Vashti Bunyan

There is a series on Radio 4 at present on lost albums fronted by Pete Paphides. (See here). I enjoyed the one on Beach Boy Denis Wilson's album but hardly listened to the Duran Duran one. Then today I caught most of one on an album by a woman called Vashti. It was a very poignant tale. She had been depressed, travelled to Scotland, made an album, had a bad review and then not picked up her guitar for 30 years! The only Vashti I had heard of was Vashti Bunyan whose name I'd seen on a track in my son's i-pod. At the end of the programme they played her most famous song (Diamond Day) which I knew from the T-mobile advert. Anyway I checked her out in i-tunes and Wikipedia as I do. All very interesting.

This English singer-songwriter has been labelled "the Godmother of Freak Folk". Her 1970 debut LP, Just Another Diamond Day, is considered an important album in the psych folk genre. Following the release of this LP, Bunyan disappeared from the music industry until interest in her music was reignited in the early 2000s.

The surname rings an obvious bell and yes she is directly descended from the author of Pilgrim's Progress. Vashti was born in London in 1945 to John and Helen. In the early sixties she studied at The Ruskin School of Drawing and fine art at Oxford University but was expelled for failing to turn up to classes and spending her time writing songs. At 18 she travelled to New York and discovered Bob Dylan through The Freewheelin Bob Dylan album and decided to become a full-time musician. Returning to London she was discovered by Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham and in June 1965, under his direction, she released her debut single, "Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind" (by Jagger and Richards - their own version is on the outtakes compilation Metamorphosis) for Decca. Released using simply the name Vashti, it was backed with her own song "I Want to Be Alone". The single and her follow up "Train Song", released on Columbia in May 1966, produced by Canadian Peter Snell, received little attention. Her only other performance of this time to find release was her distinctive vocal on "The Coldest Night of the Year" with Twice as much (which eventually turned up on their second and final LP, That's All, on Oldham's Immediate label in 1968). After recording further songs for Immediate Records, which remain unreleased, and making a brief appearance in the 1967 documentary Tonite let's all make love in London, performing her song "Winter Is Blue", she decided to travel with her boyfriend Robert Lewis by horse and cart to the Isle of Skye to join a commune planned by friend and fellow folk singer Donovan. During the trip she began writing the songs that would eventually become her debut album.
During a break from her trip at Christmas-time 1968, she met Joe Boyd through a friend and he offered to record an album of her travelling songs. A year later Vashti returned to London and recorded her debut LP with assistance from Simon Nicol and Dave Swarbrick (Fairport Convention), Robin Williamson (Incredible String Band) and string arranger Robert Kirby, today best known for his work on Nick Drake's first two albums. The album appeared on Philips to warm reviews in December 1970, but struggled to find an audience. Disappointed, she left the music industry and moved to The Incredible String Band's Glen Row cottages, then Ireland. Much of the ensuing 30 years were spent raising her three children and tending animals. In this time, entirely unbeknown to her, the original album slowly became one of the most sought-after records of its time. It has sold on eBay for as much as $2000.
In 2000, Just Another Diamond Day was re-released on CD (with bonus tracks), assuring her influence over a new generation of folk artists. She has now had an influence on a new generation of folk musicians. Details at Wikipedia. A second album (35 years on) was well received by critics and fans alike. Her music reached a much wider audience when "Just Another Diamond Day" was used in a TV advert for a mobile phone company.