Lady Maisery and O’Hooley & Tidow are two highly acclaimed folk acts, and have also joined forces before when, alongside solo artist Grace Petrie, they formed folk ‘supergroup’, Coven.

Now both Lady Maisery – Hannah James, Hazel Askew and Rowan Rheingans – and O’Hooley & Tidow – Belinda and Heidi respectively – are coming together once again for a tour celebrating the spirit of International Women’s Day.

The tour starts at Sheffield’s Leadmill, and includes Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre, as well as dates in Southampton, London and Bradford. We caught up with both sets of artists ahead of the tour launch.

Both Lady Maisery and O’Hooley & Tidow have roots within Yorkshire; explaining a little more about O’H&T’s beginnings, Belinda (or Bel) describes how they met on the Huddersfield music scene. “Heidi came to one of my gigs at the Lawrence Batley Theatre and then invited me to one of hers at Bar 120 (now Small Seeds). We realised early on that we harmonised really well together and took it from there. Jim McLoughlin at Musicport Festival in Whitby gave us our first gig together supporting Jim Moray at The Coliseum. He then gave us our first festival slot at Musicport. So it’s all his fault!” Whilst in describing their favourite Yorkshire venues, Lady Maisery’s Rowan tells us, “We always love playing in Sheffield as it’s been a city we’ve kind of grown in as a band – we’ve probably played in the most different kinds of spaces here over the years, from the pubs and clubs like The Greystones, through the city’s theatres and churches, right up to shows at the City Hall or the university’s Firth Hall. All good and special in their own ways!” As for OH&T, they declare some love for Halifax Minster, where they’re playing again on Saturday 5th April; “The acoustics are incredible. Also, we adore Musicport. It has the warmest, most beautiful atmosphere and it feels so welcoming and inclusive.”

The International Women’s Day Tour sees both team up once again, akin to their times together performing as folk supergroup Coven; while explaining how that originally came about, the Lady Maisery trio note that the idea came about a long time ago, “as we were all just mutual fans of each other’s work and thought, why not celebrate that while celebrating the wider work of women in music? Hence the IWD tours which Coven did for a few years.” They go on to say that they “always felt really special and important to those who came back time and again to see it too. So while this show won’t be exactly the same, we are looking forward to some of that collaborative energy that comes from being basically fans of each other! From chats backstage to the show itself, it’ll be a joy, we’re sure.”

 

“…we were all just mutual fans of each other’s work and thought,

why not celebrate that while celebrating the wider work of women in music?”

 

Asked to give us a few small hints as to the song choices, O’Hooley & Tidow similarly declare, “We’re so excited to be performing together again. We’ve chosen songs that both say something and work well as a bigger group of performers. This Woman’s Work by Kate Bush is our favourite ‘collab’, as we call them. We also perform Quitting Time by The Roches, feminist folk anthem Bread & Roses; Never Turning Back by Pat Humphries and our ode to Pussy Riot – Coil & Spring.” Lady Maisery are similarly enthused about this opportunity. “There are songs that we only ever sing in this constellation, such as our cover of Kate Bush’s This Woman’s Work and our version of Bread & Roses, which perhaps has the most direct link to the historic origins of International Women’s Day, with politically socialist feminist origins. It’ll be really special to get to inhabit them again as this group.”

We also learn that O’H&T’s song, Woman in Space, was written with Coven in mind: “We recorded it for our Cloudheads album, and Lady Maisery’s Hannah James sings, plays accordion and percussion. It celebrates many brave and inspiring woman from history such as the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, Malala Yousafzai and Rosa Parks. We believe that if women are given enough space, they can do anything!” As to their individual respective sets, Rowan explains, “both acts will play songs from across our respective albums and we always try to pick songs that feel most relevant to the times we are sharing right now.”

With the mention of Cloudheads, it seems prudent to also allude to O’Hooley & Tidow’s track, The Ballad of Anne and Ann; this track features Gentleman Jack star, Suranne Jones; O’H&T wrote the song, Gentleman Jack, which ended up being used on the TV show of the same name starring Suranne, after writer Sally Wainwright happened to come to one of their gigs, and asked if she could use the track.

