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Hazel O´Connor
photo archive + bio
The daughter of a Galwegian sailor who settled in England, O'Connor originally shot to fame as an actress, playing the role of Kate in the critically acclaimed film Breaking Glass in 1980, and its accompanying soundtrack.
The years before she appeared in the film Breaking Glass were eventful to say the least - see O'Connor's autobiography "Hazel O'Connor Uncovered Plus", Proteus Publishing Ltd., 1981, ISBN 0-906071-81-X, for full details. As she wrote in the introduction note of the programme for a gig at "At My Place" in Santa Monica, Los Angeles in 1989 - "I ran away from my home in Coventry when I was 16.....made and sold clothes in Amsterdam, picked grapes in France, joined a dance troupe that went to Tokyo then onto Beirut (escaping the start of the civil war by one month!) travelled West Africa, crossed the Sahara, sang with a dreadful singing trio for the U.S. troops in Germany and came home to "settle down". Through all this experience of life and the world I realized that singing always cheered me up. I decided to be a singer. Through strange turns of fate I ended up in a film called Breaking Glass I also ended up writing all the songs for the movie".
In 1980, her performance as Kate in Breaking Glass won O'Connor the Variety Club of Great Britain Award for 'Best Film Actor' and BAFTA nominations for 'Best Newcomer' and 'Best Film Score.' The album of the same name has since achieved double platinum status, and was number 5 in the UK Albums Chart for 28 weeks and produced several hit singles, the most successful being the haunting "Will You", and "Eighth Day".
Subsequent albums include Sons and Lovers which featured the hit single "D Days", "Cover Plus", "Smile" and "Five in the Morning". Legal battles plagued O'Connor from the early 1980s - in her own words "I became famous, then had a load of court battles to fight against my first record company, I was ripped off, torn up and spat out by the machinery of 'Showbiz'" However, despite the hassle, O'Connor continued to record and to play live, touring the UK, Ireland, Europe and the U.S. with her band Megahype, and continuing her career as an actor.
She has made numerous TV appearances, starring in Jangles on British television and in 1986 playing the lead role of Vivienne in the critically acclaimed Fighting Back as well as singing the theme tune. She also played a singer in an episode of Prospects on Channel 4 alongside former Breaking Glass actor Gary Olsen.
Her theatre work includes "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, "Nightshoot" at the Tricycle Theatre, London, "Girlfriends" at the Playhouse, London, "Swing Out Sister", her own production, at the Riverside Studio, London, "The Raven Beckons" at the Riverbank Theatre, Dublin and "The Cuchulain Cycle" at the Riverside Studio, London.
In 1997 she made a new studio album, "Five In The Morning" with producer, co-writer and guitarist Gerard Kiely. The album included turntable hit "Na Na Na" which generated a lot of airplay in the UK, especially in Scotland. A live album, "Live In Berlin", followed.
The turn of the century saw Hazel tell her life story in an autobiographical touring show entitled "Beyond Breaking Glass", with harpist Cormac De Barra. The show was a hit at the Edinburgh fringe festival and toured the British Isles, the Netherlands (twice), Australia and Canada.
In 2002 she signed to Invisible Hands Music which triggered a run of new releases and deluxe reissues of her 90s work. A commercially-available reincarnation of the previously mail-order "Beyond Breaking Glass" was followed by a previously-unreleased acoustic concert, "Acoustically Yours". In 2003 "Five In The Morning" and "Live In Berlin" were repackaged with new photos and liner notes.
In 2003 Invisible Hands Music released Hazel's first-ever official best-of, "A Singular Collection", which brought together her early hits from the Albion days, mid career work at Virgin and Sony, and the best of the latter, DIY era. To add something new to the best-of compilation, Hazel recorded a cover of her old friend George Michael's hit "One More Try" with a band that included drummer Carlos Hercules who at the time was playing for Annie Lennox and Beverly Knight. Carlos joined George Michael's band in 2006. The track was released as a single and generated extensive airplay and renewed interest in Hazel - the following year saw her perform a powerful set at Glastonbury Festival.
June 2005 saw the UK release of "Hidden Heart", produced by Martin Rushent and including duets with Moya Brennan and Rob Reynolds.
Hazel currently divides her time from living in Ireland and France.

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