Will You be seeing Hazel O'Connor at Robin 2 in Bilston?

Original classics like Will You, D-Days, Eighth Day, Big Brother, If Only and more took the singer out of the ghetto and into the limelight.

Those songs will be aired when she headlines Bilston’s Robin 2 on Tuesday with Irish Harp player Cormac De Barra in her See You Again tour.

Fans can look forward to a very special evening with the award-winning singer-songwriter. Hazel has been performing with Cormac for some 15 years. The combination of Cormac’s harp with Hazel’s unforgettable voice is truly magical.

Cormac has toured the world extensively and also performs with Moya Brennan, the voice of Clannad.

The tour follows Hazel’s 2017 release of See You Again and fans can look forward to a fine mix of the old and new, including songs that celebrate four decades of performance.

No Hazel show is complete without her original classics Will You, D-Days, Eighth Day, Big Brother, If Only and more, all of which seem even more relevant in our present times.

Hazel was, of course one of the biggest stars of the early 1980s, following the release of her number five hit Breaking Glass. At the time, she counted George Michael among her closest friends.They connected because his parents lived in Radlet, close to where the singer, writer and actress lived.

“Once we went to see David Bowie together at Wembley . . . we got there on the tube, but then we left because it was so packed. We thought ‘how are we going to get out of here?’ We started to walk and then we decided to hitchhike. We got the first lift and the driver freaked out when he recognised us.

“When we had to get out we started doing stupid stuff like WHAM! dances along the road to try to get another lift. I think it was Pete Murphy, from Bauhaus, who picked us up in the end.

“George and I had lots of hilarious times; he agreed to be in the video for my single Don’t Touch Me and there’s a scene where we kiss. It was just a silly peck, but it resulted in ridiculous stories saying I was the older woman he was seeing.”

On another occasion, there was an incident involving a bucket of water.

“He came to a little party we were having and bought in his new solo single demo on a cassette player. We got a sneak preview and all danced and sang to this thing. Then he went off that night and everybody left the party.

“At five in the morning I’m woken up by Mr George Michael again at me window going ‘Hazel, Hazel, open the door’. When I did the poor man was soaking wet and it wasn’t raining.

“He’d forgot his demo and came back to get it. He’d rang my doorbell but I’d switched it off, I didn’t want people coming to a party that was over. He’d rang my neighbour’s bell several times and she was not happy. She’d gone to her bathroom and poured a bucket of water over his head.”

Michael was one of many well-known friends, though Hazel was closest to the late Paula Yates. “I used to hang out with Paula when she was with Bob (Geldof). But when I hit my hard times I didn’t see anybody because I was busy fighting the court case.”

Though Hazel is best known as being a high priestess of punk, one of her best pals has been X Factor judge Louis Walsh. They’ve known one another since Hazel was a teenager, sharing many times along the way.

“When I first came to Ireland, my agent sent Lulu, as he is known in Ireland, to be my driver and we had such a hilarious time. Nothing was organised on that tour and to this day Louis says to me ‘I always remember you screaming at your manager in England because you didn’t know what was happening’.

“When I moved to Ireland years later he really supported me wholeheartedly, as I was going through a lot, having been diagnosed with skin cancer. It’s crazy what has happened to him since, what with his boy bands and television work. Back in those days, me and Marianne Faithfull where his hip girls.

“He’s been through 50 billion different things now and knows his music inside out. That’s what I liked about Louis, he’s a music fan. He’s helped me through everything, too.”

Though Hazel is best known for Breaking Glass, the deal that she signed before making it led to years of trouble. “The day before I was told I was getting the lead part in Breaking Glass the record company told me nobody else wanted to sign me, so I signed a very long contract. They knew they were going to make loads, and that they’d get the best publicity for me through the film.

“The best producer, Tony Visconti, agreed to work with me to record my songs. The label, who also had my publishing, leased me out to make the film. I finally ended up having to go to court because there was nothing coming in for me. I was in debt when I shouldn’t have been.”