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Guitar man with steel in his songs
"THERE'S me and Corinne Bailey Rae queueing for the bogs at the Mercurys and then Elton John comes over..."
Richard Hawley is in full flow in the tiny snug of his favourite pub with a pint of Guinness on the table and a guitar in his hands.
"I've never really liked his music and I always said I'd tell him if ever I saw him," he adds.
"But he came over and told me he liked this and that about the album. He'd obviously listened to it and I have to say I quite liked him. I was a bit disappointed really."
After 25 years in music Richard Hawley, Pulp and Longpigs guitarist, former wild man and Sheffield music legend is an overnight success.
His Coles Corner album is about to go gold, he was narrowly pipped to the Mercury album of the year by fellow Sheffielders Arctic Monkeys and he has a headful of new songs just waiting to be recorded.
'I was mental with drink and drugs, then Jarvis Cocker asked me to join'
"I have never in my life been as chuffed with things as I am now," said the 39-year-old son of a steelworker.
Then, with Pitsmoor-honed wit, he bursts the bubble of his brief reflective moment.
"I can't believe where I have ended up – still in the snug at Fagan's. Who's having another?" he laughs and jumps to his feet.
This is a man who, at the age of 39, has been around too long to get carried away, one who has been through enough bad times to appreciate the success he is having.
He comes from a musical family. His uncle is Sheffield guitar legend Frank White, his dad played and his grandad played violin standing on his head in the music halls.
Richard has just treated us to an impromptu session on his new Gretsch guitar – this one takes his collection up to 63. There's magic in his fingers. Then there's the voice.
After so many years at the back of the stage behind a guitar when did he realise he could sing?
"I've always known I could sing I just never wanted to be at the front. I always thought you had to have an ego the size of Saturn and all its rings to be a singer.
"Then it got to the point where I couldn't not do it, and you get to an age where you don't care what people think. When tha's grown up in Pitsmoor with a harelip you learn not to be too sensitive."
Richard Hawley is old working class Sheffield – 'jurassic Labour' he calls his politics – with a twist of eccentric individualism.
Confident, opinionated and totally committed to his home city he has views on everything.
Whether it's the new Sheffield emerging from under the cranes, old pubs, Castle Market or "how the hell did we lose the Harlequin chip shop?" he knows his stuff.
"I always come over as a right moaner when I start talking about Sheffield but I love this city and the subtle humour of the people.
"I see all these new flats going up for students and professional types but there's a shortage of housing for people from Sheffield. It's not sustainable, there are no places for kids to play, no parks, doctors or shops. Young people move on and I worry what happens when they do.
"The Winter Garden and the fountains outside the City Hall are brilliant. I know we need to change but we have to keep the best of the old. We have to try and keep our identity, not try and be the same as every other city in the world."
His own brand of individuality led him down some pretty dark alleys before he hit rock bottom and sorted himself out. Now a father of three Richard Hawley has had his problems with booze and drugs.
"I almost killed myself with drugs. Nothing any good ever came out of cocaine. Pulp saved my life. I was going mental with drink and drugs then Jarvis Cocker asked me to join him."
We know the rest and now he's reaping the benefit of years of dedication to the guitar.
His music has a stamp of class and originality. Much of it hauntingly melancholic but laced with humour and subtle hints of other eras and genres.
"It's a myth to say that I'm stuck in some 50s timewarp," he said.
"I like music from all eras, it doesn't matter when it's from. There's just good music and there's bad music."
Despite the one-liners and the self-deprecating humour there is a sense of pride in himself, his family and his city as he reflects on the Mercury awards.
"There's me, a lad from Pitsmoor, born with sod-all sat in a big hotel with all the stars. A lot of people were rooting for me and told me they had put money on me to win. I felt a bit guilty when I didn't.
"We had the table next to the Arctic Monkeys so we had a Sheffield corner. It was a great night. I was dead happy when they won it, they are great lads, down to earth.
"Obviously I would have been happier if I'd won it, but..."
Cue more laughter, more Guinness.
Family's work ethic has helped create success
RICHARD Hawley is thinking of leaving Sheffield.
Not for LA or New York or even London but for Sheffield – in Cornwall.
"I don't really think I could leave this city. Every time I've been away I come home and think 'thank God I come from Sheffield'. I love it.
"But we have just come back from holiday in Cornwall and we found a tiny little village called guess what? Sheffield.
"They used to make knives and forks there so they named the village Sheffield so they could use the name.
"I love it down there and I could live in a village like that, just to get away from the mayhem sometimes."
"There are nine Sheffield's in the world and I would like to make a television programme where I visit all nine of them.
"I want my kids to be proud of the culture they come from but I have told them they have to work at things. Playing computer games, watching telly and eating pizzas won't get you anywhere.
"My Dad grafted for years working 14-hour days in the steelworks and then playing in clubs at night.
"They were a different breed of men then. I knew I never wanted a life like that.
"If I could be as good a human being as those people that I grew up with that would be something. If I could be as kind as they were with all the hardships they had to endure I would be happy."
It would take a great deal to get Richard Hawley out of Sheffield, South Yorkshire.
Something like losing the Henderson's Relish factory on Leavygreave. That's the absolute doomsday scenario.
"The day they knock down Hendo's is the day I'm out of here."From busking to Top Of The PopsHE'S the busker we all walked past outside Cole Brothers, a Wednesdayite from Pitsmoor who played guitar with Pulp.
Now he's about to become a superstar – and he's done it all his own way.
The success of his last two albums and increased profile from his Mercury Award nominations have put the former Firth Park schoolboy on the brink of the big time.
Coles Corner has sold around 100,000 copies and is back in the album charts at 37. His next album is certain to be huge.
"The days have gone when I am told what to do. I do what I want to do when I want to do it but it's not always been that way," he said.
"I'm doing Top Of The Pops 2 soon," said the 39-year-old. "Once on my own, and once with Jools Holland. I sing a song on his new album, and I play on Jarvis Cocker's new album which is out in November.
"I have been asked to write the music for a film called Flick, and now they want me to appear in it."
Then he's off on a comic rant: "It's about a 30-something DJ with glasses and big ideas – how difficult can it be? They said it's about a rockabilly zombie – and the part of the rockabilly has already gone."
"I have been asked to play on a Chess record label compilation which is fantastic and Gretsch are going to use my horrendous face to sell guitars. I have been waiting for over a year to get into the studio and make a new album.
"I have enough songs for as many albums as you want. I can't wait to get started."
"The people who are buying Coles Corner now are the ones who walked past me when I was freezing cold and busking outside Cole Brothers.
"Funny how things turn out."
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