Bridget St John is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist, best known for the three albums she recorded between 1969 and 1972 for John Peel’s Dandelion record label. Peel produced her debut album Ask Me No Questions. She also recorded a large number of BBC Radio and Peel Sessions and toured regularly on the British college and festival circuit. It was through listening to John Peel’s late night radio show ‘Night Ride’, (a programme which captured much of the creative activity of the underground scene of the late 1960’s) that I first came to hear the music of Bridget St. John. I enjoyed her Peel Session so much that I actually bought the album. She seemed to hit the sweet spot between Nico, Nick Drake and Vashti Bunyan.
This would appear to be the only footage of her in the 1970’s. It recalls three of her earliest songs – Downderry Daze, Like Never Before (4:31). Ask Me No Questions (9:16). Ask Me No Questions has the special distinction my collection as being almost the only album that I bought twice, because the first one wore out.
She appeared at leading folk venues in the UK, along with other folk and pop luminaries of the time such as Nick Drake, Paul Simon and David Bowie, among others. In 1974 she was voted fifth most popular female singer in that year’s Melody Maker readers poll. Her second album, Songs for the Gentle Man, was produced by Ron Geesin and released in 1971. This album was a significant step up from her debut, and contained string arrangements mostly by Geesin himself. Blessed with a “rich cello-like” vocal style, she is also an accomplished guitar player who credits John Martyn and Michael Chapman as her “musical brothers”.
Bridget continues to record and perform, even venturing into the north on occasion. Here she is playing at the Green Man Festival at Crickhowell in the Brecon Beacons. You may notice a familiar face accompanying her on the cello – none other than Sarah Smout from The Magpies.
