O'Hooley & Tidow
- Genre
- Contemporary
- Country
- England
biography
Since her departure from the Unthanks, the stark, haunting piano arrangements Belinda O'Hooley brought to the Mercury nominated album The Bairns have evolved and migrated into rippling neo-classical chamber folk songs with Yorkshire singer-songwriter Heidi Tidow.Together, O`Hooley & Tidow have created Silent June; their unpindownable, multi-layered debut album released on the No Masters label. These dapper-suited gentlewomen bring their intensely beautiful, poetic and wryly observant take on the human condition to the contemporary folk scene.
Since touring earlier this year with fellow label mates Chumbawamba, they have been winning over audiences countrywide with their irresistible blend of poignant, thought provoking songs, lush harmonies and cheeky northern banter.
"Striking and refreshingly ambitious. A bold, unsettling debut." Neil Spencer, The Observer
"Music that demands close attention. Classy and deeply satisfying." **** Rock n Reel
"Gorgeous" **** The Financial Times
"Impressive...intriguing....poignant" The Guardian
"The former-Unthanks gift for a charged lyric and a compelling tune is undiminished" Colin Irwin, BBC Music
Also Available for Storytelling!
Those who have seen Belinda O'Hooley's performances in O'Hooley & Tidow or previously in The Unthanks will know that a significant part of her success is her keen observational and improvisational humour plus her ability to draw on the plaintive and the plain funny; to bring a lightness to the midst of the dark melancholy that is her songwriting. Storytelling has been handed down to Belinda from her father Seamus who taught her the traditional Irish folk tales he himself learned as a boy in Monalea. These tales, together with her own observations and those she encourages from the audience have evolved in her gentle hands to become strange, captivating journeys that take the listener to the further reaches of their imagination and back again. Her children's character "Johnny McGorey" is a kind giant of a construction worker who has the uncanny ability to solve any problem with the aid of his comedy side-kick "Robot Pete". Together, these two chaps get into all sorts of scrapes and adventures, helped onwards by the ideas and imaginings of the children and adults in the audience. Belinda's improvisational technique means that no two performances are the same, with an energy in her storytelling that comes from working directly with that audience in that moment.