Belinda O'Hooley

Belinda O'Hooley is a British singer-songwriter and pianist with Irish roots, who was born in Leeds^[1] and went to university in Huddersfield,^[2]where she is now based. Formerly a member of Rachel Unthank and the Winterset (now The Unthanks), she now records and performs with fellow Yorkshire singer-songwriter Heidi Tidow (pronounced Tee-doe) as O'Hooley & Tidow.

History

O'Hooley comes from a long line of County Sligo musicians^[3] and performed alongside her cousin Tommy Fleming, a singer who was formerly with De Danann.^[4]

From 2004 until 2008 she was a member of Rachel Unthank and the Winterset (now The Unthanks).^[2]Nic Oliver, reviewing their 2007 album The Bairns for musicOMH, described O'Hooley as "the ace in the pack throughout The Bairns. Her background in cabaret (intriguingly, she had once appeared on Stars In Their Eyes impersonating Annie Lennox) adds a left-field edge to the music, with her jazzy piano chords lending a sing-along feel to the live favourite Blue's Gaen Oot O'The Fashion. O'Hooley also contributes the two original tracks to the album, although the casual listener could quite easily mistake both Blackbird and Whitehorn^[5] for traditional songs".^[6]

In 2005 O'Hooley released a solo album, Music is My Silence, described by reviewer David Kidman of Netrhythms.com as "a commanding and defiant set of thoroughly contemporary-sounding songs".^[3]

O'Hooley & Tidow

Between August and November 2009 at their home in Golcar, Huddersfield,^[2][7][8] Belinda O'Hooley and Heidi Tidow recorded an album, Silent June, which was released on 22 February 2010 to critical acclaim.^{[9][10][11][12]} It was one of MOJO magazine’s Top 10 Folk Albums of 2010^[13] and won 'Best Debut' in the Spiral Awards, organised by Spiral Earth.^[14] O'Hooley & Tidow also won the FATEA Innovation Award 2010, an award for music which broadens the appeal of roots-based music.^[15]

Silent June was mixed and mastered by Neil Ferguson of Chumbawamba and also featured Anna Esslemont and Cormac Byrne (both from Uiscedwr), Jackie Oates and the Solo Players string quartet. Its title refers to the words of one of the songs on the album, "Que Sera", about the execution during World War I of the British nurse Edith Cavell.^[16][17] The album also includes a version of the song "Spancil Hill" and a new song "Too Old To Dream" incorporating a segment of "When I Grow Too Old to Dream", a popular song with music by Sigmund Romberg and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II,^[9] published in 1934 and recorded by many artists, most notably Gracie Fields.

O'Hooley & Tidow released a single, "The Last Polar Bear", in November 2011. The song is taken from their forthcoming album, Fragile,^[18] featuring Andy Cutting, Jackie Oates, Anna Esslemont and Cormac Byrne, which is scheduled for release in February 2012.

Other musical contributions

O'Hooley plays piano on Jackie Oates' albums Jackie Oates (2006), The Violet Hour (2008) and Hyperboreans (2009). With Heidi Tidow, she also features on Chumbawamba's album ABCDEFG (2010) and Lucy Ward's debut album Adelphi Has to Fly (2011).

Discography

Belinda O'Hooley

Title	Format	Release date	Label
Music is My Silence	album	13 June 2005	Rabble Rouser, distributed by Cadiz Music

O'Hooley & Tidow

Title	Format	Release date	Label
Silent June	album	22 February 2010	No Masters,[19] distributed by Proper Records
"The Last Polar Bear"	single	21 November 2011[18]	No Masters

