Judy Dyble

Judy Dyble
Judy Dyble, Oxfordshire 2009
Background information
Birth name	Judy Aileen Dyble
Born	February 13, 1949 (1949-02-13) (age 60), London
Instruments	Autoharp/piano/recorder
Years active	1960s - present
Associated acts	Fairport Convention Giles, Giles and Fripp Trader Horne
Website	judydyble.com

Judith Aileen Dyble, better known as Judy Dyble, (born 13 February 1949 in London) is a legendary British singer/songwriter most notable for being one of the founder members of two of the most feted bands in UK rock history. Often mis-labelled as 'folk' she has in fact never made any recordings that could be considered directly attributable to the genre. Her style, could be properly described as producing ambient/psych/singer songwriter works as an original artist. She is best known as the original singer for Fairport Convention, but has also fronted Trader Horne and (very briefly) an embryonic King Crimson as well as having an intermittent solo career. Her surname is pronounced 'die-bull'.

Early Years

Dyble's first band was Judy and The Folkmen (which existed between 1964 and 1966) and made homemade demo recordings, none of which were released, but some of which are vaunted for inclusion on a mooted anthology of Dyble's career (Universal/Sanctuary set a release date in 2007 for this, but the release was cancelled when Sanctuary was taken over by Universal). She then became the original vocalist with Fairport Convention ^[1] from 1967 to 1968. Ashley 'Tyger' Hutchings asked her to sing and play with him, Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol in November 1966 in some of the various band incarnations that they were all part of, including jug-bands and anything that needed a female vocal,mainly because of their reluctance to sing themselves and this became the nucleus of Fairport Convention, firstly with Shaun Frater as drummer and later Martin Lamble. The group recorded their first album with her, their repertoire at the time consisting of both American singer-songwriter works plus originals. The first single was a cover of a 1930's American song, 'If I had a Ribbon Bow' The band covered and re-worked numerous American recordings, with the band members choosing some tracks to work with from manager Joe Boyd's record collection. The band also picked up on the works of Joni Mitchell before she was known in the UK, and covered two of her songs on the first Fairport album, which was self titled.

Fairport's early live shows in London in the late 1960s saw Judy share stages with names like Jimi Hendrix, and Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd. Famously, she sat on the front of the stage at the Speakeasy club knitting, while Hendrix and Richard Thompson jammed. Dyble also guested on The Incredible String Band's 1968 album The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter (on "The Minotaur’s Song") and on G.F. Fitz-Gerald's 1970 album Mouseproof.

After her stint with Fairport Convention, Dyble (along with her then-boyfriend Ian McDonald) joined the English pop band Giles, Giles and Fripp^[2] by famously advertising in Melody Maker.^[3] Dyble contributed to demo recordings for the group, but left after her relationship with McDonald ended. Giles, Giles and Fripp - retaining McDonald - would later evolve into the foundation progressive rock band King Crimson.

Dyble would go on to become one half of the duo Trader Horne, with ex-Them member Jackie McAuley.^[4] Pete Sears was originally the third member of the band, but flew to the United States before recording began. The group took its name from John Peel's nanny Florence, called "Trader", Horne as a reference to explorer Trader Horn). The duo signed to Dawn (a subsidiary of Pye Records) releasing one album,^[5] Morning Way in 1969, and two highly prized collectible vinyl singles. The pairing shared stages with acts such as Humble Pie, Yes, and Genesis. The duo split a few days before they should have headlined the now legendary Hollywood festival in Newcastle Under Lyme that saw Mungo Jerry first come to public attention. (In 2008, Trader Horne was featured in Kingsley Abbott's book, '500 Lost Gems Of The 60's': to coincide with this, Stuart Maconie did a one hour biopic radio special on Judy's career on BBC6 programme the Freak Zone, as well as a significant piece in Record Collector.^[6]

In 1973, Judy left the music business to work with her husband, DJ and scenester Simon Stable (who had played bongos on albums by Bridget St John and Ten Years After under his real name, Count Simon de la Bedoyere). Later on, Dyble (by now a mother) worked as a librarian.

