Believe)" (Scranta) 1981 "Dance With Me" (Scranta) 1988 "The Sea and the Sky" (Remarkable) 1992 "Woman" (Remarkable)