SpideWriter

Richard Hawley The LCR, UEA,  Sunday, 16 th  June 2024 My response to Mr Hawley’s latest album, In This City They Call You ‘Love’ was C omme si, comme ça .  The guitar work, the love Hawley has for his early guitar heroes in his tribute songs to Sheffield and the respective playing styles and indeed singing, is interesting.  It is a nice album, but doesn’t pull up any trees for me, so I was wondering how the tour might be going, ticket sales-wise.    I walked into the SU building at Norwich’s campus university and was over-whelmed by the size and maturity (age-wise) of the crowd.  Not only was the venue rammed with people who looked serious-minded, but the floor space was filled with rows of seats, with each one taken, leaving the rest of us to cram around the edges of the hall, with due regard for height and width of our fellow punters.   Despite taking nearly an hour to set up, tune all the guitars and for the band to appear once ...

Songs of Alienation Pared to the Bone   Richard Hawley ‘In This  City  They Call You  Love ’ New Album Review   Release Date 31 st  May 2024 on  BMG It took a few plays to appreciate the new Richard Hawley album, ‘In This  City  They Call You  Love ’   which is released by  BMG on 31 st  May 2024.  You'll need to be in a certain emotional state to get the most from this album.  Initially it comes across as cruise-ship-lounge music, possibly to be played before the second sitting for dinner is called.  In the round, this is a pleasant listening experience. By the close of the last track, you will have heard the singer-songwriter employ all his talents to good effect, as well as ghostly echoes of some of pop music's greatest male voices: Presley, Cash, Orbison. Hawley sets off with a wheel-spin screech of guitar, for the opening track and single cut For His Heels  before recounting tales i...