Julie Felix

Julie Felix was born on 14 June 1938 in Santa Barbara, California. She arrived in the UK in the early 60s during a time when several American folk singers, including Paul Simon, had also relocated to London.

Her early recordings revealed a commercial, rather than innovative talent, a fact emphasised by weekly appearances on television’s The Frost Report.

She followed the liberal tradition of Tom Paxton or Pete Seeger, rather than that of the radical left, although she was an early champion of the folk-styled singer/songwriter movement, notably Leonard Cohen, and was proclaimed as ‘Britain’s leading lady of folk’.

Her humanitarian beliefs had, however, been put to practical use via the singer’s tour of the African states of Kenya and Uganda, working for the Christian Aid and Freedom From Hunger charities.

Felix enjoyed two successful British television series in her own right, Once More With Felix (1967 – 1969) and The Julie Felix Show (1971), and she had a UK Top 20 hit with a version of El Condor Pasa, produced by pop svengali Mickie Most.

The singer’s wholesome image was marred by a conviction for possession of marijuana but she continued a prolific recording career into the 1980s, albeit to less publicity, as well as performing for women’s rights, green and environmental benefits, and founding Britain’s first New Age Folk Club.

Julie Felix died on 22 March 2020, after a short illness. She was 81.