Helen O'Hara

Helen Bevington began her music career in her home town Bristol, joining Gunner Kade, a band led by Ken Pustelnik, drummer from The Groundhogs. She then joined the band Wisper, which combined their solo career with backing various artists. Wisper evolved into Uncle Po (1976–78), which won the BBC's Quiz Kid band competition in 1977 and subsequently released a single on the BEEB label entitled "Use My Friends" (so rare that a copy sold in 2006 on eBay for over £80). Uncle Po consisted of Rob Williams on guitar, Gavin King on vocals, Lyndon Parry on bass and vocals, Andy Wills on sax, flute, and vocals, O'Hara (as Helen "Spike" Bevington) on violin and keyboards, and Steve "Basher" Bennett and Jimmer Hill on drums. ==Dexys Midnight Runners==

O'Hara left Uncle Po in late 1977 to study music at Birmingham School of Music (now UCE Birmingham Conservatoire), graduating in 1982 with an offer to join the Bilbao Symphony. However, after she recorded some demos with the Blue Ox Babes, a band founded by Dexys founder Kevin 'Al' Archer, Archer recommended her to his former partner Kevin Rowland, who was experimenting with adding strings. With the singles "Jackie Wilson Said (I'm in Heaven When You Smile)" (a Van Morrison cover) and "Let's Get This Straight (From the Start)" maintaining their popularity, the group continued to tour through 1983 with a nucleus of Rowland, O'Hara and Billy Adams, augmented by other musicians. The lengthy, contentious sessions for that album strained both her relationship with Rowland and the core of that version of Dexys. Although Dexys returned to the charts with "Because of You" (co-written by Rowland, O'Hara, and Adams) in 1986, and O'Hara's "fan club" letter in November 1986 discussed imminent recording sessions for a new Dexys album, she later said that at that point "Dexys were finished really" ==Later career==

After leaving Dexys, O'Hara worked with rock performers such as Graham Parker, Tanita Tikaram (with whom she recorded "Good Tradition" and toured from 1988 to 1990) and Mary Coughlan. In 1990, she released a solo album entitled Romanza, with a backing band including keyboardist Nicky Hopkins, which was later reissued as Southern Hearts, and in 1998, she released her second solo album, A Night in Ireland. After a 25-year gap, O'Hara and Tikaram resumed performing live together in 2015. ==Solo discography==

• Southern Hearts (Romanza) (1990) – New World Music CD 212 • A Night in Ireland (1998) – New World Music CD 450 ==References==