From Sheffield to Spain with love indeed.
The stakes have been raised for Richard Hawley tonight as the master of swooning, indulgent romantic songs has performed only an hour before. Not that the pressure of having to follow Leonard Cohen shows as he opens with Valentine. Or that his equipment was retrieved in the nick of time. Not a bit of it, he looks poised as his deep soulful voice slowly takes hold of your heart strings.
In times when courting seems to be falling quickly out of fashion it’s a relief to find an artist who can so eloquently invoke the days when romance reined supreme, and carry off an Elvis-esque hairstyle. Even as he confidently asks the crowd ‘Do you like rockabilly?‘ it seems remarkably appropriate. Instead of an uncomfortably warm tent, you can easily imagine this as prom night with Hawley performing the entertainment for freshly made couples to sway and slow dance at the front. Though any subtlety is quickly lost between songs when his name is chanted by a set of travelling support.
These are songs of yearning, songs of triumph, songs of beguiling charm that anyone who has loved and lost could affirm with. As he indulges in a sauntering version of Serious, those in attendance are left to reminisces about all those hopeful and hopeless relationships they’ve endured. Eventually he reaches a peak with a glorious rendition of Tonight The Streets Are Ours. Then before you know it, the hour is up, its 2008 again and you are back to thinking that a cross at the end of a text message is affectionate enough. From Sheffield to Spain with love indeed.