Hazel O’Connor

Coventry girl Hazel O’Connor launched herself as a singer/songwriter with a starring part in the music industry movie Breaking Glass (1980) – scoring a Top Five hit single with Eighth Day in the process.

Shortly after the film was released, Hazel began touring with her own band, Megahype (which included her brother Neil on guitar), trying hard to make it in a way that strongly echoed the movie’s plot.

The irony wasn’t lost on Hazel, who was acutely aware of just how much her own identity became blurred with the character of Kate.

In an effort to put Kate firmly behind her, Hazel has washed out the peroxide, hoping the image would go the way of the dye.

Her first solo single proper, Time, failed to chart, but the album it was taken from, Sons And Lovers, chalked up respectable sales and the singles D-Days and Will You? both made the UK Top 10.

Her career continued to thrive with several follow-ups, but by 1982 she had fallen out with her manager and her record label and could not record for nearly two years.

A subsequent 14-year legal battle to claim royalties for her songs left her financially and emotionally drained, and her eventual return was, unfortunately, less notable than her fans had expected.

Also, in 1982, O’Connor starred in the short-lived HTV teen soapie Jangles set in a nightclub of the same name. She played a headstrong schoolgirl called Joanne, who dreamed of being a pop star. She would perform a song or two in each episode, usually accompanied by a Casio. Jesse Birdsall played her unemployed boyfriend, Steve.

In January 2022, O’Connor was taken to hospital where it was determined that she had suffered a brain haemorrhage and was put into an induced coma for 24 hours.