Richard Hawley, Sheffield City Hall
Another night with the city Hawl
HE'S getting pretty good at this, you know.
Just before last Christmas it was a cautious local lad that toodled onto his home town's most prestigious stage. This time the man in the blue jacket looked at home. And sounded like it as he made wisecracks with the frequency of a stand-up in between songs that have become antedotes to modern life's complexities.
Having teased this suitably elegant auditorium with near news of the England football team's endeavours against Russia, the father-of-three with the big heart waded in with new ballad Valentine before baiting us with claims that Liverpool had a louder crowd.
And so Hawley's curious juxtaposition as friendly joker and Guinness lover versus soppy old husband and muso universally adored by highbrow critics was further compounded. Not least as he revealed how he'd "left town for a while" when the flood hit Sheffield and nearly washed the band out of the studio. "I was trying to get there but I got as far as Fagan's," he recalled.
Like that pub we were plunged back into another, more innocent era with gentle nuggets such as Cole's Corner and Just Like The Rain, the shimmering curtain backdrop, dreamy mirroball effect, Hawley's quiff and a red Gretsch guitar adding to a sense of past values.
"The marketing people try to work out who buys my records," he revealed. "Quite a lot of older people, apparently. I have noticed the knickers thrown on stage are quite a lot bigger these days."
There were further laughs when the house lights suddenly burned to reveal the size of the home crowd. "I want me mum," said our man before burying himself again in a setlist that offered comfort and safety, surely part of the attraction of music by a man who used to busk across from City Hall. "People used to chuck peanuts at me then."
And if ever you thought it was in danger of becoming a bit cruise ship our host reminded why he is a perhaps unlikely star on the rise. Aside from honest, sentimental songs, Hawley is a performer in the old fashioned sense at a time when so much music tenders style over substance.
"I'm Susan, a cross-dresser from Runcorn," offered Hawley having introduced his band, lest we took his romantic musings that bit too seriously.
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Weather for Sheffield
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
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Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
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