it was cut down to a single sleeve and re-titled Marian Segal With Silver Jade. It also suffered from an annoying tape “wow” and inferior sound quality. Nevertheless, the band managed to support the record with touring.
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To perform live the band not only had to do a great deal of rehearsing in order to replicate the album but for financial reasons had to perform mainly as a three piece, except for special shows. They carried out a short promotional tour of the UK supporting a UK single taken from the album, ‘Alan’s Song’/‘Amongst Anemones’, and performed on typically diverse bills that included Atomic Rooster, The Strawbs, Johnny Winter and Anno Domini. Melody Maker made the album their Folk Album Of The Month upon its release and in March ’71 the band also appeared on Disco 2, the forerunner of the BBC’s Old Grey Whistle Test. In the summer they toured America and performed for a week at The Bitter End in New York with Tom Paxton. Marian recalls, “I remember sitting in the early hours of the morning with Tom and Dave exhausted from our work, drinking coffee to keep us awake and chatting like old friends. During the sound check that afternoon we turned around to find Fairport Convention sitting in the club smiling back at us. They had dropped in to say hello! At The Troubadour in Los Angeles Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys and Joni Mitchell and her manager came up to the dressing room to tell us how much they enjoyed the band’s performance. John Wetton (later of King Crimson) had flown out especially to play bass for us. It was a happy time.”
Jade also appeared on a US TV show fronted by the poet and singer Rod McKuen, who was then a huge star on both sides of the Atlantic. Later the band flew back with Rod and on their return to London he called and asked them if they would like to appear on his BBC2 television special with Petula Clark. It was such short notice that Pan’s People, who were dancing on the show, had to drop a number from their schedule to allow Jade to perform. Rod also asked Marian if he could record two songs from the Jade album and so ‘Fly Me To The North’ appeared on his ’71 LP Pastorale whilst ‘Mrs Adams’ was recorded for his ’74 LP Alone. He even invited the band to a ’71 Royal Albert Hall concert where he sang ‘Fly Me To The North’ and acknowledged Jade as they sat in the audience. After such a whirlwind of exposure in both the UK and America, along with positive press that continually compared Marian to Sandy Denny, it
seemed as if everything was going well for Jade. Unfortunately, the pressures of being together all the time and their inexperience of the higher echelons of the music industry had started to cause fractures that split the band. They completed another recording session in the Autumn of ’71 for a proposed non- album single, ‘Big Yellow Taxi’/’Carolina In My Mind’, but these tracks remained unreleased until their inclusion on the Lightning Tree reissue in 2003. Rod had
that appeared on Sunbeam’s expanded edition of Fly On Strangewings, the solo album remains unreleased. It will probably stay that way as Marian has always been very unhappy with the recordings.
After the split Dave and Marian returned to the road with The Marian Segal Band, which featured Canadian Lee Oliphant on bass and Dave Morris (ex-Guys & Dolls) on drums. The band worked very hard for three years toured Europe with Labi Siffre, appeared on a TV series with Sidney Carter (of Lord Of The Dance fame) and received support from Capitol Radio who recorded some live sessions. Musical fashions change fast, however, and by ’75, with the advent of punk, the band’s sound was out of step with the zeitgeist. The expense and stress of touring forced an end to what had become an unviable project. A number of recordings of The Marian Segal Band remain in the vault and may well see the light of day. Some can be found on the excellent archive CD collection, Gypsy Girl, available from Marian’s Website.
After a brief spell signed to Jeff ‘War Of The Worlds’ Wayne’s production company, Marian carried on sporadically performing, recording demos and doing session work until the ’90s. She changed her name to Marianne and worked with a number of artists including The Real Thing, Graeme Taylor (Gryphon, Albion Band) Root Cartwright (Principal Edwards Magic Theatre) and Julie Felix, with whom she played many of her old folk club haunts.
When we were young: ‘Alan’s Song’ sheet music and the UK LP cover
already left Jade to work with the George Martin-produced Edwards Hand and was replaced with his brother Gary and occasional backing vocals from Marian’s sister Maggie. Jon Miller had been keen to develop Marian into a solo artist with a heavier rock sound but the album sessions were aborted part way through and, apart from a few tracks
In 2002 Lightning Tree Records tracked down Marianne and the subsequent reissue of Fly On Strangewings resulted in a one-off reunion of Marian, Dave, Rod and Jimmy Litherland at The Tapestry Club in London. Marianne has collaborated with psych/folk-rock outfit Circulus, who recorded her unreleased Jade song ‘Swallow’ for their 2005 album The Lick Of The Tip Of An Envelope Yet To Be Sent. Circulus also backed Marianne on her 2007 solo album, The Gathering, which was released on her own Snow Beach label. Managing to both recapture and update the same artistic spirit that enriched Jade’s album, The Gathering was confirmation, if anyone needed it, of Marianne’s unique place in the pantheon of ’70s female vocalists and songwriters.
For those wanting to know more about Marianne and Jade please visit
www.mariannesegal-jade.com Fly On Strangewings will be reissued on vinyl by Guerssen Records this summer
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