The Julie Covington Chronology

Julie's career chronology

1963: Aegisthus in Giradoux's Electra, Brondesbury and Kilburn High School for Girls, London.
1966?: Madame in Genet's The Maids, Homerton DramSco at ADC Theatre Cambridge, with Vena Jackson and Jan Harvey.
1966: St John's College, Cambridge revue Under Plain Cover with Pete Atkin (MD), Barry Brown, Mike Hodges, Alan Sizer.
1967: (March) Pembroke College, Cambridge smoker with Pete Atkin, Clive James.
1967: (June) Footlights May Week revue Supernatural Gas (dir. Clive James), Cambridge Arts Theatre and Oxford Playhouse.
1967: While The Music Lasts, privately-pressed album with Pete Atkin -- songs by Pete Atkin and Clive James.
1967: Edinburgh Festival Fringe at the Lauriston Hall: The Complete Works (Footlights) opened 21 August; Mandy Dowland
in Kerry Crabbe's Someone is Squeaking (Cambridge University Theatre Company) opened 28 August.
1967: (opened 16 October) Someone is Squeaking (Cambridge University Theatre Company) at Cambridge Arts Theatre.
1967: (opened 18 October) The Complete Works (Footlights) at Cambridge Arts Theatre.
1967: (August-October season) David Frost Show (TV): Sang Duet with Pete Atkin.
1968: (opened 3 June) Footlights May Week revue Turns Of The Century, director Kerry Crabbe, Cambridge Arts Theatre.
1968: (August) Turn It On, Footlights revue, Robin Hood Theatre, Averham, Notts., broadcast 3 September on BBC-2.
1968: (August) Lauriston Hall, Edinburgh: Footlights Songbook, Revue Fly by Night, and Jenny Smith in Keith Hack's
CUTC production of Brecht and Weill's Mahagonny, earning Julie the first Fringe Best Actress award.
1968: Brecht and Weill again, Happy End, directed by Keith Hack for Trinity Hall's Preston Society at the ADC.
1968: Pilot episode for BBC TV series Twice a Fortnight with Michael Palin and Terry Jones, directed by Tony Palmer.
1968: (December) Oxford and Cambridge Shakespeare Co.'s North American tour: Peaseblossom in A Midsummer Night's
Dream directed by Richard Cottrell; Revue Company member in Strictly For Kicks directed by Clive James.
1969: The Party's Moving On, another limited-edition (99 copies) album of Atkin/James songs. With Pete Atkin.
1969: Granada TV revue series Psst! with Richard Stilgoe, Kenny Lynch.
1969: Hampstead Theatre Club -- cabaret with Pete Atkin.
1969: Pickwick Club -- deputised for Jon Hendricks of Lambert, Hendricks and Ross.
1969-71: Recorded her first solo album for EMI (released 1971), The Beautiful Changes -- more songs by Pete and Clive.
1970: Singles The Magic Wasn't There, Tonight Your Love Is Over.
1970-71: The LWT shows: The Party's Moving On; What Are You Doing After The Show?
1971: Godspell, opened 17 November at Roundhouse, transferred 26 January 1972 to Wyndham's. Original Cast Recording.
1972: Hit single Day By Day from Godspell.
1972: Blanche in Barry Humphries' Australian movie The Adventures of Barry McKenzie.
1973: (opened 15 March) Marie Garga in In The Jungle Of Cities, Brecht/Weill, dir. Keith Hack at The Place Theatre, Euston.
1973: (opened 19 June) Created Janet in Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show, Royal Court's Theatre Upstairs.
1973: (opened 9 August) Charmian in Antony and Cleopatra at Bankside Glo be Playhouse, directed by Tony Richardson.
1973: Arabella in Odd Girl Out by Ronald Miller, dir. Vivian Matalon. Opened 10 Sept Playhouse, Harlow, 17 Sept Wimbledon.
1973: (opened 22 November) Snoo Wilson's The Pleasure Principle, dir. David Hare, Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court Theatre.
1973-74: Backing vocals on David Essex albums Rock On and David Essex.
1973-75: Presenter and storyteller on BBC TV's Jackanory ('The Borrowers'), The Great Big Groovy Horse and Play Away.
1974: (opened 5 March) Sang Iris, Spirit of the Rainbow, in The Tempest, Peter Hall's first production for the National Theatre.
