Claire Hamill released four folky poppy albums in the first half of the 70s starting with ONE HOUSE LEFT STANDING when she was only 17 and followed by OCTOBER. In 1973 she recorded her third album STAGE DOOR JOHNNIES and closely followed it with ABRACADABRA. The albums are nice (but short!) but not exceptional in my opinion. All have been rereleased on Blueprint with STAGE DOOR JOHNNIES apparently having a different cover (I only know the Blueprint release so don't know the history).

In the late 70s she worked with Wishbone Ash and in 1980 formed her own band Transporter. In 1983 she recorded the album TOUCHPAPER which was said to have received critical acclaim but doesn't do a lot for me. It was later released on CODA and is now available on Blueprint.

The reason for me not being overwhelmed with her earlier works may be because the first work I heard of hers was the extraordinary 1986 album VOICES, where all the sounds originate with her voice. It is truly unmissable. It has had at least three covers, the first being a nicely understated one on the CODA Landscape series, then one under the Art Of Landscape branding associated with the Landscape Channel and now a new one on Blueprint. I wouldn't be surprised if there was also a second version of the Landscape series cover. When the Landscape Channel store is working the Art Of Landscape version is usually listed. It was also released on Pickwick in 2001 and is being released on Hallmark on 12th May 2003 but I have yet to see the cover art used.

LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON on CODA from 1988 has some vocal instrumentals in a somewhat similar vein as VOICES as well as some more conventional songs and is also very good. After hearing these two albums the rest seem relatively weak. LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON is again on Blueprint.

In 1998 Claire and Andrew Warren, a composer of "dance music" released the album SUMMER on Blueprint. I can't say it does much for me.

Her old website suggested in one place she had been working on an anthology of her songs and in another place that she been recording another solo album. These may or may not refer to the same thing but in any case the website has been saying that for months if not years so it isn't exactly encouraging. Looking in early 2004 I see she now has a much nicer site and I seem to recall that a greatest hits type compilation and solo recordings were mentioned but I'd have to check again.

In October 2003 Voiceprint release TOUCHPAPER / LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON in their "2 for one" series.