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Claire Hamill | |
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| Birth name | Josephine Claire Hamill |
| Born | 4 August 1954 Port Clarence, County Durham, England |
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| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter |
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| Formerly of | Transporter |
| Website | clairehamill |
Josephine Claire Hamill (born 4 August 1954) is an English singer-songwriter. She has collaborated with Wishbone Ash [1] and Yes's Steve Howe [2] in addition to her solo career.
Claire Hamill was born in Port Clarence, County Durham UK. She has been active in the music business since age 17. In 1971, she was launched as one of Britain's first female singer-songwriters. She has been compared to Joni Mitchell by several commentators.
Shortly following the release of her debut studio album, One House Left Standing (1972), Hamill went on her first UK tour, supporting John Martyn. She performed at the Concert 10 festival in the United States, July 1972, before a crowd of 200,000. By 1973, she had toured the United States with Procol Harum and Jethro Tull, and returned to Britain to record her next studio album, October (1973), at Manor Studio in Oxfordshire. She then toured with King Crimson.
In 1973, she met Ray Davies of the Kinks, who signed her to his Konk label for her third studio album Stage Door Johnnies . She toured America for the second time that year and went on another UK tour supporting Gilbert O'Sullivan. In addition, she recorded what would be her final studio album of the 1970s and the second one for Konk, Abracadabra (1975).
In 1979, she provided lead vocals on the song "Look Over Your Shoulder" on Steve Howe's second solo studio album The Steve Howe Album . In the early 1980s she worked with Wishbone Ash, appearing as a guest performer on their studio albums Just Testing (1980) and Number the Brave (1981) and joining the group for their 1981–82 tour. She returned as a guest on Bare Bones in 1999.
In 1980, she released a single called "First Night in New York", which gained favourable reviews. She formed a group, Transporter (which took its name from Tees Transporter Bridge), which released one single. [3]
In 1981, she appeared on the Jon and Vangelis studio album The Friends of Mr Cairo and also sang with British jazz/funk/fusion group Morrissey–Mullen, appearing on their fourth studio album Life on the Wire (1982). In 1983, Hamill recorded a cover version of Gene Pitney's "24 Hours from Tulsa", produced by the American musician Richard Niles. Another single, "If You Would Only Talk to Me", suffered from a lack of radio exposure.
By the mid-1980s, Hamill had reinvented herself as a new-age artist, which gained her commissions from the BBC and Channel 4. Her first studio album of the 80s, Touchpaper (1984), was followed a year later by Voices, which featured all her work. Her music was used for the five-part BBC1 series Domesday, broadcast in November and December 1986. Four tracks ("Glastonbury (Jerusalem)", "Tides", "Spring: Awaken Lark Rise" and "Stars") were issued as the Domesday EP on Coda Records, a label featuring many new-age artists and run by her then-husband Nick Austin.
After the next studio album, Love in the Afternoon, she recorded a version of Johann Pachelbel's Canon in both instrumental and vocal versions, the latter featuring her own words as "Someday We Will All Be Together". Both this and the Voices album were used extensively by Channel 4 for a series of music videos collectively titled The Art of Landscape and shown every morning in the early 1990s. The video for the instrumental version of Canon, with scenes of Antarctic penguins, was voted by viewers as the favourite.
In 1992, Hamill went to live in Hastings, found a new partner[ clarification needed ] in Andrew Warren, and later cut a new studio album called Summer at the end of the decade. Since then, she has released The Lost & the Lovers and a compilation album. Her song "You Take My Breath Away" from The Lost & the Lovers was previously covered by Tuck & Patti on 1988's Tears of Joy and that version caught the attention of American singer Eva Cassidy, whose recording of the track reached number 54 on the UK Singles Chart in October 2003. [4]
In 2009, she supported John Lees' Barclay James Harvest on their UK tour. Since 2013, she has been a member of the Yes tribute band Fragile, in the role of lead vocalist.
Wishbone Ash are a British rock band who achieved success in the early to mid-1970s. Their albums include Wishbone Ash (1970), Pilgrimage (1971), Argus (1972), Wishbone Four (1973), There's the Rub (1974), and New England (1976).
Stephen James Howe is an English musician, best known as the guitarist and backing vocalist in the progressive rock band Yes across three stints since 1970. Born in Holloway, North London, Howe developed an interest in the guitar and began to learn the instrument himself at age 12. He embarked on a music career in 1964, first playing in several London-based blues, covers, and psychedelic rock bands for six years, including the Syndicats, Tomorrow, and Bodast.
