THE daughter of a sailor from Galway, Hazel O'Connor escaped from her home in Coventry as soon as she could.

It was the start of quite an adventure: "I ran away from home when I was 16, made and sold clothes in Amsterdam, picked grapes in France, joined a dance troupe that went to Tokyo then on to Beirut (escaping the start of the civil war by one month), travelled in West Africa, crossed the Sahara, sang with a dreadful singing trio for the US troops in Germany and came home to settle down.

Through all this experience of life and the world I realized that singing always cheered me up. I decided to be a singer. Through strange turns of fate I ended up in a film called Breaking Glass I also ended up writing all the songs for the movie."

Breaking Glass was a massive hit and O'Connor became a star almost overnight.

Her voice is like strong, dark espresso coffee and if she vanished for a few years it is because she was caught up in the iniquities of record companies, as so many others have been.

She will be playing with Cormac de Barra (Irish harp) and Fionan de Barra (guitar); with Nick Buckle as support, at the Subscription Rooms on Saturday, November 10, 8pm Tickets, £12.50/ £10.50, are available from the box office.