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Briggs

Anne Patricia Briggs (born 29 September 1944) is an English folk singer. Although she travelled widely in the 1960s and early 1970s, appearing at folk clubs and venues in England and Ireland, she never aspired to commercial success or to achieve widespread public acknowledgment of her music. However, she was an influential figure in the British folk revival, being a source of songs and musical inspiration for others such as A. L. Lloyd, Bert Jansch, Jimmy Page, The Watersons, June Tabor, Sandy Denny, Richard Thompson and Maddy Prior.

Briggs was born in Toton, Beeston, Nottinghamshire, England. Her mother died of tuberculosis when she was young. Her father, Albert, was severely injured in World War II and she was raised in Toton by her aunt Hilda and uncle Bill, who also brought up Hilda's youngest sister Beryl, and their own daughter Betty. In 1959, she hitch-hiked with a friend to Edinburgh. They stayed overnight with Archie Fisher, who was at that time prominent in the revival of folk music in Scotland, and through him she met Bert Jansch, who had just begun to compose his own songs. Jansch and Briggs had an instant rapport and were an influence on each other for several years.

(Read more at Wikipedia)

Links to Peel[]

Anne Briggs was one of those folk artists of the 1960s who were rediscovered and praised by later generations of musicians, including some who did sessions for Peel and Andy Kershaw, like Eliza Carthy and Kate Rusby. Although she was uninterested in pursuing a career in the commercial music industry, she did two Peel sessions, with the second broadcast in January 1972, during the most productive time in her sparse recording career, when she had recently made two LPs. After that she returned to obscurity until the 1990s, when she was rediscovered, but didn't seem to have attracted Peel's attention then.

Anne_Briggs_-_Rosemary_Lane

Anne Briggs - Rosemary Lane

Only one track by her has so far been found in his playlists, from an 1963 EP she made for Topic Records, played on the Night Ride of 02 July 1969. But she was a major influence on artists JP played, both in cover versions of her own material, from "The Time Has Come", done by Pentangle on a Peel session and by the Alan Price Set as the B-side of their hit "Don't Stop The Carnival", to Wisdom Of Harry's version of "Tangled Man", a song included in her 1972 Top Gear session) and in popularising traditional songs later recorded by others (as well as "Blackwater Side", done by Bert Jansch on his Jack Orion LP in 1966, "Rosemary Lane" later became the title track of a Jansch LP).

Her "wild" personality (described in detail in the Wikipedia article on her) also inspired several songs, including Richard Thompson's "Beeswing" and Sandy Denny's "The Pond and the Stream", which appeared on Fotheringay's first and only LP and was played by Peel on 11 July 1970. Her one-time partner Johnny Moynihan was a member of Planxty and De Dannan (he did a Peel session with them in 1978) and played on the Silly Sisters albums by June Tabor and Maddy Prior. After Peel's death, Anne Briggs' influence continued, with recent versions of her material by Green Gartside of Scritti Politti and by Robert Plant with Alison Krauss.

Festive Fifty Entries[]

  • None.

Sessions[]

Two sessions. No known commercial release.

1. Recorded: 1969-08-18. First broadcast: 03 September 1969. Repeated?

  • The Snow It Melts The Soonest / Standing On The Shore / Sullivan's John / Go Your Own Way

2. Recorded: 1971-12-19. First broadcast: 07 January 1972. Repeated?

  • Tangled Man / Fire And Wine / Hills Of Greenmore

(Please correct mistakes and add any missing info)

Other Shows Played[]

  • 02 July 1969: Rosemary Lane (7" EP - The Hazards Of Love) Topic

(Please add any missing info)

External Links[]


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