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The Review - MUSIC - grooves with CHARLOTTE CHAMBERS
Published: 7 February 2008

Richard Hawley

The Long Hawl to stardom

PREVIEW
RICHARD HAWLEY
London Astoria

THE sometime Pulp guitarist has come a long way from being Jarvis Cocker’s wingman but three solo albums to boot and he’s not exactly a household name. This probably owes more to his take it or leave it attitude than to his music, but even so, Hawley’s star is on the rise, in a kind of old-fashioned, word- of-mouth, trundling type of way.
The son of Sheffield has picked up many soubriquets on account of his wistful lyrics and swooning harmonies – the Sinatra of the North and Yorkshire’s Roy Orbison among the more flattering – so don’t turn up expecting a night of head-thrashing.
But for those Northerners with London travelcards or those suffering from a bout of Big Smoke fatigue, this is your chance to feel whole again.
It works like this. The town that made him is evaporating in front of his very eyes – pebble dash is being replaced by loft-living, gravy’n’chips by ciabatta sticks – and it is this afront to the ancien regime that drives his nostalgic lullabies for his beloved city of steel. In plain speak, there’s “trouble down t’pit”.
To the untrained ear it could sound like empty sentimentalism, but get beyond it and you will discover that Hawley is a modern-day Wordsworth – chronicling epic shifts from the eyes of a smalltown playboy.
JAMIE WELHAM

Richard Hawley plays the London Astoria on Tuesday February 12

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