Hazel O'Connor

Hitting the headlines in the early 1980s with the hits Eighth Day and D-Days, Hazel O'Connor underlined her media-friendly status with her shouty vocal style, a striking punky image and a starring role in the angry music movie Breaking Glass. The daughter of an Irish soldier who settled in England after the Second World War, she is said to have run away from home at 16 to go travelling across Europe and Africa and began her singing career in a trio performing for British troops in Berlin. On her return, her shock blonde hair, anti-social attitude and spirit of rebellion won her the role of Kate opposite Phil Daniels and Jonathan Pryce in the Brian Gibson movie, Breaking Glass, about a band trying to make it in the music business. It won her a Variety Club of Great Britain Award for Best Film Actor and gave her hits with the soundtrack album and the singles Will You and Eighth Day. O'Connor went on tour supported by Duran Duran and briefly became a focal point of the post-punk period with her mix of punk and electro. She subsequently continued to record and perform, but concentrated on the theatre, although she did have a minor hit in the late 1990s with Na Na Na. In 2005 she duetted with Maire Brennan (of Clannad) on the Hidden Heart album, produced by Martin Rushent. In 2014 she was back in the studio working on another new album Here She Comes.