Gig review: Richard Hawley at Holmfirth Picturedrome

The popular image of Richard Hawley’s music is probably still built around 2005 masterpiece Coles Corner: a romantic balladeer with an encyclopedic knowledge of rockabilly and early Scott Walker albums, perched under a lamppost with only a battered heart and some cigarettes for company in drizzly Sheffield city centre, with the association with his South Yorkshire hometown further cemented by the enduring success of the Sheffield-set musical built around his songs, Standing at the Sky’s Edge.

Tonight at the sold out Holmfirth Picturedome, the singer, guitarist and songwriter and his stellar band prove a much punchier proposition.

Although there are resistance-melting moments of Hawley’s trademark tenderly bruised balladry on offer too, the 100-minute performance is above all bracingly noisy and prone to excursions into drawn-out instrumental interludes that allow Hawley to demonstrate his effortless and never needlessly showy virtuosity as a guitarist.

The set is built around Hawley’s most recent album, 2019’s Further, but there is no hint of workman-like routine despite by the by-now very familiar material: this is a thoroughly energised and inspired performance.

Once Hawley has dispatched a suitable amount of Holmfirth-related ribbing (shocked surprise is feigned at the fact that some people actually live in the town permanently) after a few snappy opening numbers from Further, tonight’s performance hits optimum intensity levels with a positively thunderous take on Standing at the Sky’s Edge.

The song’s brooding, ominous energy is perfectly offset by a particularly tender rendition of Coles Corner (which, like many of Hawley’s best songs, sounds increasingly like a timeless standard that could as easily have been written and performed in the 1950s as in the 21st century) that sees Clive Mellor replicate Hawley’s guitar on the original recording with melancholy harmonica riffs.

Don’t Stare At The Sun still manages to combine soaring big rock ballad bombast with delicate intimacy and heartfelt emotion, whilst Down In The Woods (straddling a riff that could be on loan from The Stooges) embarks on a crunchy instrumental section that finds Hawley briefly referencing Jimi Hendrix.

Perhaps the highlight of the evening, a drawn-out take on Time Is allows extended space for Mellor to let rip on wailing blues harmonica: a truly glorious racket ensues.