Folk Singer Julie Felix celebrates her 80th birthday – with a concert, of course!
Fans are in for a treat on 17th June 2018 as Julie – a Gemini – celebrates becoming an octagenarian in her usual style, this time at the Charing Cross Theatre, London. If you haven’t seen her perform live for a while, don’t expect a little old lady offering only old songs from the 1960s… this is one performer who remains as electrifying and stunning as ever. Over fifty years a star and Julie Felix is still a legend: singer, peace activist, protector of Mother Earth and ground-breaker, with stamina that many people twenty years her junior may well envy.
“I want to stress to older women that they don’t have to sit in a rocking chair wearing a shawl!”, laughs Julie. “Perhaps it’s my Mexican roots—there, women often just keep working until they drop—my stamina is still pretty good, and creativity is how I stay young at heart, and that’s something we can all do.”
Arriving in England in 1964, Julie had already hitchhiked around much of Europe after graduating from the University of California, paying her way by singing in bars in Ibiza, the Greek Islands, where she first met Leonard Cohen, and elsewhere. Her big break came here in the UK, and within a very short time Julie was headlining at Fairfield Hall, Croydon and stacking up the “firsts”: first folk singer to fill the Royal Albert Hall, first to sing in Westminster Abbey and first to be signed to a major record label. The travel bug was still there, however, and Julie toured abroad on behalf of Christian Aid and Freedom from Hunger from the mid-60s, visiting the Middle East and Africa.
Back in London, Julie became resident singer on the hugely popular “The Frost Report”, and if that were not sufficient to make her a household name, her own BBC TV show certainly did. Hers was the first such series shown in colour, with guests like Dusty Springfield, Donovan, Leonard Cohen and Spike Milligan. In 1969 she was a headline act at the Isle of Wight Festival, along with Bob Dylan.
Julie’s peace activism is still a huge part of her life, one that is clearly reflected in her music. In February 2007 she took part in the huge anti-war demonstration in central London, where she appeared to sing “Blowin’ in the Wind”, but the anti-war songs aren’t just for occasions like that; Julie’s concerts almost always contain several such numbers: “Children of Abraham”, for example. Not that all her songs are of protest, there are love songs, and of course plenty of Latin numbers.
“Peace,” says Julie, is both a personal and collective process.”
During the 1970s Julie moved to Scandinavia for a while, recording two albums in Sweden. Then she took a break from performing, studying yoga and healing in California. In 1986 she led a peace march in Central America, where her guitar was smashed by police. Returning to England in 1989, Julie founded the New Age Folk Club and her recording label, Remarkable Records, released several CDs, including the 60th birthday concert, “Live at QEH”, which was introduced by David Frost.
Julie was raised a Catholic but now describes herself as a pagan and Goddess worshipper. She began taking Goddess Tours to sacred sites across the world in the 1990s, and her 2003 CD release “I Walk with Beauty” reflects those beliefs with a number of Goddess Chants. Also included is a song known to reduce hundreds of women at Glastonbury’s annual Goddess Conference to tears: Libby Roderick’s “How Could Anyone Ever Tell You”.
“When I was 60, in 1998, said Julie, “I gave a concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and called it my Crone Concert. Now I’m almost 80 I think it should have been my ’Baby Crone Concert’! There are three stages of womanhood: Maiden, Mother and Crone. When a woman becomes a crone she enters an era of wisdom, freedom and personal power. This is one of the beliefs of those of us who call ourselves pagans. I call myself a pagan because I feel closest to the divine source when I am high in the mountains or riding the waves in Caiifornia or Mexico.”
Asked about feminism, Julie mused: “I think I have always been a feminist, but that was difficult in the music world. I remember Dusty Springfield telling me how hard it was to be heard when telling musicians and producers what she wanted to hear – they always thought they knew best.”
Julie says she was a tomboy as a kid, and always wondered why boys seemed to get to do pretty much as they pleased, while girls did not. “When I was in Junior High I would have loved to take woodwork and learn how to fix a car, but I had to take cooking and sewing. I didn’t do very well at either, although my mother was wonderful at both!”
Asked about the “Me Too” campaign and her own experiences, brought a laugh from Julie. “Too many than you will have room for, particularly in the 1960s and 70s!” was the prompt reply. “I’ve been inspired by this movement”, she added. “After centuries of patriarchy do we dare think that the ‘times they are a’changin’? It would be a beautiful miracle if women could find their rightful place in the world, that qualities of nurturing, kindness and love could find their way into this weary world before I leave the planet!”
“It’s time to let our souls and spirits shine. It’s women’s time!”
So what’s next? Asked if she could imagine an 85th birthday concert, or even a nintieth, Julie laughed and refused to be drawn on the 90th, but maybe we should be looking out for the 85th in 2023?
Let’s hope Julie will be around to enchant and delight us for years yet, and end here with a quote from the song “Let Me Loose”, which she wrote in the early 70s – perhaps a guitar of gold with a rainbow strap for Julie?
And I know the time is coming when our souls will ride on high
It’s then we’ll feel our spririts being lifted towards the sky.
Oh to see the angels bending near the earth, and I’ve been told
They play on harps of gold, harps of gold.