Richard Hawley, one of the UK`s best singer/songwriters, returned to the Firestation, Sunderland on 03/12/2024, as previously promised, for a rare and intimate show for the start of his latest 2024 tour promoting his superb new 9th album “In This City They Call You Love”. The album emanates from his deep love and attachment to his Sheffield roots, its people, his father’s steel making working class background and his childhood affection for country, blues, rock and roll and particularly 1960s rockabilly. In his long standing musical career, Richard Hawley has played with the Longpigs, the Arctic Monkeys and Pulp (with his close friend Jarvis Cocker) before starting out on his own, nearly two decades ago. Since then, he has released over nine albums and been nominated for both a Mercury prize and Brit Awards. So, not surprisingly, shortly after the initial announcement of the impending tour of his new album, the Firestation gig was once again an immediate sell out thereby resulting in all of the seating being taken out of the stalls to allow more standing fans in. They were duly rewarded with probably one of the most memorable gigs the Firestation has had in 2024 and, amazingly, it started before he even came on stage.

The support act was the award winning musical talent of Bernard Butler dubbed "the finest guitarist of his generation” and arguably most well-known for his brief tenure in indie-rockers Suede. With his trade mark floppy hair quiff, he played a superb 45 minutes set including album songs composed with the amazingly talented Irish actor Jessie Buckley from For All Our Days That Tear the Heart. With his superb set, cracking banter with the crowd and his customary no encore promise, he gave a virtuoso performance promoting his first solo album in 25 years entitled Good Grief. He finished his set with the heart wrenchingly emotional 20 Years and then perhaps his most popular solo single Not Alone. Alone he was worth the ticket price. Richard Hawley and his band quickly followed and played 19 songs with six songs from his new album starting off with Prism in Jeans and Two for his Heels. Although usually reticent and quiet, the Sheffield born rock a billy crooner came on in a clearly jovial and delighted manner to be back and quickly bantered with the crowd about how Sunderland and Sheffield were so alike hence the relevance and title of his new album as well as some not unexpected brief footballing banter. Nevertheless, these exquisite new songs set the mood and tone for a truly memorable night before going on to play the beautifully melodic Open Up Your Door and Standing at the Sky's Edge with its intense vocals and guitar riffs. Following on, he livened the set up with Just Like the Rain, his first song written at the age of 16. The majority of his songs are invariably interspersed with his enjoyable interaction with the audience so once warmed up he launched into the two crowd singalongs of Tonight the Streets Are Ours and Coles Corner. He followed these favourites with the melancholic delights of Is There A Pill?, Heavy Rain and Don't Stare at the Sun before the last song Heart of Oak in which he really let rip with his instrumental guitar riffs. Following a deserved long standing ovation, he finished the set with a three song encore namely People, I’m Looking For Someone to Find Me and the iconic Ocean. As usual, he

had a guitar change for nearly every song from his eclectic collection of guitars which also made it nearly worth the entrance ticket itself to see and hear them all played. Both Richard Hawley and Bernard Butler openly and genuinely support and campaign local music venues like the Firestation in Sunderland and the Leadmill in Sheffield and thanked the sell out crowd for supporting their local music scene. They implored us to support it where we can and how important it is to communities and artists such as themselves to be able to contribute. Let’s hope they both do their bit and return as soon as possible so we can undoubtedly sell out The Firestation once again.

Stewart Douglas