Claire Hamill
This British singer-songwriter has had a career since the age of 17 and has worked and toured with the likes of Jethro Tull, King Crimson, Yes and Wishbone Ash. So now we have to ask: how prog is Claire Hamill?
Though modesty forbids her, Claire Hamill is probably more qualified than most to call herself an ideal candidate for Prog’s Outer Limits, should she feel so inclined. Her credentials are impeccable: during the 70s, as a fledgling singer/songwriter, she carved out a singular career.
“Raised on Teesside, I was the eldest of seven siblings in an Irish Catholic family,” she recalls. “We never had anything in the house to listen to music on – my mother had children instead of stuff! But my granny played piano and my aunties and my mother all sang, so that’s how I learnt to harmonise, listening to my family sing. I loved The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Monkees and Free.”
By the time she was 12 years old, Hamill was playing guitar and singing her own songs at local venues, and she eventually came to the attention of
John McCoy and Tony Dimitriades, who jointly managed her career and secured a contract with Island Records. She was barely 17 when she recorded her 1972 debut, One House Left Standing.
“The title of the album was my suggestion,” says Hamill. “At the time I recorded it, I was living at home in Port Clarence, a tiny hamlet on the north bank of the River Tees, between the shipyard and the gasworks. It was gritty and dark and they were always knocking bits of it down.
“One night I came home and they had knocked the street down, including the house where I used to live, but they left one house – one house left standing. It was silhouetted against a dark blue sky and made a deep impression on me.”
While the album contains several of Hamill’s own self-penned compositions, the majority of the lyrics were written by her then partner, Mike Coles. “At least he wrote the words and I turned them into songs,” says Hamill. “Mike went to art college and was a talented artist. If it hadn’t been for him and his wonderful poetry, I doubt whether I would have got a recording contract at the time. I may well have secured one later, but it was Mike that gave my songs depth and maturity.”
A cursory listen to the album proves that Hamill does herself a serious disservice. Indeed, favourable reviews for One House Left Standing meant Hamill was invited to make a second album.
October (1973) was produced by former Yardbirds bassist Paul Samwell-Smith, who had already worked with the likes of Amazing Blondel, Bronco and Cat Stevens.
“Paul was gentlemanly and precise,” says Hamill. “He knew exactly what kind of sound he was after and to this day it remains the best-recorded album in my collection, I think.”
Though she had by now parted company with Mike Coles, her own writing shows how much Hamill had developed, both musically and emotionally, in so short a space of time. Nowhere is this more evident than on Speedbreaker, which details in painful honesty her brief liaison with John Martyn: ‘Don’t worry, I fully realise that you only love me because I’m here/ the only one available – the only woman near/I will try my best not to fall in love/ cause that will be too much to bear.’
A sense of loss and separation permeates several songs, as with Warrior Of The Water. Hamill explains, “It’s a very meaningful song for me as it was written for one of the great loves of my life, Mike Marsh. I met Mike when I toured America in 1972. He was tall, blond, green-eyed and charismatic, and nothing like the boys I had been used to in England. In fact, he was a surfer!
“I fell madly in love with him, but couldn’t be with him, I couldn’t leave my family and I couldn’t leave my country. Looking back, the song sounds even more poignant to me now.”
Though October elicited further praise from critics, this didn’t translate into sales. Island became jittery after the album failed
I BECAME CLOSE TO YES AND WOULD REGULARLY GO TO THEIR GIGS AND THE PARTIES AFTERWARDS. WHEN I LISTEN TO THE ABRACADABRA ALBUM NOW, I’M TRANSPORTED BACK TO THAT TIME IN MY LIFE.
to recoup its costs and so Hamill switched to the Kinks’ own Konk label. Under the supervision of Ray Davies, Hamill recorded Stage Door Johnnies, and working with the Kinks man proved to be a defining experience.
“Ray was amazing. Hugely charismatic. You felt his presence when he was in the room. He was a colossus – working with him was inspiring.”
The album features mostly cover songs, as Hamill concedes: “It may be that I had not written enough new material at the time, but it could also be because I hadn’t made an impression on the charts that they felt my music wasn’t accessible enough and that doing covers might help.”
Coincidently, her astute reworking of the Michael Murphey country hit Geronimo’s Cadillac received extensive coverage on both television and radio and almost gave her that elusive hit. And anyone so minded might detect a note of irony in the fact that one of the few self-penned numbers on the album, You Take My Breath Away (also dedicated to Mike Marsh), would later become her best-known song after it was in turn covered by Eva Cassidy.