1975: BBC Records Play Away album Hey You! with Brian Cant, Toni Arthur and others.
(date?): Howard Schuman's Censored Scenes from King Kong, Granada TV.
1975: Viewpoint - singing 'Images of Women' . Thames TV production for ITV Schools. Clip
(date?): Guest on Kenneth Williams' Cabaret, BBC Radio 2.
1976/77 for 1978 release: War of the Worlds -- Beth in Jeff Wayne's album musical of H G Wells' classic story.
1976: Dee (Devonia Rhoades) in Howard Schuman and Andy Mackay's Rock Follies, Thames TV, prod. Verity Lambert
(Julie nominated for BAFTA Best Actress award). Both series in detail at the Rock Follies Website.
1976: Rock Follies singles Glenn Miller Is Missing / Talking Pictures and Sugar Mountain / War Brides.
1976: Evita -- the original concept album of the musical by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber.
1976/77, re-entry 1978: Don't Cry For Me Argentina, the No.1 hit single from Evita.
1976: (opened 14 July) Janice in Howard Brenton's play Weapons of Happiness, director David Hare at the Lyttelton, NT.
1976: (opened 21 September) Dotty in Tom Stoppard's Jumpers, directed by Peter Wood at the Lyttelton, National Theatre.
1976: 'Most Promising New Actress' Plays and Players London Theatre Critics' awards.
1976-79 BBC-1 Omnibus: Bertolt Brecht.
1977: Rock Follies of '77, Thames TV follow-up series. Hit single OK? / B.Side.
1977: (15 May) Howard Schuman's Anxious Anne, BBC TV.
1977: Hit single Only Women Bleed.
1977: The Albion Band album The Prospect Before Us. (For Albion out-takes see Ashley Hutchings' The Guv'nor series.)
1977: The Mermaid Frolics, Amnesty International Gala Benefit concert with Pete Atkin and the Bowles Brothers Band.
1977: (October 18) The first ever Britannia Awards (later Brit Awards): 'Most outstanding new British recording artist (female)'.
1977: TV Times award: 'Most exciting female singer on TV'.
1977: NME Poll: Top Female Singer.
1977: Capital Radio Music Awards: Best Female Singer.
1978: (January) Dixie O'Keefe in David Mercer's Flint, director Peter Wood, BBC TV drama with John Le Mesurier.
1978: Varya in Peter Gill's production of The Cherry Orchard at the Riverside Studios, Hammersmith.
1978: (12 March) Duet w/ Sue Jones-Davies in Super Star Sunday benefit for Erin Pizzey's Chiswick Women's Aid, Adelphi.
1978: (opened 12 April) Alice Park to Kate Nelligan's Susan Traherne in David Hare's Plenty at the Lyttelton, NT.
1978: Julie Covington album on Virgin, prod. Joe Boyd / John Wood. Single (I Want To See The) Bright Lights [Tonight]
(several sources list this in error as Julie's first solo album, but that was EMI's The Beautiful Changes, see 1969-71).
1978: Backing vocals on Richard & Linda Thompson album First Light.
1978: Backing vocals on Kate and Anna McGarrigle album, believed to be Pronto Monto.
1978: Recorded with Ashley Hutchings' The Albion Band for Rise Up Like The Sun.
1978: Guest on (BBC) Radio 1 Round Table, withPaul Gambaccini and John Peel.
1978: (opened 22 August) English National Opera: Anna I in Brecht and Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins at the Coliseum.
1978: (9 and 10 December) Riverside Benefit Concerts with the Albion Band, Riverside Studios.
1979: (broadcast 21 January) Nichola Davies in Stephen Poliakoff's City Sugar with John Shrapnel, BBC Radio 3.
1979: (broadcast 4 February) Beatrice in Harley Granville-Barker's The Voysey Inheritance with Jeremy Irons, BBC1.
1979: (opened 29 March) Edward, Clive's (Antony Sher) son, also Betty, in Cloud Nine by Caryl Churchill, directed by Max
Stafford-Clark, music Andy Roberts, Joint Stock at Royal Court.
1979/81?: Kite Show, Cambridge Guildhall, with Pete Atkin, Clive James, Terry Jones, Michael Palin.
1980: An Optimistic Thrust, Joint Stock at the Young Vic and Royal Court.
