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Nick Morgan and crew
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Concert
Review by Nick Morgan |
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RICHARD HAWLEY
Shepherd’s Bush Empire,
London, October 8th 2009
Richard
Hawley
apparently thinks that his new album, Truelove’s
Gutter, is probably the best he’s made,
albeit one not likely to garner great commercial
success, with less catchy tunes than his previous
two offerings, and no obvious single material.
UK chart performance to date would tend to suggest
he’s right. |
| Truelove’s
Gutter entered the top twenty album chart on release
but has subsequently slumped in position. But as
Hawley has learned through a long and not always
easy career, chart success is not everything, and
the satisfaction he takes from the new work is very
evident from the live performances he has been delivering
around the UK to promote its release. Not only is
this the best live performance we’ve seen
from Hawley, it’s also the most uncompromising.
It started with Hawley, back to the audience, silhouetted
in a spot light, as he teased the opening sounds
and notes from his guitar for ‘As the dawn
breaks’ (his playing, like his song writing,
is all about creating layers and textures) before
turning in the first of an evening’s worth
of almost perfect vocals. What followed were all
eight songs from Truelove’s Gutter, six from
Cole’s Corner, Lady’s Bridge, and 2001’s
Late Night Final. A surprise mid-encore performance
came from Lisa
Marie Presley, a current collaborator of Hawley’s,
who sang ‘Weary’, their joint composition,
with him. |
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Read
the reviews of Hawley’s new album, and the
tour dates for that matter, and it’s hard
to get past the label ‘crooner’ which
has attached itself so firmly to his vocal style.
And though it’s a fair enough term to use,
it has the effect of pulling a veil over his huge
accomplishments as a composer, and his very twenty-first
century style of guitar playing. This is displayed
to the full throughout his new album, and this
gig. Hawley’s guitar work benefits from
the complimentary presence of Shez Sheridan, who
jointly weaves delicate, albeit largely subdued,
patterns of increasing complexity tonight, ending
with a climactic version of ‘Ocean’
which saw Hawley break loose in spectacular style.
Not that he hadn’t already displayed some
considerable fret board flourishes, notably with
astonishing solos on ‘Hotel Room’
and the new ‘Remorse code’. It’s
not only Sheridan that’s helping, it’s
a consummate band performance, which includes
wandering troubadour David
Coulter on various guitars and of course musical
saw (an instrument first played to Hawley by his
grandfather) on ‘As the dawn breaks’
and ‘Don’t you cry’. |
The
reception from the audience was remarkable, rapt,
almost reverential (so I feel even more angry,
Serge, about the loud-mouthed arseholes who tried
to ruin the Astoria gig that you came over for
last year) and at times you could almost hear
a pin drop. After ‘Tonight’ there’s
a huge round of applause, and then after a pause
another spontaneous ovation that took even Hawley
by surprise: “Steady on, we’re not
in America you know’, he chided the crowd,
and when that didn’t dampen their enthusiasm
‘Look, it’ll just go the band’s
head, they’re not used to this’. Note
the language: Hawley is far less talkative than
normal, with a very low score on the fookometer.
His main digressions are a pre-emptive strike
against the cloying romanticism of ‘For
your lover, give some time’, and a reminiscence
about his grandfather’s saw playing. |
David Coulter
on musical saw |
| Maybe
it’s the presence of Ms Presley that subdues
his normal foul-mouthed garrulousness, or maybe
he’s just decided to focus on the music. But
either way, it’s not a disappointment, such
is the triumph of the latter. |
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Listening
to Truelove’s Gutter makes you wonder if
Hawley can manage to pull off another album in
a similar style; surely he’s mined this
rather nostalgic vein to exhaustion? Listening
to a live performance like this however gives
you no doubts whatsoever that there is more to
come. And you won’t be surprised if I commend
Mr Hawley to you as a very suitable companion
for a late night glass of Scotland’s midnight
wine, with no reservation whatsoever. –
Nick Morgan (photographs by Kate)
Listen:
Richard
Hawley on MySpace |
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