Hello Everyone!

Its been a few months now since my last missive. Forgive me, it has been a tough time since Christmas. I did quite a lot of things to raise money for Myton hospice over the festive period with the help of Clare Hirst, and Sarah Fisher and Lucy & the Cambria choir. One concert was in London at the Cambria pub (the first place Sarah, Clare and I did our first Bluja gig in March 2009 ) and one was in Coventry precinct with the choir and Steve Dix and Jimmy O'Neil. Thank you everyone who helped and got involved. Thanks to Tim Parsons and Danny Gerrard for helping us out with the coach to get the choir to Cov. Thanks also to Pete and Julie Chambers for all the pr stuff done on behalf of the Myton Hospice gigs in Cov. Please always remember to download Rejoyce or buy one from Amazon to keep money going to the hospice..... Thanks to Bill and Sophie and all the Coventry market traders for the packed lunches you got together for the choir and to Mark Dixon for giving us the lower precinct to do our fundraiser....

This Christmas was the first I've spent in my own home for 5 years because as my step dad first and then mum stared getting ill with cancer we didn't know if this one would be the last, and now they have both gone and I felt the loss finally and terribly over Christmas....I seemed to be forever working on the road last year and didn't really have the time to grieve properly. So it all hit over Christmas.

I went to France in January to see how my little house faired in winter and we had freak cold weather, freezing my water and being snowed in. I had a houseguest at the time, a dj and writer called Baby Jesus, we wrote Perfect Days together and she has also done mixes of Will You. Anyway it was touch and go whether she could get out of my area for her flight home but eventually she made it safely. Then I started to worry how I'd get out but with a little help from my friends, it all turned out ok.

I really wanted to be back to London for a very special posthumous award from the producers guild to my friend and producer Martin Rushent. His family asked if I could do a 2 minute speech..... well, believe it or not, I've never really done a speech before and I was so nervous! Couldn't sleep for worrying, would I do him proud and kept timing what I had wrote as it was strictly 2 minutes long. This is my dedication to Martin….

I first got to know Martin in 1981 when my brother Neil and I went to Martins Genetic Studios to record backing tracks for an ATV series I was in called Jangles. I was struck from the get go by his passion for all things musical, his sense of fun, adventure and discovery. We became firm friends back then 31 years ago and as a good friend he never let me down... in the early 80's when I was without a record deal and virtually untouchable because of awful legal battles with Albion Records, he came to my rescue saying "Come to Genetic Haz and we'll make a shit hot demo and get you a great new record deal". He suggested a soul classic which I thought I wasn't able for, but he showed me the way. He sang the phrasing in that fab soul boy voice of his and I learnt a new way. He was as good as his word and in came the new deal and the new album with Martin at the helm. My brother Neil and I went to genetic to record Smile.

In between work we always found time to have a laugh, play, have fun together. I remember him and his wife having a dinner party; Neil and I were there, producer Alan Winstanly and his wife, and a few others. We played sardines which is the hide and seek game....my happy memories will always be us all cracking up laughing as the very tall figure of Alan Winstanly was jutting out from his hiding place behind a curtain and Martin laughing, saying, "You silly plonker, we can all see you!". Life at Genetic was work and play in equal measure; this was Martins true magic. Neil ended up staying there for the next 8 years to be trained and mentored by Martin, the Rushents and the O'Connors had become family.

In early 2000 he came to see Beyond Breaking Glass that I perfomed with wonderful harp player Cormac De Barra. After the show, Martin came to say hello and with his usual teenage like enthusiasm said "Fxxxxxg hell Haz, your voice has matured into that soul voice we were looking for all them years ago! Lets make a record of electro blues just for our fun this time". So we embarked on a work that was to be our last and happiest venture. We'd both been through the mill of life by this time. Martin had lost his beloved Genetic Studios, been through a divorce, single parenting, and near death illness. By now he was happily remarried, the studio was a broom cupboard by the front door, and the recording booth was now the living room - where quite often Sam, the very old and incontinent family dog, might have a little dump at my feet whilst I was singing at the mic ....... No matter, we don't need more than a cupboard to record great music, not with Martin. His never ending enthusiasm, know how and artistry that's all you need and the love of what we do. Martin Rushent friend, brother, and mentor, I feel blessed to have had the privilege to make so much music with you but more than that to call you my friend...your music lives on in the hearts of millions. Cheers Martin where ever you are.

At the time of the speech, it was also the year anniversary of mums death. I remembered how happy and thankful she was to all the artists who sang on Rejoyce, to all who worked behind the scenes to raise money for the hospice, and to all those hardworking nurses and doctors who were to make her journey to her death as endurable and dignified as was possible .

We had a lot of radio sessions in the UK last week which was fab but when I got home somebody smashed my car window and took old papers of mums and my music charts and such. Luckily the thieves chucked all the stuff into the ditch up the road. A kind neighbour Rory and his wife Anna found all the stuff and in amongst it all they found an old business card of Maureen my ex manager. They phoned her in the UK, and then she phoned me, and I was reunited with mums papers. I had sobbed and sobbed all day because I'd lost her stuff and then it came back to me! So thank you Rory and Anna and Maureen .

I have a few more days before us Bluja gals are back on the road, starting with Crawley which is already sold out. Fareham is also sold out but I do hope to see you at other shows if you didn't manage to get tickets for those. Clare, Sarah and I are also enlarging our line up for a Greatest Hits tour starting mid October and I think we have a few through the summer as a full band too. I hope you'll like the songs I've chosen to do, there's so much to choose from but I've tried to represent all of my albums in the repertoire. We are hoping for a Paris date on Friday 28 Sept so watch this space!

I'm going out to do some gardening now because these sunny days are so lovely. I hope you are all enjoying this mild spell we're having. Fingers crossed that it stays nice. See you on tour and thank you for your support,

I give you my sunshine!
Love from Hazel x