Hazel O'Connor
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!)Subsequent albums released by O'Connor included Sons and Lovers (which featured the UK Top 10 hit single "D-Days"), Cover Plus, Smile, Private Wars and Five in the Morning.O'Connor donated her songwriting talents to Greenpeace First International Record Project released worldwide in 1985 as a response to the French bombing and subsequent sinking of the Rainbow Warrior.She also played a singer in an episode of Prospects on Channel 4 in 1986 alongside former Breaking Glass co-star Gary Olsen, resulting in the release of a spin-off single "Today Could Be So Good" .In 2003, Invisible Hands Music released O'Connor's first-ever official best of compilation, A Singular Collection, which brought together her early hits from the Albion days, mid career work at RCA, and the best of the latter, DIY era.To add something new to the best of compilation, O'Connor recorded a cover of her 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 Beverley Knight.Hidden Heart, produced by Martin Rushent and including duets with Maire Brennan and Rob Reynolds, was released in the UK in 2006, and her 1984 album Smile was reissued on CD in 2008.In September 2010, O'Connor performed in France with The Bluja Project featuring Clare Hirst and Sarah Fisher, and in Ireland in October with Cormac de Barra.