Belinda O'Hooley

Belinda O'Hooley (born c. 1971) is a British singer-songwriter and pianist from Yorkshire, England. Formerly a member of Rachel Unthank and the Winterset (now The Unthanks), she now records and performs as O'Hooley & Tidow with her wife Heidi Tidow (pronounced Tee-doe).

Belinda O'Hooley
O'Hooley (seated, left) at Musicport 2014
Background information
BornLeeds, England
GenresFolk, chamber folk, singer-songwriter
Instrumentspiano, vocal
Years active2004–present
LabelsNo Masters; Rabble Rouser; Hum Records
Associated actsO'Hooley & Tidow; Coven; Jim Boyes; Nic Jones; Jackie Oates; Lucy Ward; Chumbawamba; Rachel Unthank and the Winterset
Websitewww.ohooleyandtidow.com

Early life and education

O'Hooley, who has Irish roots,[1][2] was born in Horsforth, Leeds,[3] grew up in Guiseley and went to school in Menston. She studied behavioural sciences at the University of Huddersfield.[4]

Professional career

O'Hooley comes from a long line of County Sligo musicians and performed alongside her first cousin Tommy Fleming,[5] a singer who was formerly with De Danann.[2][6]

Rachel Unthank and the Winterset

From 2004 until 2008 she was a member of Rachel Unthank and the Winterset (now The Unthanks).[4] 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[nb 1] for traditional songs".[7]

Solo albums

In 2005 O'Hooley released a solo album, Music is My Silence, described by reviewer David Kidman of Netrhythms.co.uk as "a commanding and defiant set of thoroughly contemporary-sounding songs"[6] and by FATEA as "a highly polished collection of songs that gently sway between folk and jazz".[8]

In 2019 she released a second solo album, Inversions,[9] described by Jude Rogers in The Guardian as "a set of beautiful piano and spoken-word pieces".[10]

O'Hooley & Tidow
Main article: O'Hooley & Tidow

She has issued six albums with Heidi Tidow, performing as O'Hooley & Tidow. Their 2016 album, Shadows, was given a five-starred review by Robin Denselow in The Guardian[11] and four of their other albums have received four-starred reviews in the British national press.

Coven

With Heidi Tidow she performs in the all-female group Coven, whose members also include Hannah James, Rowan Rheingans, Hazel Askew and Grace Petrie. In 2017, Coven released an EP, Unholy Choir.[12]

Other musical contributions

O'Hooley played piano on Jackie Oates' albums Jackie Oates (2006),[13] The Violet Hour (2008),[14] Hyperboreans (2009),[15] Saturnine (2011)[16] and Lullabies (2013).[17] With Heidi Tidow, she was also featured on Chumbawamba's album ABCDEFG (2010)[18] and DVD Going, Going (2012),[19] Lucy Ward's debut album Adelphi Has to Fly (2011)[20] and Patsy Matheson's Domino Girls (2014).[21]

O'Hooley & Tidow were amongst the musicians on the album The Ballads of Child Migration: Songs for Britain's Child Migrants, released by Delphonic Records in October 2015. They contributed the music for one song on the album, "Why Did I Leave Thee?"[22]

O'Hooley also accompanied Nic Jones at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall on his 2011 comeback tour[23] and on further tours in 2012 and 2013.[24][25] In 2015 O'Hooley accompanied Jim Boyes on his Sensations of a Wound tour, telling a little-known story of the First World War. An album of this music, Sensations of a Wound: The Long, Long Trail of Robert Riby Boyes, was released on the No Masters label in February 2015.[26][27]

Discography

with Rachel Unthank and the Winterset
Title Format Release date Label
Cruel Sister album 11 May 2005 Rabble Rouser (RR005) (UK); Cortex (CTX392CD) (Australia)
The Bairns album 28 August 2007[28] EMI (50999 504 3802 0) / Rabble Rouser (50999 504 3802 0) / Real World Music (USCDRW158)

Belinda O'Hooley
Title Format Release date Label
Music is My Silence album 13 June 2005 Rabble Rouser (RR001), distributed by Cadiz Music
Inversions album 28 June 2019 No Masters (NMCD53), distributed by Proper Records

O'Hooley & Tidow
Title Format Release date Label Notes
Silent June album 22 February 2010 No Masters[29] (NMCD32), distributed by Proper Records
"The Last Polar Bear" single (download) 21 November 2011[30] No Masters
The Fragile album 9 February 2012 No Masters (NMCD 39) Includes "Gentleman Jack", a song about Anne Lister, an early 19th-century Yorkshire lesbian gentlewoman,[31] which was used in 2019 as the opening theme song of the BBC One/HBO television series, Gentleman Jack[32]
"Gentleman Jack"/"The Last Polar Bear" single (download) 4 November 2012 No Masters
The Hum album 17 February 2014[33] No Masters (NMCD 41)
The Mark Radcliffe Folk Sessions: O'Hooley & Tidow MP3 mini-album 4 May 2014 Delphonic Records (DELPH094) Contains three live tracks: "Summat's Brewin'", "The Hum" and "Two Mothers"[34]
"Summat's Brewin'"/"Peculiar Brood" single (download) 20 July 2014[35] No Masters
"Peculiar Brood" video (live performance) 7 October 2014[36] Filmed by Minster Studios at Holy Trinity Church, Leeds[36]
"The Pixie" video (live performance) 2 November 2014[37] Filmed by Minster Studios at Holy Trinity Church, Leeds[37]
Summat's Brewin' album August 2015 Hum Records (HUM01) Released in a limited edition of 1,000 signed copies.[38] Includes a live version of the song "Summat's Brewin'"
Shadows album 29 July 2016 No Masters (NMCD 47)
WinterFolk Volume 1 album 3 November 2017 No Masters (NMCD 51)

Coven
Title Format Release date Label
Unholy Choir EP 19 March 2017 own label COVENCD01

Personal life

Belinda O'Hooley and her wife Heidi Tidow live in Golcar in West Yorkshire. They have a son, born in September 2019.

