Hazel O'Connor

It's a testament to the quality of her music and voice that she is still in demand and releasing records almost 23 years after her last top ten hit, the magnificently moody Will You - one of three she scored between August 1980 and May 1981.

Now 48, O'Connor - who leapt to stardom playing a hapless victim of the music industry in the film Breaking Glass, before playing out the scenario as a real-life drama - this week embarked on a mini UK tour and released her latest single, a cover of the George Michael song One More Try.

Not surprisingly, her live set includes seven Breaking Glass numbers, which she hooks the audience with first before hitting them with the newer material.

With three different musical set-ups to her name - at any one time, she can be found performing with an Irish band, Slide, Coventry boys The Subterraneans, or harpist Carmac De Barra - her best-known songs have been interpreted more times than she's been called a "post-punk icon".

"It's the best way to test a song. If a song is really working, it should be able to survive any fashion," says Hazel, hoarse from a hard day's rehearsal.

"If not, I think it would be a bit sad at my age to still be harping on about something from 20-odd years ago."

Likeable and down-to-earth, Hazel admits to never looking forward to any new project initially.

But since 1998 her life has fallen into a regular pattern of festivals and tour dates.

"Every year there's a kind of season. To my friends who aren't in the music business I say 'I'm off now - the season's begun'."

She cites the likes of Nitin Sawhney, Macey Gray and Moby as her current favourite listens, but she couldn't be more out of kilter with the modern music industry, where good looks and a nice smile are more prized than staying power and originality.

"There was definitely something going on energetically at the end of the 70s and the start of the 80s," she says.

"It was a three-chord time, but those three chords in those simple songs were put to such great effect.

"Girls like me weren't judged on the way we looked or how long our legs were, as they are again now.

"Don't get me wrong, there are some great singers in these manufactured bands, but it's not a good time for songwriters now."

Like almost everyone else, Hazel believes the record industry is in terminal decline and that computer technology is now the way forward - as demonstrated by the likes of George Michael, who recently declared his intention of becoming an Internet-only artist.

It might take a little longer for Hazel to go the same way.

"I'm very primitive. I have a friend who's a total cyber-boffin who turned up at my house with a computer for me. He keeps ringing and saying 'Have you got to grips with it yet?' but I find it takes up such a lot of energy."

When she isn't performing, Hazel is usually to be found at home - a 17th century hunting lodge on the "outskirts" of a six-house village in County Wicklow, Ireland.

It's not very showbiz, but Hazel is much happier pottering in her garden or inviting her pals over for music sessions than hanging out at celebrity nightspots - not that you'll find many of those in County Wicklow.

"I'm writing my autobiography at the moment. There's a great hotel up the road, a real alternative place, so I'll go up there for about two hours a day to work on it.

"There are some things that aren't particularly happy but have to be put into the book. I didn't particularly want to write them at home and have all the bad vibes hanging around, so I thought I'd go to a separate place that didn't have anything to do with me.

"The only trouble is they serve these great chocolate brownies, which I've become very addicted to!"

Part of the attraction of this rural retreat must be the peace and quiet it affords - but that didn't stop two English fans tracking her down and turning up on her doorstep one day.

"It was quite scary to have these guys standing at my door saying 'Hello', because I live on my own on this hill.

"But I was very impressed by their research, so I invited them in for a cup of tea.

"Then I said 'I've got to get to work - I'm cutting bushes and trees down at the back. You can stay and help if you want' and went and got them some work clothes."

Kim Wilde would have been impressed.

Hazel O'Connor is at The Brook, Southampton, April 2. Tickets: £10. Box office: 023 8055 5366.