Hamill decided to produce her next album for Konk herself, and Abracadabra was the admirable result. Among others, Rory (written for Yes drummer Alan White’s then girlfriend) emphasises her talent as a songwriter.
“Alan, Rory, Tony [Dimitriades] and I all lived together in a flat in Marble Arch. I became close to Yes and would regularly go to their gigs and the parties afterwards. When I listen to that album now, I’m transported back to that time in my life. I was smoking pot, going to parties, driving around with Rory in Alan’s Panther or his Bentley. It was a hell of a ride!
“Jon [Anderson] suggested that I might like his song You Dear, which he had written for his wife, Jenny. I was keen to cover it and I love the way the melody builds up to a crescendo. At this point in time, all I wanted to be was a rock star like the boys. Pat Benatar was all the rage, and after being the UK’s answer to Joni Mitchell, I rather fancied myself as the UK’s answer to Pat Benatar.”
Soon after recording Abracadabra, Hamill was invited to provide the vocal for Look Over Your Shoulder on Steve Howe’s The Steve Howe Album (1979).
“Because of my friendship with
Alan, I had frequently bumped into Steve Howe and was delighted when he asked me if I would sing on his album.”
Hamill was also invited to provide backing vocals on the album The Friends Of Mr Cairo (1981) by Jon And Vangelis. “I supported Jon on tour. Our last gig was at the Royal Albert Hall and Vangelis was there. We went out for dinner after the show and then Vangelis took us back to his apartment for a jam. It was then that he asked me to sing backing vocals on his album with Jon.”
This was a hectic time for Hamill, who had also been working with
RAY DAVIES WAS AMAZING. HUGELY CHARISMATIC. YOU FELT HIS PRESENCE WHEN HE WAS IN THE ROOM. HE
WAS A COLOSSUS – WORKING
WITH HIM WAS INSPIRING.
Wishbone Ash on the recording of Just Testing (1980). “I co-wrote Living Proof with Laurie Wisefield, which turned into a great blessing for me as it was hugely popular with the band and the fans and has kept my name alive in Wishbone Ash history.”
Hamill joined the band during their 1981 tour and again provided backing vocals on several tracks for their album Number The Brave, which was released the same year.
By this time Hamill had met and married Nick Austin, then owner of Beggars Banquet records. He signed her to their offshoot Coda to record an album of New Age music, encouraging Hamill to create an album of vocal music without words. She thought the idea was insane at first, but soon became intrigued as they commenced the recording sessions for what became Voices (1986).
“The album took six weeks to record and was the easiest thing I had ever written – and, to date, the most successful. I was very bemused by the idea and it really took me a while to see that what I was doing was unique, but I’m proud of the effect I had.”
The album received national exposure when its music was used in the BBC TV series The Domesday Book and it went on to become a bestseller in the New Age music charts.
Her next album, Love In The Afternoon (1988) was recorded during a time when she was raising a family and immersed in a busy home life.
“The truth of the matter is that Nick was under contract to his publisher in Japan to deliver an album and so that was it, I had to go into the studio to record whether I wanted to or not! The album does contain some of my personal favourite songs, but I had a hell of a job recording them and fitting the sessions around my role as a wife and mother.”
The title track was taken from a song Hamill had written many years before about a romantic tryst with Robert Fripp. “It was when we were touring Italy in 1972 and became firm friends. I think Robert was more in love with me that I was with him – I was still in love with Mike, so it was never going to work long-term, but it was fun while it lasted.”
After a lengthy hiatus, The Lost
And The Lovers was released in 2004. “Perhaps I keep reinventing myself, or I might just be reflecting the endless movement of time and its impact upon us.”
Her latest offering,
When Daylight Arrives, contains many bittersweet meditations, all of which serve to prove that Hamill’s musical pilgrimage is one that has enriched the lives of many, even if the rewards and recognition have often been all too slender.
On The Lost And The Lovers,
Hamill re-recorded You Take My
Breath Away, reaffirming her belief in unconditional love.
“This is my lucky song – thank God I had at least one! I can’t explain the feeling I got when I heard Eva Cassidy singing it for the first time, but I just thought to myself, ‘At last, at last, I’ve written something that sounds great, good enough for Eva Cassidy to sing, and she only sings amazing songs!’ I think it was my proudest moment.”
See www.clairehamill.co.uk for more information.