Country Living with Francis Farragher

It’s kind of strange at times how a little line you hear on the news about the passing of a famous singer or actor can transport you back in time to a different era of your life.

When the word broke last week that one Marianne Faithfull had passed away, it transported me back to a July night in 1976, when under the marquee canvas at Claregalway Carnival, there I found myself with about 1,500 more looking up at the fragile looking frame of a woman who was known all over the world.

The Summer Carnival scene in Ireland was still very much in full swing in the mid-70s with most parishes enjoying their couple weeks of fame when names like Larry Cunningham, Margo, Big Tom, John Glenn, Paddy Cole and Twink, featured in the entertainment sections of the Connacht Tribune and Tuam Herald newspapers

And yet, big and all as they were on the Irish scene, they kind of paled into insignificance when word went around that Marianne Faithfull would be playing at Claregalway Carnival.

I’m not quite sure what the weather was like that night but I’ll take a bit of poetic licence and assume that it was a balmy summer’s evening, but a few of us made sure we got a seat on the local bus from Abbeyknockmoy to the field in Claregalway.

Cars were parked everywhere and inside the tent there was quite a strange departure from the usual carnival scene of a line-up of women on the right hand side as one looked at the stage and a herd of males at the back of the dancefloor.

Marianne Faithfull cut a frail figure on stage but for an hour and a half or so, she transformed the typical marquee jive and waltz routine into a distinctively concert atmosphere. Most of us were just in a little bit of awe, looking at and listening to a woman who had been the partner of rock legend Mick Jagger of Rolling Stones fame. So, who was this woman, who inspired us to ‘stir out’ on a Wednesday night in early July, 1976 for a bit of mood therapy?

A stunningly beautiful woman, Marianne Faithfull was born in Hampstead, London, in December 1946, and through the mid-60s she got to move in music circles involving the Rolling Stones before being talent spotted by an English record producer, Andrew Loog Oldham, who immediately recognised that there was something very special about her voice.

Pictured: An iconic image from the late 1960s: Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull.