Interview: Belinda O'Hooley and Heidi Tidow

I spoke to singer songwriter partnership Belinda O'Hooley and Heidi Tidow just after they came off stage at the Beverley and East Riding Folk Festival, where they discussed working together, living together and how to find a repertoire suitable for the elderly..

Photograph: Rhoda McClure

AW: I'm joined now by Belinda O'Hooley and Heidi Tidow who are playing quite a lot this weekend, you've just come off stage, you played last night opening for Billy Bragg, how was that?

BO: It was great, we weren't sure how it was going to be because we were quite nervous about it, we knew that it would be packed because people were coming to see Billy Bragg but we didn't know how it would go but the audience was very warm and we felt it went very very well. We've done lots of practicing in preparation for this weekend, it's quite a big weekend for us isn't it?

HT: Yeah

BO: ..Beverley Folk Festival and also the Women's Festival in Dorset and I was really glad that we had rehearsed because it's quite daunting standing up there and seeing a thousand people

HT: Yeah, I think that was the biggest audience we've played to together as a duo

AW: It was packed when I got in

HT: It was absolutely packed, yeah

BO: You could see people were actually stood at the back as well and people were coming in all the time. The thing we both liked about last night was that the lighting was really really kind, as in, you weren't completely shut off from your audience so the lights weren't that bright you couldn't see your audience but it wasn't so that you could see your audience too much and you could see the whites of their eyes and see whether they're enjoying it or not; and also the sound was excellent. I don't know how it was out front but for us the sound was really good and it means you do better, you perform better if you have those things

AW: Well you and I Heidi, a couple of years ago, we were in the audience (Cambridge Folk Festival) watching Belinda launch The Bairns, which Belinda was an integral part of that band (Rachel Unthank and the Winterset) and also made a major contribution to that album, with two great songs on the album; so, it goes for the Mercury Award, doesn't quite win, but it got the nomination, you must have been very proud of that really?

BO: Yes there was a combination of feelings for me on that day. I celebrated the night and we watched the programme together, we had a bottle of Champagne ready (laughs), we still drank it. We both hoped that it would win. I felt both sadness and pride, it would've been nice to have been there to sort of share in that celebration with the rest of the Winterset, but I've also been on a journey myself with the album and with the whole process of being with the band and I've come out.. I don't know if I've fully come out the other side yet, but I am very very proud of what we all did on that album and I do listen to it, it's on my ipod and when it comes on I always turn it up and listen to it and think, pretty much all of it I think wow, it's pretty good that

AW: Well I do try to catch the band when I can and they still play those songs and obviously it's not just those two songs, it's also the arrangements which you contributed to and you're still very much there as part of that musical thing so, yes I think you should be proud of that

BO: Thanks very much

AW: Okay, you're both partners professionally and personally

HT: (Laughs) How did you find that out?

AW: How does that go? I mean do you sometimes find yourselves returning from gigs not talking? I'm trying to think what it would be like working on stage with my partner and I think there would be, you know, a murder or two.

HT: Overall it's absolutely brilliant because when Belinda was in the Winterset we had an awful lot of time apart and that was really difficult for us. We're not one of those couples that likes spending a lot of time apart, so it works really well for us. It's lovely to just enjoy the atmosphere of going on the road together, plus we work together musically really really well. We rehearse a lot at home together and that's the benefit of living together, that when we feel inspired we can just get up and start writing something

AW: And singing of course, when you're doing stuff around the house you can just start harmonizing

BO: We do a lot of that. Because we live together, often musical ideas come when you're going for a walk or you do something else and you get an idea then and that certainly means a lot. When you're in a band and you have to have regular practices, and I suppose you make the most of those practices, we have a lot more time together to rehearse and I think that maybe we needed that at the beginning because it was kind of new ground for both of us. Heidi hasn't done as much performing as I have..

HT: I'm a few years behind you (laughs)

BO: ..she's had to kind of really face her demons and get up there like a rabbit in the headlights initially but she's getting more confident and I think because I'm her partner as well maybe she trusts me more

HT: The only down side is that sometimes we do fall out a bit during sound checks don't we

BO: Yeah

HT: We have that stressful time just before the gig where we start snapping at each other and stuff

AW: But that happens with everybody, anybody you're in a band with really

BO: Yes it does actually, it's not just if you're in a partnership

AW: Well I've got to ask you Belinda, you have talked about your day job working in care homes, I'm just interested to know what kind of songs you pick, you have a wealth of songs I'm sure?

BO: They've taught me a lot of the songs actually. They really love the romantic 1930s "When I Grow Too Old To Dream" is one of them, "I'll Be Loving You Always", "Pal of My Cradle Days" is a lovely one, it's a song that a daughter would sing to her mother, 'I gave you all the wrinkles', it's all that kind of stuff, which is great. I also do a little bit of folk song, Scottish and Irish and Welsh, not so much English really and I kind of make it up as I go along as well. Oh they love, and I love as well and I was talking about this in the concert, Latin American music, I love all the dance stuff, so on my Bontempi organ you know, I can press a button

AW: Well you have to keep putting the pop songs in there too, I know I once heard you do "Sunny Afternoon" The Kinks song once, a long time ago, and today you did that great Richard Thompson song "When I Get To the Border" I loved that

BO: You liked that?

AW: Loved it, that was a real surprise

BO: Was it? Oh good

AW: Any plans to record together?

HT: Yes, we are hoping to record our debut album as a duo soon. We're in the process of getting our own recording equipment. Most of the songs are ready, we've got a few new ones that we're working on but it's going to be predominantly a co-written album, so it's going to be pretty different from Belinda's first album

BO: We're really excited, we've got Real World's Richard Evans on board, he's going to be mixing the album for us and we've got some special guests lined up including the lovely Jackie Oates, who owes us a favour or two and we've got a few more as well. Really we're just in the process of getting the equipment but we're so excited about it. We've written two songs that we are not performing until the album's released, that we think are very exciting

AW: Well we'll look forward to that. Well Belinda, Heidi, thanks for talking to me and good luck with everything

BO: Thank you Allan MWAH!

HT: Thank you