References and footnotes

1. ^ "'Pandemonium' feat O'Hooley & Tidow". remotegoat.co.uk website. http://www.remotegoat.co.uk/event_view.php?uid=125598&dd=26&mm=02&yyyy=2011. Retrieved 16 April 2011. 
2. ^ ^{a b c} Sam Wonfor (6 May 2010). "New band and album for The Unthanks' Belinda O'Hooley". www.jounallive.co.uk. http://www.journallive.co.uk/culture-newcastle/music-in-newcastle/2010/05/06/difficult-break-to-make-but-one-i-won-t-regret-61634-26377531/. Retrieved 16 November 2011. 
3. ^ ^{a b} David Kidman. "Belinda O'Hooley - Music Is My Silence (RabbleRouser)". Netrhythms.com website. http://www.netrhythms.com/reviewso.html#ohooley. Retrieved 9 May 2011. 
4. ^ "Belinda O'Hooley: Music Is My Silence". L.A.S.Y.S. Inc. 2009. http://www.lasysinc.com/Folk_Music/like_Joni_Music/BELINDA_OHOOLEY_Music_Is_My_Silence.html. Retrieved 11 June 2011. 
5. ^ The song is actually called "Whitethorn", as O'Hooley explains in an interview with David Peschek: "It's about my great-grandmother, struggling to survive in a tiny village in Ireland...She was pregnant 15 or 16 times and only two babies survived. Because they hadn't lived long enough to be christened, they weren't buried in the local churchyard, but under a whitethorn bush, actually near where my dad lives now. It really brought home to me the history of women's struggles, and made me want to write." David Peschek (14 September 2007). "'In our family, singing is the law'". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2007/sep/14/folk. Retrieved 10 June 2011. 
6. ^ Nic Oliver (August 2007). "Rachel Unthank & The Winterset – The Bairns (EMI)". musicOMH. http://www.musicomh.com/albums/rachel-unthank_0807.htm. Retrieved 4 May 2011. 
7. ^ Belinda O'Hooley and Heidi Tidow (October 2010). "Day 1: The Story So Far – By Belinda & Heidi". Spiral Earth. http://www.spiralearth.co.uk/attitude/OTguestEdit1.aspwas. Retrieved 20 May 2011. 
8. ^ "O'Hooley & Tidow – Silent June". Folk Radio UK. 10 March 2010. http://www.folkradio.co.uk/2010/03/ohooley-tidow-silent-june-free-tracks/. Retrieved 11 July 2011. 
9. ^ ^{a b} Colin Irwin (16 February 2010). "The former-Unthank’s gift for a charged lyric and a compelling tune is undiminished". BBC Online. http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/qb6m. Retrieved 11 March 2011. "Too Old to Dream is a sentimental, yet still intensely moving picture of faded memories, melded into the old Sigmund Romberg/Oscar Hammerstein II standard and a recording of a Dewsbury care home resident....One More Xmas might also one day be recognised as a classic. Thoughtful, provocative, yearning and deeply poignant, it’ll resonate with anyone who’s lost a loved one or wilts under grown-up responsibilities, and may just be the best seasonal song written since Fairytale of New York."
10. ^ Neil Spencer (14 February 2010). "O'Hooley & Tidow: Silent June". The Observer. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/feb/14/ohooley-tidow-silent-june-review?INTCMP=SRCH. Retrieved 20 March 2011. "The spare, dramatic piano parts that Belinda O'Hooley formerly brought to the Unthanks have grown into rippling, neo-classical arrangements on this first album with fellow singer and songwriter Heidi Tidow... A bold, unsettling debut."
11. ^ David Honigmann (27 February 2010). "O'Hooley & Tidow: Silent June". Financial Times. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/2104a590-210c-11df-a6b2-00144feab49a.html#axzz1MsYwGCtT. Retrieved 20 May 2011. "Four stars...the deceptively light 'Shelter Me' is a memorably off-beat love song...O’Hooley unfolds a gorgeous piano melody."
12. ^ Peter Culshaw (30 January 2010). "New Music CDs Round-Up 5: O’Hooley and Tidow, Silent June (No Masters)". The Arts Desk. http://www.theartsdesk.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=879:new-music-cd-round-up-5&Itemid=107. Retrieved 18 June 2011.  "[A] low-key but intensely beautiful and poetic album...the piano, adventurous bracing strings and vocals give it a semi-classical feel."
13. ^ "Award winning Huddersfield folk duo O’Hooley and Tidow set for LBT concert". Huddersfield Daily Examiner. 28 February 2011. http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/local-west-yorkshire-news/2011/02/28/award-winning-huddersfield-folk-duo-o-hooley-and-tidow-set-for-lbt-concert-86081-28247038/. Retrieved 6 April 2011. 
14. ^ "The Spiral Awards Winners 2011". Spiral Earth website. http://www.spiralearth.co.uk/spiralawards2011. Retrieved 14 May 2011. 
15. ^ "Fatea Awards 2010". FATEA Magazine. 2010. http://www.fatea-records.co.uk/magazine/awards2010.html. Retrieved 6 June 2011. 
16. ^ O'Hooley says that “Que Sera” seeks to portray "the horrors of war from a woman's perspective" and "explores the feelings, sounds and senses that Edith Cavell may have felt as she stood before a firing squad"."O'Hooley & Tidow". Gayleeds.com. 2010. http://www.gayleeds.com/interviews/article/_o'hooley-tidow/. Retrieved 11 June 2011. 
17. ^ "O'Hooley & Tidow: unconventional and experimental folk". Muso's magazine. February 2011. http://content.yudu.com/Library/A1qvu4/MusosMagazineIssue2F/resources/11.htm. Retrieved 11 June 2011. 
18. ^ ^{a b} "O’Hooley & Tidow - The Last Polar Bear". Missing Lesbians. 21 November 2011. http://www.missinglesbians.co.uk/2011/11/ohooley-tidow-last-polar-bear.html. Retrieved 21 November 2011. 
19. ^ "No master’s voice – Belinda O’Hooley, former pianist with Mercury nominees The Unthanks, talks to Rachael Clegg about her latest duo outing". Sheffield Telegraph. 9 November 2010. http://www.sheffieldtelegraph.co.uk/news/no_master_s_voice_belinda_o_hooley_former_pianist_with_mercury_nominees_the_unthanks_talks_to_rachael_clegg_about_her_latest_duo_outing_1_2746139. Retrieved 6 April 2011. 

External links

• Official website: O'Hooley & Tidow

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