Marianne Faithfull

Marianne Faithfull - perhaps best remembered as the waif-like muse, timidly attached to the hand of a flamboyant Mick Jagger throughout the swinging 60s. With her golden hair, blue eyes and dainty smile, Faithfull was the embodiment of beauty. However, behind those innocent folky coos and modest knee length dresses, Marianne hid a wholly sinister side, and a daringly debauched life was lead by the rowdy aristocrat. 

Some say the doe eyed deity was lead astray by the men in her life - Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan and Keith Richards were amongst her admirers - but Marianne is quick to set such a myth straight, often asserting her rock and roll lifestyle was all her doing.

However, following the reckless glamour of the 60s, Marianne's drug abuse finally got the better of her in the unavoidable hangover of the 70s. Her relationship with Jagger came to an end, and at her lowest point, Faithfull lived on the streets of Soho, suffering with heroin addiction and anorexia. 

Little did her critics realise, however, was that Marianne was yet to see her biggest triumph yet - when in 1979, she released ‘Broken English’. Spiralling onto the music scene from seemingly nowhere, the new wave-influenced LP took everyone by surprise, with it soon going on to be viewed a masterpiece thanks to it’s wildly stark and poignant atmosphere - a musical incarnation of the pain she had been through the years prior to it’s release.

Eventually kicking her habits in the 80s, Faithfull proceeded to go from success to success. With the past two decades yielding a multitude of hit albums and star struck collaborations with long term fans ala Jarvis Cocker, Billy Corgan, Nick Cave and PJ Harvey - Marianne is most certainly back in the game, with an enviable wisdom to boot. 

Alongside her recording material, Faithfull has also  become a huge favourite on the live circuit over the last few years - a fact which is confirmed via ‘Live at Hollywood’, which sees Marianne asserting her superstardom before an adoring crowd at the Henry Fonda Theater, Hollywood in Spring of 2005.

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Strolling casually on to the stage in a tight black tailored suit, with blonde locks framing her aging but ever-beautiful face, it is immediately clear Marianne’s aura continues to blaze bright. 

Parting her round lips, it can be quite a shock to the system remembering within this charming goddess lies that hauntingly corroded, dusty voice. Launching into Richard M Jones’ blues classic, ‘Trouble in Mind’, however - hand on hip, feet tapping, and trumpets wrapping around her like silk - and the rock chick has arisen.

Nevertheless, it would be wrong to say that such a distinct drawl appeals to all. In fact, Marianne's voice is somewhat of a cult figure. To distant listeners, the ramshackle performance of 'Falling From Grace', could well sound like an intoxicated sing song, but to quote the song itself - "It's looking bad I know, I'm an outlaw" - Marianne is not here to conform to the status quo starlet. 

Faithfull particularly focused on the coarse, raw side of her art amid 2005’s ‘In the Poison’, of which she showcases material from throughout the concert. The bleak ‘Mystery of Love’ - a track written for the album by PJ Harvey - perfectly fits Marianne’s crawling, sleepy movements on stage, while another song from the LP, ‘No Child of Mine’, is delivered with such intensity and experience, you can’t help but believe every word as Marianne scowls to the audience "Trust in yourself, it's all you can trust!”.

Belief is a key word when discussing Faithfull's live performance. Effortlessly engaging her acting skills (alongside her music, Marianne is a praised actress), she embodies a plethora of characters on stage, and it is near impossible to not be captivated by the theatrics. 'Times Square' is particularly notable for displaying Marianne's drama on stage, with the audience undoubtedly moved by the perfectly controlled body language and painful pines of: "If alcohol could take me there, I'd take a shot a minute, and be there by the hour", so much so the song is welcomed with a prolonged standing ovation upon completion. 

These heart-wrenching dalliances with dismal stories continues throughout ‘Live at Hollywood’. Just take Marianne classic, 'The Ballad of Lucy Jordan' - a tale of a suicidal middle-aged housewife - that is sung with the most perfect dose of sympathy and melancholia, or the line: "Come on Sister Morphine, you better make up my bed, cause you know and I know in the morning I'll be dead" from 'Sister Morphine' - another huge Faithfull hit - which is aired by that cigarette-tarred voice with such conviction it's like a bullet has been shot through your chest.

Faithfull continues to pull out the classics throughout the live performance, including a tender rendition of "the little song that started the whole damn thing", better known to us as 'As Tears Go By' - which sees the original purity Marianne performed this track with back in the black and of white of 60s instead replaced with an incredibly apt wisdom : "I see the things I used to do, they think they're new, I sit and watch as tears go by.”

Observing Marianne’s ruffian attitude amid ‘Working Class Hero’, it’s obvious why John Lennon viewed her cover in such a high regard. Meanwhile, the undoubted highlight of the DVD comes in the shape of another track written by another legend - ‘Incarceration of a Flower Child’. Given to Marianne by Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, the ballad - which details a marriage in the midst of a break up - is strewn around the room with such agonizing passion by Marianne, that at one point, she lands on her knees physically begging the retreating lover to "just stay with me, here on the floor.”

Face dampened with perspiration, Marianne closes the show with a typically raucous performance of 'Broken English' hit, 'Why D'ya Do It' - sneering the raunchy (and unprintable!) lyrics just like it was 1979. Indeed, as Faithfull vacates from the theatre behind a humble curtain (no pyrotechnics are required here, it is all about that one woman on stage), a dizzy crowd spilling over trying to catch one final glimpse of the star, you realise what a force of nature Marianne is. After years of living in the shadows of the men she loved - forever haunted by endless myths, stories and scandals surrounding her name - Faithfull has at last come out on top to confirm her own, personal place amongst music legend. And boy does she know it. 

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