Recent Work

Following Stable's death in 1994, 2003 saw Dyble began writing and performing again. For a long time, the only Judy Dyble recordings available in the retail trade was the first Fairport Convention album, but Morning Way was reissued on CD in November 2000, and she released the first of several new works - Enchanted Garden - in 2004, followed by Spindle and The Whorl in 2006. These last two albums only received limited releases with little if any distribution. Occasional live appearances saw her appear at Cropredy (alongside with what was virtually the original Fairport line up) in 2007.

Dyble released a single on March 3 2008 with northern indie/folk band The Conspirators through independent label Transcend Media Group. The single was a double A-side featuring Judy's vocals on a remake of Fairport Convention's song "One Sure Thing" and The Conspirators song "Take Me To Your Leader". It reached No.7 in the official uk indie singles chart, spending 3 weeks in the top 10.

The promotion for this single saw Dyble make a couple of very rare live appearances, at the Harrogate International Conference Centre, and at an in-store live gig at HMV's superstore in Leeds city centre on 3 March 2008.^[7]

Dyble's next album Talking With Strangers was recorded throughout 2008 with Tim Bowness (No-Man) and Alistair Murphy co-writing and producing. Collaborators include Robert Fripp, Simon Nicol, Pat Mastelotto, Ian McDonald, Julianne Regan Celia Humphris, Jacqui McShee, Laurie A'Court and Mark Fletcher. During work on the album, she played a rare outdoor show at the Llama festival in North Devon, in June 2008.^[8]

Dyble took her place at the head of Fairport Convention's initial line up, at Witchseason's 40th anniversary celebration show at the Barbican Theatre on 18 July 2009, for the first time in nearly 40 years, excluding very brief occasional outings at Cropredy.^[9]

Talking With Strangers

Talking With Strangers was released in August 2009 becoming the recommended choice on the www.bbc.co.uk homepage, and receiving favourable reviews from amongst others, the Mail On Sunday, Record Collector, Shindig, R2 and described as a 'sophisticated triumph' on the BBC music website. A number of radio stations aired the near 20 minute track 'Harpsong' in full, and Dyble undertook a run of BBC local radio interviews, including BBC Radio Oxford, Solent, Suffolk, Devon, Cornwall, Lancashire, and Manchester.^[10] In May 2009 early review copies for the new album with Robert Fripp were sent out. Dyble's myspace showed samplers of some of the album tracks, and directly from her, and from Tim Bowness's Burning Shed, signed numbered early release copies sold out very quickly.

27 August 2009 saw an intimate gig by Dyble at the 100 Club in London, supported by Tim Bowness, Alistair Murphy, and Simon Nicol, her first solo gig in London in over 40 years.

Her MySpace site reports a single from the album Grey October Day is to be released in late 2009, a vinyl release in September via Tonefloat, and a EP of non-album material in December.

Dyble has added additional vocals to the November 2nd 2009 single release 'Every Sentimental Moment' by UK rock band Kings Cross.

The American release date for Talking With Strangers is January 2010, via Pied Piper Records, and the same date in Australia via Blind Faith Entertainment, and in France via Virgin Records.

In September 2009, Dyble announces on her Facebook page that work has begun on a new full length, as yet untitled album, to be recorded early in 2010.

Discography

Singles

Albums

Compilations and Guest Appearances

Note: the eight tracks included on Live at the BBC were recorded for John Peel's Top Gear programme. Four — Let's Get Together, One Sure Thing, Lay Down Your Weary Tune and Chelsea Morning — date from the period prior to Ian Matthews joining Fairport, and were broadcast 10 December 1967; the other four — Violets of Dawn, If (Stomp), Time Will Show the Wiser and If I Had a Ribbon Bow — were broadcast 3 March 1968, a week after the release of the debut single. All eight come from "off air" recordings, not original BBC tapes.^[11]

References

Further reading

• Unterberger, Richie (September 2007). Lewis, Alan. ed. "Fairport's First Lady". Record Collector (London: Diamond Publishing, Ltd) (340): 44-47. ISSN 0261-250X. 

External links

• Judy Dyble - Official website
• Judy Dyble @ Myspace.com
• Interview with Judy Dyble