Live review: Richard Hawley at Gateshead’s Glasshouse

Singles-wise the rockabilly revivalist is technically a one-hit wonder, only 2007’s Tonight the Streets are Ours having made the top 40 and even then only at No 40 for one week, so he’s not under any pressure to play the same selection of fans’ favourites every time he hits the road.

Fair enough, Tonight the Streets are Ours did make an appearance approaching halfway through his 19-song set at Gateshead’s Glasshouse International Centre for Music last night, June 13, but the 57-year-old was otherwise at liberty to roam back and forth through a back catalogue boasting five top-ten hits, including his latest, In This City They Call You Love, a new entry at No 5 last Friday, and he took full advantage of that freedom of choice.

Half of the dozen tracks making up his new LP were given an airing, including People, featuring the line the album takes its title from, in front of a near-capacity crowd, most of them standing, the lower level’s seats having been removed.

Even the biggest pub quiz no-hoper wouldn’t have taken long to deduce that the city in question is his native Sheffield, a street sign saying ‘welcome to Sheffield’ being a bit of a clue, and just to eradicate any possible uncertainty, he even picked up the aforesaid sign and waved it around at one point.

Hawley introduced People, the opening instalment of a three-song encore, with I’m Looking for Someone to Fine Me and The Ocean to follow, as one of the quieter songs in his hour-and-three-quarters set and it probably was, as elsewhere, backed up by two fellow guitarists in a six-strong line-up, he proved himself more than capable of raising a racket with one accomplished solo after another, underpinned by Dean Beresford’s economical but effective drumming on the smallest kit I can recall seeing since that employed by the late Charlie Watts – a handful of drums of modest proportions, three cymbals and that was it.

People, as well as being quite possibly the quietest, was also one of the best-received tunes of the evening, alongside Tonight the Streets are Ours, preceded by a brief party political broadcast undoubtedly preaching to the long-since converted, and Standing at the Sky’s Edge, the title track of his seventh album, a No 3 hit in 2012, and also of the jukebox musical that followed seven years later and is still going strong.

Standing at the Sky’s Edge was the second-best represented bit of his back catalogue after his new album, contributing three further songs to his setlist – Don’t Stare at the Sun, Leave Your Body Behind You and the evening’s opener, She Brings the Sunlight.

Last night the streets around what used to be the Sage Gateshead were, deservedly, Hawley’s as he played his fourth show there – following prior visits in 2007, 2009 and 2015 – and tomorrow, no doubt, the same will be true of those leading to Liverpool’s Eventim Olympia.

The ex-Longpigs and Pulp guitarist’s tour then heads on to Norwich on Sunday, Portsmouth next Tuesday and wraps up in Scarborough next Thursday.

Thea Gilmore will be supporting at those dates too.

For further details, go to https://richardhawley.co.uk/