Singer-songwriter Richard Hawley on tour and returning to Gateshead
In his home city of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, folk might call each other love – as the title of his tenth solo album, released at the end of May, attests – but tonight, June 13, singer-songwriter Richard Hawley is more likely to be called pet as he’s back in the north east of England.
Hawley’s two-thirds of the way through a tour to promote In This City They Call You Love, a new entry in the UK album chart at No 5 last Friday, giving the 57-year-old his fourth top-ten hit on the bounce.
Having started off in Glasgow at the start of the month and called in on Edinburgh the day after, he’s back at Gateshead’s Glasshouse International Centre for Music tonight for the first time in almost nine years and fourth time all told, though he has played at next-door Newcastle’s Hoult’s Yard and Northumbria Institute in the interim, in 2016 and 2019 respectively, offering him an opportunity to find out whether he prefers to be loved or petted by way of address.
The former Longpigs and Pulp guitarist moves on to Liverpool on Saturday, Norwich on Sunday, Portsmouth next Tuesday and wraps up in Scarborough a week today, June 20.
His new LP takes its title from a line in one of its dozen tracks, People, and explaining that choice, Hawley said: “I’ve made three albums where I had the title before I'd even begun to record, where I had an agenda.
“One was Truelove’s Gutter. Another was Standing at the Sky’s Edge, when I wanted to turn everything up and make the music a lot more aggressive, and then this one.
“I wanted it to be multi-coloured in a way, focusing on the voice and what voices can do together. I deliberately only played a handful of guitar solos to keep it focused on voices, the song and space.”
His highest-charting albums to date, both No 3s, are 2012’s Standing at the Sky’s Edge and 2019’s Further and he's also notched up one top-40 single, Tonight the Streets are Ours, a No 40 in 2007.
Tickets, priced £38 to £46.80, are still available for tonight’s show. For details, go to https://theglasshouseicm.org/whats-on/richard-hawley-2024/
Thea Gilmore will be supporting.
Doors open at 7pm, Gilmore will be on from 7.30pm to 8pm and Hawley’s due to take the stage at 8.30pm.