"America" is a song performed by American music duo Simon & Garfunkel, which they included on their fourth studio album, Bookends, in 1968. It was produced by the duo and Roy Halee. The song was later issued as the B-side of the single "For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her " in 1972 to promote the release of the compilation album Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits. After peaking in the charts in July 1972, the song was switched to the A-side of the single and re-entered the charts in November 1972.
John Kenneth Wetton was an English musician, singer, and songwriter. Although he was left handed, he was known as a dexterous right handed bass player and had a booming baritone voice. He joined the band Family in 1971 for a short time before joining King Crimson in 1972. After the breakup of King Crimson at the end of 1974, Wetton was in progressive rock and hard rock bands including Roxy Music (1974–1975), Uriah Heep (1975–1976), U.K. (1977–1980), and Wishbone Ash (1980–1981).
Going for the One is the eighth studio album by English progressive rock band Yes, released on 15 July 1977 by Atlantic Records. After taking a break in activity in 1975 for each member to release a solo album, and their 1976 tour of the United States and Canada, the band relocated to Montreux, Switzerland to record their next studio album. During rehearsals, keyboardist Patrick Moraz left the group, which marked the return of Rick Wakeman who had left to pursue a solo career after differences surrounding Tales from Topographic Oceans (1973). In a departure from their previous albums, Going for the One, with the exception of the fifteen-minute "Awaken", features shorter and more direct songs without an overarching concept, and saw Yes record with new engineering personnel and cover artists.
Abracadabra is an incantation used by stage magicians, and formerly in Gnosticism and ancient Roman medicine.
Claire Richards is an English singer and member of the pop group Steps. As a solo artist, Richards has released two studio albums: her debut, My Wildest Dreams, was released in 2019 and Euphoria, a covers album, was released in 2023.
The Kooks are an English pop-rock band formed in 2004 in Brighton. The band consists of Luke Pritchard, Hugh Harris and Alexis Nunez (drums).
Trevor Bolder was an English rock musician, songwriter and record producer. He is best known for his long association with Uriah Heep and his tenure with the Spiders from Mars, the backing band for David Bowie, although he also played alongside a variety of musicians from the early 1970s.
Robbie France was an English drummer, record producer, arranger, journalist, music educator, and broadcaster.
Just Testing is the tenth studio album by the British rock band Wishbone Ash, released on 18 January 1980 by MCA Records. Recorded primarily at Surrey Sound Studios in England, it was the last to feature the original lead vocalist and bass guitarist Martin Turner until the release of Nouveau Calls (1987). The track "Helpless" is only the second cover version released by the band on a studio album, the previous one being "Vas Dis" on Pilgrimage.
Number the Brave is the 11th studio album by rock band Wishbone Ash. It is the first album in the band's history recorded without founding bassist/vocalist Martin Turner. Turner was replaced by John Wetton, formerly of King Crimson and Uriah Heep. Also featured on Number the Brave was singer Claire Hamill as a backing vocalist, who would join Wishbone Ash on the 1981 tour to promote the album. Following "Vas Dis" on Pilgrimage and "Helpless" on Just Testing, the album featured only the third cover version released by the band on a studio album, Smokey Robinson's "Get Ready", previously a hit for The Temptations.
"Abracadabra" is a song by American rock group the Steve Miller Band, written by Steve Miller. The song was released as the first single from the 1982 album of the same name that year. In the U.S., it spent two non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, the biggest hit of Steve Miller's career to date, as well their last US top 10 hit.
Martin Robert Turner is an English musician best known for his time as the bass guitarist, lead vocalist and a founding member of the rock band, Wishbone Ash.
Konk is the name of a recording studio and record label, established and managed by members of English rock band the Kinks.
"Shampain" is a song by Welsh singer Marina Diamandis, released under the stage name Marina and the Diamonds from her debut studio album, The Family Jewels (2010). It was released on 11 October 2010 as the album's fifth and final single, only in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
One House Left Standing is the first album by English singer-songwriter Claire Hamill, released in 1972. She was just 17 when she recorded it.
Andy Desmond, now known as Miten, is a British musician known throughout the Yoga and Alternative Healing community for his songs of redemption and transformation. He travels creating meditative evenings of mantra and song to millions of devotees around the world.
Abracadabra is the fourth album by English singer-songwriter Claire Hamill, released in 1975. It was more rocky as a result, probably, of being influenced by the bands she was supporting on tour, such as King Crimson and Traffic. She used her American band for the backing tracks and supplemented them with guitarist Phil Palmer, Ray Davies's nephew.
Touchpaper is the fifth studio album by English singer-songwriter Claire Hamill, released on 21 April 1984 by Blueprint Records, and was her first studio album in nine years following 1975's Abracadabra. The album saw her transition into a world of synthesizers, and Gary Numan of Tubeway Army played keyboards on the track "Ultra Violet Light".
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