Richard Hawley // UEA - 17.09.12

In a full LCR but not sold out, Lisa Hannigan, the singer/songwriter with her fellow musicians delicately wowed the audience into a hushed silence early on with her sweet and gentle Irish folk singing. In her girlish grey skirt and blue blouse she looked about 15 which made the poignancy of her lovely music even stronger.Richard Hawley is one of those rare musicians these days who always looks exactly the same which I think is brilliant; he looks like Mark Kermode’s northern cousin. Almost exactly.  A bit like Tina Turner or Slash, you know who they are and what to expect. And what I expected and got was a brilliant night of music and banter from Sheffield’s finest guitar playing songwriter. I don’t consider his voice to be particularly mindbowing but the way he swapped between 5 guitars throughout his set and played them with such tenderness and ferocity, and how he communicated with the crowd and his band made it clear he has been in music for a long time and had learnt much.

Working his way through songs from his past and many from his current album Standing  At The Sky’s Edge, every song stood out as it’s own being. As a a band they created a wall of shimmering but loud sound, which combined with the warm lights make an atmosphere I won’t forget in a hurry. On occasion Richard played on his own, crooning love tales into the microphone and plucking his steel guitar with great delicacy, so it almost broke your heart. At times it sounded like very early Pulp, at others like 60’s ballads and also like The Verve at their most metaphysical.