TAKE THE voice. The Voice is a wonderful thing - searing, wavering, careering...penetrating !
How many female voices meandering about on vinyl at the moment have the ability and class to stretch those chords and end up with Eeemotion ? Take a hint of lipstick and a hint of rouge, modest attire, a smile here and there and the biggest voice this side of Tooting - take Hazell Dean.
"Hi-NRG is best sung by women because there aren't any guys around now with big powerful voices. If there's some guy hiding out there with a great big powerful voice - come up and see me and we can get something together - NOW !
"Most of the women in Hi-NRG have grand voices, and I think it's wonderful for them because it's usually very difficult for lady singers to break through - and here we are at the moment being given a chance. I was told at one point in my career that my voice was too good. I was told to change it, but I didn't. I sing like I sing, and I can't and won't change it !
Get set for yet more sweat. Along with Evelyn Thomas, Ian Levine, StreetSounds, Ian Stevens and gay discos and dance charts across the nation. Hazell Dean is casually spearheading the rebirth of British gay Disco - Hi-NRG is here to stay.
Hazell is a little girl in a big boystown world, she is taking on all comers and winning hands down. With all her Eurovision days behind her, she is now concentrating on building her career up, and has been touring solidly over the last year - one of the reason that her club hit 'Searchin' went overground and became a national success.
Hazell is currently in the charts with the follow up 'Whatever I Do (Wherever I Go)'.
"I love Hi-NRG music because I love songs. Now it's been given a label - but as far as I'm concerned Hi-NRG was kicking around in 1975 when Gloria Gaynor was up there. Songs like 'Never Can Say Goodbye', 'How High The Moon' and the Donna Summer things all started out in a Hi-NRG groove...it just wasn't called Hi-NRG. 'I Am What I Am' and 'I Will Survive' were both Hi-NRG hits, but they weren't labelled. "I like big dramatic raunchy songs - and they are the type I like to sing. I have to like the song and I can't record anything I don't like".
THE ESSEX born Hazell has just return from a lengthy club tour of the States where she took in Miami, New York and Los Angeles (this show being witnessed by Grace Jones, Cyndi Lauper, Sylvester and Dusty Springfield). The highlight of the tour was playing 'The Saint' in the Big Apple to an audience of 7,000 people on the Day Of Independance.
"'Searchin comes from the clubs. When it was released a year ago, I was out there playing in them. I think it's important to get everything starts and grows. I enjoy playing all sorts of clubs for different reasons - maybe the little tiny clubs as opposed to the big ones. "The strangest audiences I've seen are in France - they are so reserved it's untrue... I find the Dutch crowds much more receptive and more fun - 'Searchin' was a hit first in Holland. KISS-FM in Los Angeles, WKTU in New York and SUPER Q in Miami all predicted Hazell's ascent to stardom, and she is presently thinking about the inevitable LP. "We're trying to do the album in August, and the major task is finding songs worthy of inclusion. We will have a meeting in two weeks time when we'll pool all the songs together and go through a process of elimination. I've got a few songs of my own, but it all depends on what other people have come up with, and in what context they fit. "At school, when other girls were into lipstick - I was into singing. I've worked very hard for a long time. I had singing lessons when I was 17, and they didn't give me a style... people are born with a style. The thing that lessons taught me was breath control... it's so important for a powerful singer - I won't be getting any throat infections. "I'm a very good singer and I want to be very famous. I want to be very successful at what I do best - which is singing. "
DYLAN JONES
Record Mirror
August 11, 1984