Austin John Marshall (30 March 1937 – 3 November 2013) was an English record producer, songwriter, poet and graphic artist, most notable for his work in developing

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s. Writer

Karl Dallas Karl Frederick Dallas (29 January 1931 – 21 June 2016) Karl Dallas blog
Retrieved 2 July 2013 was a B ...

described him as "one of the great unsung pioneers of contemporary British folk song".RIP Austin John Marshall
Karldallasday.wordpress.com, Retrieved 19 November 2013

Biography

He was born in

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

. His father, an

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

pilot, died in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and he was educated at

Christ's Hospital Christ's Hospital is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 11–18) with a royal charter located to the south of Horsham in West Sussex. The school was founded in 1552 and received its first royal charter in 1553 ...

school in

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ar ...

. He studied at the

Slade School of Fine Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

and the

London College of Printing The London College of Communication is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. It specialises in media-related subjects including advertising, animation, film, graphic design, photography and sound arts. It has approximately ...

, becoming a

graphic designer A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, ...

whose work was published in ''

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine ** ''Vogue China'', ...

'', ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'' and elsewhere. Robin Denselow, "Obituary: Austin John Marshall"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', 14 November 2013. Retrieved 19 November 2013Dave Thompson, "Austin John Marshall – remembering the Phil Spector of Folk Rock", ''Goldmine'', 8 November 2013
Goldminemag.com, Retrieved 19 November 2013 In 1960 he met the singer

Shirley Collins Shirley Elizabeth Collins MBE (born 5 July 1935) is an English folk singer who was a significant contributor to the English Folk Revival of the 1960s and 1970s. She often performed and recorded with her sister Dolly, whose accompaniment on ...

when he was designing the cover for the compilation album ''Rocket Along'', a collection of

folk song Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be c ...

s in which she was featured; they married the following year. Marshall continued to work at ''The Observer'', and began taking an interest in traditional music. In 1964 he arranged for Collins to work with innovative guitarist

Davy Graham David Michael Gordon "Davey" Graham (originally spelled Davy Graham) (26 November 1940 – 15 December 2008) was a British guitarist and one of the most influential figures in the 1960s British folk revival. He inspired many famous practitioners ...

on their joint album ''

Folk Roots, New Routes ''Folk Roots, New Routes'' is a collaborative folk album by Shirley Collins and Davy Graham, released by Decca in 1964. The album was produced by Ray Horricks and recorded by Gus Dudgeon; the sleeve featured a photograph by Crispian Woodgate and ...

'', conceiving the album's approach and writing its

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for cassettes. Origin Liner notes are desce ...

. He then worked as a record producer, art director and songwriter on Collins' albums ''The Sweet Primeroses'' (1967), '' The Power of the True Love Knot'' (1968), ''

Anthems in Eden ''Anthems in Eden'' is a 1969 album by Shirley and Dolly Collins, with the Early Music Consort of London, directed by David Munrow. The album originally consisted of a 28-minute set of folk songs plus seven other individual pieces performed by t ...

'' (1969), and ''

Love, Death and the Lady ''Love, Death and the Lady'' is an album by Shirley and Dolly Collins. This is a companion-piece to ''Anthems In Eden'' (1969), but with a darker tone to it. She attributes the 'melancholy' mood of the album to her own personal loneliness at tha ...

'' (1970), on some of which Collins sang with her sister

Dolly Dolly may refer to: Tools *Dolly (tool), a portable anvil * A posser, also known as a dolly, used for laundering * A variety of wheeled tools, including: **Dolly (trailer), for towing behind a vehicle **Boat dolly or launching dolly, a device fo ...

. He also wrote lyrics for the song "Dancing At Whitsun", first published by Dallas and sung by Collins on ''Anthems in Eden'' and later covered by

Tim Hart Tim Hart (9 January 1948 – 24 December 2009) was an English folk singer and multi-instrumentalist, best known as a founding member of British folk rock band Steeleye Span. Early years Tim Hart was born in Lincoln, England, but moved to St ...

on the 1971 album ''

Summer Solstice The summer solstice, also called the estival solstice or midsummer, occurs when one of Earth's poles has its maximum tilt toward the Sun. It happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere ( Northern and Southern). For that hemisphere, the summer ...

''. He and Collins divorced in 1970, but he continued to work both as a producer and graphic designer with other performers including the

folk rock Folk rock is a hybrid music genre that combines the elements of folk and rock music, which arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music revival. Performers suc ...

bands The Wooden O and

Spirogyra ''Spirogyra'' (common names include water silk, mermaid's tresses, and blanket weed) is a genus of filamentous charophyte green algae of the order Zygnematales, named for the helical or spiral arrangement of the chloroplasts that is characteris ...

, and singer-songwriter

Steve Ashley Steve Frank Ashley (born 9 March 1946) is an English singer-songwriter, recording artist, multi-instrumentalist, writer and graphic designer. Ashley is best known as a songwriter and first gained public recognition for his work with his debut s ...

. He also launched ambitious film projects, working on the film of

Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...

's '' Rainbow Bridge'' concert, where he applied

feedback Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause-and-effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to ''feed back'' into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handled ...

techniques to the video image "with results that have never been equalled"; and on the

Incredible String Band The Incredible String Band (sometimes abbreviated as ISB) were a Scottish psychedelic folk band formed by Clive Palmer (musician), Clive Palmer, Robin Williamson and Mike Heron in Edinburgh in 1966. The band built a considerable following, esp ...

's film '' Be Glad for the Song Has No Ending''. He started a short-lived record label, Streetsong, where he recorded

Bert Jansch Herbert Jansch (3 November 1943 – 5 October 2011) was a Scottish folk musician and founding member of the band Pentangle. He was born in Glasgow and came to prominence in London in the 1960s as an acoustic guitarist and singer-songwriter ...

. He also tried to launch an experimental anti-war folk musical, ''Smudge'', reflecting on the effects of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

on English society. He moved to New York City in 1981, establishing himself on the

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally an im ...

. ''The Coop: The Fast Folk Musical Magazine'', June 1982, p. 14
Media.smithsonianfolkways.org There, his ''Smudge'' project was eventually performed several times in the 1980s. He became a performance poet using the name John the Angel Fish, and became known for his

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...

s. He was married and divorced three times, and had two children. In later years he suffered from

emphysema Emphysema, or pulmonary emphysema, is a lower respiratory tract disease, characterised by air-filled spaces ( pneumatoses) in the lungs, that can vary in size and may be very large. The spaces are caused by the breakdown of the walls of the alve ...

and

chronic pulmonary disease Respiratory diseases, or lung diseases, are pathology, pathological conditions affecting the organs and tissues that make gas exchange difficult in Breathing, air-breathing animals. They include conditions of the respiratory tract including the t ...

. He died in New York in 2013 at the age of 76.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marshall, Austin John 1937 births 2013 deaths People from Leicester Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art People educated at Christ's Hospital English graphic designers English record producers Album-cover and concert-poster artists 20th-century British businesspeople