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Hazel O'Connor

Venue: The Brook
Town: Southampton
Date: 08/11/13
Website: http://www.hazeloconnor/index.html

When my wife and I first became an item and did the "all my wordly vinyl I thee endow" bit, there was only one LP that we had in common: Breaking Glass by Hazel O'Connor. (For those that are too young to remember, LPs were like digital downloads, except you could hold them.) Breaking Glass was one of those records that was in everybody's collection, largely due to the track, "Will You", with its stunning saxophone solo that surgically cut through the post punk era like a scalpel.

It is therefore no surprise to find that Hazel's band includes a saxophonist. In 2010, she joined with Clare Hirst (saxophone) and Sarah Fisher (keyboards) to form The Bluja Project. The three of them are still touring, sometimes as a trio and sometimes accompanied by a full band, (bassist, guitarist and drummer). Their gig on Friday at the Brook comprised the whole band.

It was booked as "Hazel O'Connor plus support - doors open at 8:00 - support onstage 8:30 approx", but by about quarter to nine it had become apparent that if a support act had been been booked, they'd dropped out. Presumably, because she'd been expecting a support, Hazel played one complete set, without a break. I suspect that venues prefer performers to take a break as it must improve their profits if people rush to the bar during an interval. For me, though, as I was driving and therefore limited to what I could drink, it was rather nice to have an uninterrupted set.

Afraid I didn't catch the names of the rest of the band, but they were all marvelous. Especially impressed by the guitarist, who had an interesting technique of running both hands up and down the fretboard to produce a sound similar to a keyboard. My wife was also really impressed with the drummer who managed to recreate the drum crescendo from "Will You" almost flawlessly.

I think most of the band probably weren't born when Breaking Glass was released, particularly the guitarist who seemed to be a proponent of the fashion amongst young men to have their trousers hanging low with a couple of inches of underpants protuding above the belt line. There was no apparent irony even during the song "Cover Plus", which includes the line "Shut up, you naughty boy and put your clothes back on."

Hazel, despite the fact that it is over thirty years since Breaking Glass was released, is still just as young, beautiful and energetic as ever. Whether they were performing her material, or covers, ranging fron Snow Patrol to Nina Simone, or The Stranglers to The Dubbliners, she and her band were fabulous.

They were hampered by a bit of feedback from her microphone, but the audience, who seemed to know and love every song, didn't mind at all. In "Still Breathing", which is Hazel's audience participation song, Sarah started to teach everyone the words, but it was instantly apparent that the audience at the Brook knew it well. After four encores, the audience were still baying for more.

Set List
Gimme An Inch
Runaway
Monsters In Disguise
Calls The Tune
If Only
Hanging Around/ Blackman
Big Brother
Acoustically Yours
I Would Rather (Wonder Woman)
Cover Plus
D Days
I Give You My Sunshine
Writing On The Wall
Will You
Eighth Day
Still Breathing

Encores
Chasing Cars
Feeling Good
Spancil Hill
Driftwood

Pete Bradley