1980: (opened 19 June) Shelly in Sam Shepard's Buried Child, directed by Nancy Meckler at Hampstead Theatre Club.
(dates?): Joint Stock tours of UK and Ireland.
1980: (title?) BBC TV programme of Beatles songs, with Leo Sayer and others.
1981: S haw's Saint Joan opened 10 Feb at Arts, Cambridge and subsequent tour (Nancy Meckler for Cambridge Theatre Co.)
(date?): Touch And Go staged reading at Riverside
1982: (broadcast 12 February) Guy Meredith's A Shilling Life with Eric Porter, dir. Michael Heffernan, BBC2.
1982: (7 March) LWT South Bank Show featuring Guys and Dolls rehearsal and onstage footage.
1982: (opened 9 March) Sarah in Guys and Dolls -- Richard Eyre's National Production at the Olivier, now revived, though
without Julie. But her original 1982 National cast recording has been re-released on EMI's MFP label: CDMFP 5978.
1982: Russell Davies' When Housewives had the Choice?, BBC Radio 2 with Russell Davies, prod. Jonathan James-Moore.
1982: Vocal on BBC Records single Housewives' Choice (In the Party Mood).
1982: (15 August) Youth Training, benefit for YT Centres at Roundhouse (solo plus Guys and Dolls scene w/ Ian Charleston).
1982: (24 October) Susan Littler Tribute solo performance at Olivier, National Theatre.
1982: Edward Bennett's film Ascendancy, Golden Bear Award, Berlin 1983.
1983: (opened 23 March) Mrs Bradshaw, lead in Howard Barker's Victory, directed by Danny Boyle at Royal Court Theatre.
1984: (opened 3 February) Vivienne Eliot in Michael Hastings' Tom and Viv with Tom Wilkinson (later with Edward
Herrmann), directed by Max Stafford-Clark at the Royal Court Theatre (Julie nominated for Olivier Best Actress).
1984: (opened 28 August) Helen in Fall by James Saunders, directed by Robin LeFevre, Hampstead Theatre Club.
1985: (opened January 30) Tom and Viv transfers to Joe Papp's Public Theatre, New York City.
1985: Tom and Viv re-opened 22 March at Royal Court Theatre.
1985-87?: Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh.
(date? title?): Presented Ch.4 (UK) TV documentary on the KGB.
1986: Sang Remember Why We Fell In Love, Rice/Lloyd Webber theme song for Thames TV sitcom Executive Stress.
1987: Blanche in Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs, National at the Aldwych Theatre.
1987: (13 December) Thing-a-thon, solo performance in benefit for Terence Higgins Trust & Frontliners at Piccadilly Theatre.
1988: Passing By, Old Red Lion, Islington.
1988: (opened December 13) Carol in Orpheus Descending by Tennessee Williams, Peter Hall at Theatre Royal Haymarket.
1989: White Man Sleeps / Wyoming, voiceover on Ch.4 (UK) dance feature with Siobhan Davies, prod/dir. Terry Braun.
1989?: Australian CD release of the Virgin 1978 album Julie Covington on Axis Records CDVAX 701611.
1990: Made in Heaven, Granada TV.
1992: The Healer (G F Newman, BBC1 drama).
1994?: Song for the TV film Ghosts, story adapted by Terry Johnson for BBC 'Screen 2' series.
1994: But Seriously Folks, BBC Radio 2, a two-part study of the protest song (with Mel Hill).
1997: Special guest with Pete Atkin at the first Monyash Festival, Derbyshire.
1999: (March 15) CD issue of The Beautiful Changes ...Plus, See For Miles SEECD 687. Booklet Note by Pete Atkin.

Final Update May 27th 1999. Thanks to all those who provided the information to make this chronology so comprehensive. Any additional info or suggestions welcomed -- mail me cjb@<no spam>thebeautifulchanges.co.uk removing the <no spam> from the address first. But please note I can't field personally all the questions you might have. If you need to know more, your best bet might be to join Midnight Voices. This is an e-mail discussion group, where topics include Pete Atkin, Clive James and Julie, especially their songs. Pete is the musician whose songs (co-written with Clive James) launched Julie's singing career in the Footlights Revues, while she was at Homerton College, Cambridge (England) in the 1960s.

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