An Occasional Series of Cultural (Re)Discovery. Part 1.

British-Born Culture That You Might Have Missed and That Matters to Me.

Bill Fay.

Music from the early 1960s to the present day.

Bill Fay is a surprisingly little-known English folk singer. If someone asked me to recommend someone British who sounded a bit like Nick Drake and had been equally ignored, Bill Fay would be my first answer. So, if you like Nick Drake, then try this (if you don’t like Drake, well, I am amazed).

Fay recorded a couple of albums between 1967 and 1971 and was then dropped by his record label. Then, for 41 years, no new music appeared, but bolstered by the rerelease of his albums, his legend grew. Artists such as Wilco, The War on Drugs, Pavement and Marc Almond have covered his songs, which helped of course. There have been two new albums since 2012 and then an excellent compilation last year. 

Fay was born in North London in 1943 and he still lives there. He describes his growing cult status like this; ‘Until 1998, when some people reissued my albums, as far as I was concerned, I was gone, deleted. No one was listening. 
But then…I was doing some gardening, and listening to some of my songs on cassette, and part of me thought they were quite good. That evening I got a call from a music writer telling me that my two albums were being reissued. It was astonishing to me.’

Have a listen and let me know what you think.