 

“music has been everything to both of us – from very young,

we have found comfort, safety, excitement and a sense of belonging through music.”

 

The Cloudheads album also openly reflects aspects of their own pathways as neurodivergent artists. Both Belinda and Heidi were diagnosed autistic in adulthood, something which, particularly for women, is becoming more common with greater professional understanding of neurodiversity as a whole.  They convey a wide range of emotions and reflections with a beautiful truthfulness in the album. I am compelled to ask whether there are any ways that music has perhaps played a part in understanding themselves better. Belinda replies that “music has been everything to both of us – from very young, we have found comfort, safety, excitement and a sense of belonging through music. Music has enabled both of us to express emotion, which would perhaps otherwise be trapped inside of us. We see this in our concerts, in the way the audiences connect with the emotions we find through performing our songs.”

Further discussing what advice or words of solidarity and support they may have for anyone (particularly musicians and music lovers) who either suspect they may be autistic / neurodivergent, or who have been recently diagnosed, their experiences have made them both really think it worth going down the diagnostic pathway: “It provided us both with an incredible amount of relief, self-knowledge and self-compassion that neither of us had before. Absorb yourself in music, which may well be what we call a ‘Special Interest’ for many autistic people – both as performers and music lovers. Find your tribe – those you connect with through your passions and interests. Celebrate your strengths and find help and support, but most of all, compassionate understanding of your difficulties. Love who you are.”

And out of sheer curiosity, I also wonder whether, if they were being asked now to write a TV theme from scratch, where do they think they would start? “Well, it would depend on the lead character; we’d absolutely love the opportunity to write a new theme song for perhaps a female autistic lead, such as Patience. It would involve working with the writer to get to know more about the character, their personality, idiosyncrasies, things that make them stand out as an individual. That would be our dream job!”

“From an artistic perspective, people who push at the edges

of their own genre always feel like they’d be the best to collaborate with”

On a similar vein, I ask Lady Maisery to ponder collaborations they’d relish. “It’d be fun to collaborate with an orchestral composer maybe – as we’ve always had to “do everything” as singers and instrumentalists it would be fun to only be singers but be bathed in a massive sound. From an artistic perspective, people who push at the edges of their own genre always feel like they’d be the best to collaborate with, to meet in the middle somewhere. Björk is an obvious answer! Or the pianist Tigran Hamasyan. Or the jazz guitarist Bill Frisell.”

Finally, I ask Lady Maisery a little more about their Big Sing and Creative Songwriting Weekends, which sound like amazing experiences and are, by all accounts, incredibly popular (almost all are sold out already for 2025, with just a few spaces available, at time of writing, for their December event). Rowan elaborates, “It’s such an important part of what we do as a band and has been steadily becoming a bigger part of our work through the last decade. It really puts singing and music where it lives best – in rooms of people, in social and emotionally connected and safe context. We’ve had such memorable moments at these courses, whether they’re profound – for many people just having an opportunity to sing or devote a weekend to the pleasure of singing is a rare thing – or fun! There’s always a lot of laughter, too.”

It sounds like there will be much to enjoy at this very special concert, and the combined forces of these two wonderful acts will craft an emotive and empowering evening. We’re certainly looking forward to it.

Lady Maisery and O’Hooley & Tidow perform at the Stephen Joseph Theatre on Friday, February 28th at 7.30pm in the Round.

All combined tour dates:
26 Feb: The Leadmill, Sheffield
28 Feb: Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough – click here for tickets
6 Mar: Turner Sims, Southampton
7 Mar: Kings Place, London
16 Mar: Loading Bay Pop Up Arts Venue, Bradford (sold out)

Links: Lady Maisery website :  O’Hooley & Tidow website

Both Lady Maisery and O’Hooley & Tidow are also touring individually, with dates on their websites; and catch Belinda of O’H&T doing solo piano dates, especially if you like the music of Ludovico Einaudi and Max Richter!