About

"Marianne Faithful is elfin, difficult to get to know. She covers herself in veils, and even in the sunshine carries the night with her…She has created a legend by steering through the Scylla and Charybdis of 'the music business' – over-exposure, too young, drugs, fast living and famous friends. Underneath the frail exterior she must have a strong sense of survival."
Derek Jarman, Dancing Ledge (1984)

Derek Jarman's first experiment with music video is an uncredited sequence in Julian Temple's The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle 1980 in which he recorded the Sex Pistols during a 1976 performance. His first commissioned music videos were made in support of Marianne Faithful's 1979 album Broken English. Hired by Island Records and Faithful's manager Chris Blackwell, Jarman made a triptych film for 'Witches Song', 'The Ballad of Lucy Jordan' and 'Broken English'. The footage was shot on Super-8 and 16mm and blown up to 35mm for cinema presentations, where it screened at London's ICA alongside Echo & the Bunnymen's Shine So Hard 1981 and Pink Floyd's Interstellar Overdrive 1966. 'Witches Song' evokes Jarman's interests in the occult with scenes of pagan rituals; 'The Ballad of Lucy Jordan' sees Faithful walking through Soho and Piccadilly at night; while 'Broken English' interweaves footage of fascist dictators, public demonstrations and war. Blackwell 'loathed' the final film but Faithful remained friends with Jarman and would contribute 'The Skye Boat Song' toThe Last of England.