Marianne Faithfull

"[Marianne's] objective legacy is her role in the British Invasion – as one of the first successful female artists and a woman who, for better or worse, ushered in a new era of celebrity culture – but most importantly, her legacy is her prolificacy and the range and diversity of her musical output for more than fifty years. It is almost unheard of for an artist to maintain their credibility in the music industry for that long."

 T. Pearson, 2021, Why Marianne Faithfull Matters, Faber & Faber Ltd, pp. 162.

As was common at the time, Decca printed a series of autograph promotional cards to accompany each of Marianne’s singles and album releases and she would keep copies on her person to sign for fans she met after her shows. These cards were also distributed via her fan club.

The black and white portrait photograph of Marianne by Gered Mankowitz, was from his first session with Faithfull taken in October 1964 to promote her second single ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’. The release would be her last with her Producer / Manager Andrew Loog Oldham as they differed over the direction her music career should take. Marianne wished to pursue a more folk direction whereas Oldham favoured the pop sound. In the end Marianne pursued both, releasing a folk album and a pop album on the same day in April 1964. Marianne would release another folk album in 1966 and a pop one in 1967 on Decca.

In the time between the end of her association with Decca in 1969 and her return to music in 1976 with the ‘Dreamin My Dreams’ LP [later released with new tracks as ‘Faithless’ in 1978] Marianne pursued an acting career. One of the productions she starred in was the West End debut of an adaptation of John Fowles novel ‘The Collector’ in 1974. After a provincial tour the play opened at the St Martin’s Theatre – It was the last production mounted there before ‘The Mousetrap’ began its current record-breaking run.

The programme in this lot was from Marianne’s first package tour appearing alongside other well known pop acts of the day including The Hollies and Freddie And the Dreamers. Package tours were big business in the 60’s and one of the most effective ways a label could sell records. The schedule was grueling, often with two shows a day as well as local radio and other publicity expected of the artists. Marianne became a popular live act in the 60’s and beyond – Andrew Oldham references this tour when he informs Marianne’s mother that “Marianne is proving a great success on this tour.” It was also during this tour that Marianne became the first music act to play Wembley Stadium when she performed at the London Students Glad Rag Ball on 20th November 1964.

Marianne comments on the Freddie and the Dreamers tour:

"This was my first package tour. They were brutal, they just seemed relentless and it wasn’t just the shows, it was all the other things the got you to do like interviews and radio and meeting local dignitaries. I remember feeling very lonely at first, it was all so different to anything I had experienced but I became friends with The Hollies, I still know Graham Nash and saw him at his gig at the Theatre Royal last year."

In her autobiography, Faithfull: An Autobiography, Marianne discusses the impact of 'As Tears Go By', on her career:

'"As Tears Go By" was a marketable portrait of me and as such is an extremely ingenious creation, a commercial fantasy that pushes all the right buttons. It did such a good job of imprinting that it was to become, alas, an indelible part of my media-conjured self for the next fifteen years.'

Literature

M. Faithful and D. Dalton, 1994, Faithful: An Autobiography, Little, Brown & Company (Canada) Limited, pp.25.

T. Pearson, 2021, Why Marianne Faithfull Matters, Faber & Faber Ltd, pp. 162.