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Nick Morgan and crew
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Concert
Review by Nick Morgan |
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RICHARD HAWLEY
The Roundhouse, Chalk Farm, London
September 5th 2007
“Fookin’
heck lads, give me a bit of room”. It’s
Maurice Michelin Man, who edges past a puzzled
Photographer (“lads”?), clutching
two pints of beer in his hands, and heads for
his chum, Maurice Michelin Man II, and his seat.
For some unfathomable reason we’re seated
in the balcony of the Roundhouse – the mysteries
of on-line ticket booking I suppose – but
to be frank, after another day of strikebound
gridlocked London it’s nice to have a seat.
We’ve got a fine view across the stage and
the sound is as good as it is down on the floor.
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| On
the stage it’s fookin’ this and fookin’
that as an animated Richard
Hawley slips into a Northern pub comic
routine (“This fookin’ fella went to
the fookin’ doctors, and the doctor said,
‘Look, you’ve got to stop fookin’
wankin’ – ‘Stop fookin’
wankin’ – why?’ ‘Because
I can’t fookin’ examine you ‘till
you do’”) that most Northern pub comics
would be pretty embarrassed by. He’s also
in reminiscence mode, telling us about playing guitar
in his uncle’s band in Sheffield, clubs, wedding,
bar mitzvahs and funerals. He’s very rude
to someone in the audience from Ipswich (so rude
that I daren’t repeat it lest someone from
that fair Anglian city might read my words) –
and in fact immediately apologises after his next
song finishes – “You know I went all
the way through that song feeling guilty about what
I just said about Ipswich”. And he’s
generous in his thanks to what can only be described
(certainly by the end of the night) as an adoring
audience – once that is he’s stopped
goading them with unfavourable comparisons to the
crowd he played to on the previous night in Brighton.
Of course like Hawley almost everyone in the audience
seems to come from Sheffield. “Fookin heck
lads, stand aside” Oh yes – it’s
Maurice Michelin Man again, (or is it Michelin Man
II?) on what becomes an astonishing number of journeys
to bar and urinal. Fookin’ heck. |
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| It’s
just as well Hawley has Sheffield – it’s
provided the backdrop for the four solo albums he’s
recorded since the turn of the century. Before that
of course he played with Pulp and his pal Jarvis
Cocker (you can just imagine the conversation: “Fookin
heck Jarvis” “Fookin’ heck Richard”)
and before that the Longpigs. And in between all
of this he has gained a reputation as, as they say,
an “in demand” session man for his very
unique style of playing. Coles Corner, his 2005
album, named after a famous meeting place in Sheffield,
was widely acclaimed and nominated for a Mercury
Prize. The spanking new Lady’s Bridge (named,
you guessed, after a bridge in Sheffield) went straight
into the charts last week at number six. Not everyone
likes it – Hawley’s style is polarising
and some apparently find it bland and insipid. You
see he’s a crooner – or so they say
– and apparently this offends people because
it makes him lightweight, not worthy of serious
consideration. Well, first of all the bastard encyclopaedia
Wikipedia tells me that among current top crooners
are Neil Diamond, Chris Isaak, Leonard Cohen and
Tom Waits, and that’s not such bad company
to be in. Secondly it’s not just about his
singing, but also about musical arrangements, and
Hawley’s recorded work is occasionally what
one might call heavily orchestrated country schmaltz
– hardly likely to be highly regarded by musical
know-it-alls in the UK. It’s a shame because
you can hear everything from Pat Boone through Johnny
Cash to Nick Lowe in Hawley’s work. And I
would admit that on disc Hawley’s individuality
does get a little lost in the complexity of the
arrangements, which can be cloying. Sometimes it’s
hard to see through the pastiche. Delightfully on
stage what you get is down-the-line Hawley; although
the performance is almost studio perfect it’s
stripped of some of the overwhelming studio sound
thus allowing the songs, and Hawley’s quite
distinct vocal style, to shine through. |
| I
guess you really need to go and listen to some of
Hawley’s albums to get the point, but believe
me, his songs, which like all songs should be are
about love, loneliness, leaving and returning, are
very strong and very twenty-first century. And on
stage Hawley doesn’t sound like any one (well,
apart from his wonderful Nick Lowe false-teeth whistle)
other than Hawley. The set list goes something like
this: ‘Valentine’, ‘Roll river
roll’, ‘Just like the rain’, “Fookin
heck, move tha’ legs boys” (it’s
Maurice Michelin Man again), ‘Dark Road’,
‘Coles Corner’ – hang on, like
Berlin this means nothing to you. Just let me say
this was a most excellent set. With really touching
songs like ‘Darling wait for me’ (“We
wrote this for our wives. We must be as soft as
a bag of tits”), the wonderful ‘The
sea calls’ (I’m sorry Serge, if you
haven’t noticed I’m a sucker for sea
songs) and ‘Born under a bad sign’.
No, it’s not Albert King, it’s a Hawley
original. “This is a song about getting pissed
all the time. Actually I read an article about alcohol
the other day and I was shocked by what it could
do to you. So that’s it for me. After tomorrow,
… no more …reading”. And as an
encore, after one of the best and warmest ovations
I’ve heard all year, ‘Tonight’
and then a wonderful version of ‘Ocean’
which only served to remind us, if much of the evening
hadn’t, what a brilliant guitarist Hawley
is too. |
| Yes,
as you can see Serge, like everyone else here I
really enjoyed this. And I should mention the excellence
of Hawley’s band who played his deceptively
simple songs with an economic precision, and particularly
(although this is invidious) guitarist Shez Sheridan,
who moved between a bewildering number of guitars
and lap guitars and played to a very subtle point
of perfection. And Mr Hawley, ramblings aside (“I
know a talk a lot of fookin’ shite but I’d
just like to thank you all for being here, really…”)
played, posed with his Gretsch guitars and shiny
suit, and sang to a point that must be somewhere
slightly east of Coles Corner, and west of Lady’s
Bridge. Very, very good. Take a listen. Fookin’
heck … - Nick Morgan (concert photographs
by Kate) |
Coles Corner |
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the index of all reviews:
Nick's Concert Reviews
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