Chart entered : 23 March 1991
Chart peak : 72
Hazell was the next SAW alumnus to depart the chart.
Hazell had sought out their services after hearing their work with Divine. It was a lucky break for the trio as she'd just scored a Top 10 ht with gay disco anthem "Searchin'" and her first single with them, "Whatever I Do", reached number 4 in 1984 , their first Top 10 hit. Hazell struggled to maintain this success although her 1985 minor hit "They Say It's Gonna Rain" was very popular in Yorkshire and reached number one in South Africa. In the wake of Kylie and Rick's success she got a second wind in 1988 and reached number 4 again with "Who's Leaving Who". With her album "Always" making only a minor mark on the chart EMI let her go but Stock Aitken and Waterman continued to work with her.
"Better Off Without You" was her second release on the Lissom label. The song was written by the trio and had already been recorded by Lonnie Gordon for her debut album. Despite that, I always felt that the guys tried that little bit harder when it was Hazell in the booth. "Better Off Without You" is instantly recognisable as them but they've given her a couple of decent backing singers in Mae McKenna and Miriam Stockley and Matt Aitken plays an unexpected fuzz guitar solo in the middle eight. It's one of their better records but the tide was inexorably moving away from them by this point.
Hazell, a level-headed pragmatist, recognised that as much as anyone and amicably parted company with them. She appeared - and was one of the six cover stars - on The Sun's flop charity single "As Time Stood Still" by Gulf Aid alongside such musical giants as David O' Leary and John Conteh. She also provided backing vocals on Samantha Janus's 1991 Eurovision entry " A Message To Your Heart" .
She then started working with Ian Levine and for the past 25 years has beavered away under the radar on the hi-NRG / gay disco scene. She came closest to making the charts again with her version of "The Winner Takes It All" from her 1996 album of Abba covers. She also helped Levine wrote some songs for boy band Bad Boys Inc. This decade she's been much more active as a recording artist with a steady stream of albums and singles available through her website on the boutique Energise label . She also appears at Rewind festivals. Her time clearly isn't going to come round again but she's a trooper.
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