John Maybury, one of the UK's most venerated music video directors, returns to the medium for the first time in years for the iconic Marianne Faithfull.

Maybury, best known for directing the video for Sinead O'Connor's Nothing Compares 2 U, before making films including Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon, has created a dreamlike piece for Faithfull's The Gypsy Faerie Queen, co-penned and featuring Nick Cave. Like the song, it's inspired by A Midsummer Night's Dream, with ethereal Super 8mm-shot footage of the Fairy Queen, alternating with close-up footage of a glowingly radiant Faithfull.

“It’s a little miracle,” says Marianne Faithfull of the song, the first single from her just-released album Negative Capability - the 21st in a recording career spanning 54 years. “I think it’s one of the loveliest songs we’ve ever written together. It was so great working with Nick again.” And she adds that she and John Maybury discovered they had a connection through a mutual collaborator in filmmaker Derek Jarman.

"John Maybury told me that the person who really got him into movies was Derek Jarman. Derek even bought him his first camera. Derek Jarman was the person who made the music video for Broken English, which I absolutely love. It was the beginning of MTV, the time when it was all chicks with big tits and long legs and sexy clothes, that’s all that people were interested in. And at the time, nobody really liked our film. It took a long time for people to get it, and it has become sort of a cult artwork now. It’s incredible the way things go in circles. I love that.”

JOHN MAYBURY:

"I’m so proud to have been able to collaborate with the phenomenal Marianne. This beautiful song is yet another classic to add to her amazing catalogue. It’s been a privilege and an honour to be a small part of her incredible story.”

JULIETTE LARTHE:

"Marianne Faithful is a true icon of British culture and music, and John Maybury is a legend in film who has worked with some of the most iconic actors, artists and musicians of our time. So for us, Ted Thornton and I, to collaborate with John Maybury, Jerry Stafford, John “Matty” Mathieson, Josephine Jones, Eamonn Hughes, Sarah Reygate, Michael Clarke, Flora Starkey & Francois Ravard and all the rest of the team, such a dream team to create the music video for Marianne’s new song, The Gypsy Faerie Queen’, was an absolute honour for me and for PRETTYBIRD."