Notes
  1. 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. Retrieved 10 June 2011.

References
  1. Jo Breen (14 March 2014). "O'Hooley & Tidow: The Hum". The Irish Times. Retrieved 9 May 2014.
  2. "Sligo Live a place of homecomings after 10 years". The Sligo Champion. 25 October 2014. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  3. "How Huddersfield became home to one of folk music's most exciting duos". Yorkshire Post. 14 August 2016. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
  4. Sam Wonfor (25 June 2013). "New band and album for The Unthanks' Belinda O'Hooley". The Journal. Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
  5. Michael J McDonagh (14 August 2019). "How music was so integral to the BBC hit television programme Gentleman Jack". Irish World. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  6. David Kidman. "Belinda O'Hooley – Music Is My Silence (RabbleRouser)". Netrhythms.co.uk. Retrieved 9 May 2011.
  7. Nic Oliver (August 2007). "Rachel Unthank & The Winterset – The Bairns (EMI)". musicOMH. Archived from the original on 4 June 2011. Retrieved 4 May 2011.
  8. "Cambridge and Beyond". FATEA Records. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
  9. Ian D Hall (12 June 2019). "Belinda O' Hooley, Inversions. Album Review". Liverpool Sound and Vision. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
  10. Jude Rogers (28 June 2019). "Folk album of the month". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
  11. Robin Denselow (28 July 2016). "O'Hooley & Tidow: Shadows review – England's answer to the McGarrigles". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 July 2016.
  12. Reinhard Zierke (8 November 2017). "Coven: Unholy Choir". Mainly Norfolk: English Folk and Other Good Music. Retrieved 31 January 2018.
  13. "Jackie Oates (Self titled debut)". Discogs. Jackie Oates. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  14. "Jackie Oates – The Violet Hour". Discogs. 2008. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
  15. "Jackie Oates – Hyperboreans". Discogs. 2009. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
  16. Robin Denselow (8 September 2011). "Jackie Oates: Saturnine – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
  17. Robin Denselow (21 March 2013). "Jackie Oates: Lullabies – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
  18. Stefan Appleby (9 March 2010). "Music – Review of Chumbawamba – ABCDEFG". BBC. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
  19. Reinhard Zierke (30 April 2017). "Chumbawamba: Going, Going". Chumbawamba. Mainly Norfolk: English Folk and Other Good Music. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
  20. Robin Denselow (16 June 2011). "Lucy Ward: Adelphi Has to Fly – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
  21. Reinhard Zierke (18 February 2014). "Patsy Matheson: Domino Girls". Mainly Norfolk: English Folk and Other Good Music. Retrieved 15 July 2015.
  22. Reinhard Zierke (25 December 2015). "The Ballads of Child Migration: Songs for Britain's Child Migrants". Mainly Norfolk: English Folk and Other Good Music. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  23. Alex Gallacher (22 February 2012). "First Names Announced for Cambridge Folk Festival: including Nic Jones!". Folk Radio UK. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
  24. Colin Irwin (28 June 2012). "What the folk! Nic Jones is back". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 October 2013.
  25. "Nic Jones Trio, City Halls, Glasgow". The Herald (Glasgow). 30 January 2013. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  26. Reinhard Zierke (29 March 2015). "Sensations of a Wound". Mainly Norfolk: English Folk and Other Good Music. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
  27. Shelley Rainey (2015). "Jim Boyes – Sensations of a Wound – The Long, Long Trail of Robert Riby Boyes". Jim Boyes discography. Bright Young Folk. Retrieved 2 November 2015.
  28. Mel Ledgard (30 July 2008). "Folk song is all about connection and communication – gifts that are second nature..." BBC Music. BBC. Retrieved 28 April 2011.
  29. Rachael Clegg (9 November 2010). "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. Retrieved 6 April 2011.
  30. "O'Hooley & Tidow – The Last Polar Bear". Missing Lesbians. 21 November 2011. Archived from the original on 25 April 2012. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
  31. Elizabeth Mavor (4 February 1988). "Gentleman Jack from Halifax". London Review of Books. 10 (3): 18–19. Retrieved 16 May 2012.
  32. Lauren Ballinger (12 March 2019). "Watch theme song for Gentleman Jack written by Huddersfield folk duo". Huddersfield Daily Examiner. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
  33. Simon Holland (17 February 2014). "O'Hooley & Tidow – Interview & Exclusive New Video: The Hum". Folk Radio UK. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
  34. "The Mark Radcliffe Folk Sessions: O'Hooley & Tidow". Discography. Delphonic Music. 4 May 2014. Archived from the original on 12 July 2015. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  35. Alex Gallacher (4 July 2014). "O'Hooley & Tidow – Summat's Brewin' (New Single)". Folk Radio UK. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
  36. "Tues 7 October 'Peculiar Brood' Live at Leeds Holy Trinity Church". O'Hooley & Tidow. 7 October 2014. Retrieved 8 October 2014.
  37. O'Hooley & Tidow (2 November 2014). O'Hooley & Tidow – The Pixie – Minster Studios (Video). Leeds: YouTube.
  38. Katie Dickinson (21 August 2015). "Folk duo O'Hooley and Tidow bring Summat's Brewin' micro tour to Ulverston". Westmorland Gazette. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
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