Richard Hawley

A slightly subdued set from RH tonight at Weston Park. Wearing shades, despite headlining a tent and going on at 10pm, he treated us to:

Valentine
Tonight The Streets Are Ours
Serious
Born Under a Bad Sign
Hotel Room
Just Like The Rain
Lady Solitude
Oh My Love
I'm Looking For Someone To Find Me
The Ocean

The band seemed to enjoy themselves and there was much laughter and knowing glances. Perhaps the oddest thing was that Shez, Colin, John and Dean had to set-up and soundcheck their own equipment, with only Richard having a guitar tech. There was no between song banter and none of the old jokes, just a professional performance, in what was perhaps one of the last shows of the 'Ladys Bridge' tour.

Wishing Richard and family an enjoyable and well deserved holiday.

RH did have the shiniest shoes though, whilst the rest of us were caked in mud from the knees down.

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Just like ringing a bell.

Helen, you live in Mytholmroyd do you? beautiful area of Yorkshire and birthplace of my literary hero

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http://www.myspace.com/lukemurcott

Welcome to the forum Helen. And may I just say that I appreciate your attention to detail

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The way your face could light the bitter dark of every street
In every town I'll ever go

That Ted bloke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

your powers of perception once again come to the fore

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http://www.myspace.com/lukemurcott

Get back in the knife drawer, you're too sharp to live!

Shiny shoes and a beautiful voice! I notice these things.

Mytholmroyd is quite beautiful, yes. Also we get twice the annual rainfall of Sheffield, I'm told.

I can't get the festival mud out of my turn-ups!

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Just like ringing a bell.

Thanks for the nice comments elsewhere, Helen & welcome! Mytholmroyd eh? Visited the place once-v lovely as you say. Hughes's poetry makes so much more sense once you've been there- the valley's as craggy as his rather splendid eyebrows were & as craggy as the poems. Although he was v delicate too. The Birthday Letters-all those poems to Sylvia Plath he kept private for decades & they're so sexy and tender (surprisingly so, given his reputation for being a poetic raptor). And he was bloody gorgeous too...froth, froth... :

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'The art of losing isn't hard to master
So many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster'

Elizabeth Bishop

http://nicholadeane.wordpress.com

Have you got the recent "Letters of Ted Hughes" book - i would buy it take it on holiday but it is a tad expensive at the moment.

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http://www.myspace.com/lukemurcott

Big gigs an all that, you just don't get the intimacy. It's not fair to expect a musician to be a sound balance engineer too especially in an alien environment and often pressed for time. On a similar note, most, if not all "warm up" acts in such live circumstances don't have the same engineers as the headline act and it shows. Folks forking out good hard cash should have at least a decent level of sound quality. Of course it depends where your placed, we were at the back to the right of the mixer at Holmfirth and the sound was not as sweet as the centre, someone must have been in the sweet spot ! sound wise ! not visually... girls.. young ladys or whatever !
Someone on the forum complained about some folks going for a piss too often and chatting....could have been me offending I'm Diabetic and one pint of lager = two pints of pee. The chatting was me explaining the Hawley thing to my brother and the sister in law....

Join your local library Luke - you can request the book and it won't cost you a penny!

no, i like to keep books.

once something is in my possession and it is something i enjoy i am reluctant to give it back.

the same goes for the books as well

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http://www.myspace.com/lukemurcott

The sound was actually spot on at V Festival. It just seemed like a very insular performance after the banter of Holmfirth. The most he said all gig was "Enjoy the rest of the festival" before leaving the stage, which was a little odd seeing as he finished at the same time as Muse, the final act of the weekend. Anybody seeing Richard for the first time may well have thought "nice songs, no stage presence", which we know is far from true.

It was the third gig in three days after a lot of travelling (and possibly much beer?) and I don't want to sound like I'm moaning, it was just totally different to the usual Hawley show. Lady Solitude was still gorgeous and Oh My Love as powerful as ever, it just seemed a touch flat and a little rushed, as if he had an imminent holiday It also felt like the end of the road in terms of the promotion of Ladys Bridge and in actual fact, the only gig left in the calendar is indeed the erm... End Of The Road festival. A break and then some time in the studio seems the perfect remedy. Then again, he could play a gig in Hicksville, UK in a fortnight and blow me away again.

A review is only one person's view and I'm just some cock from Manchester. Ho hum.

I think its more a case of Richard worrying people get full value for money than anything else - you either get the banter or the full song list - you can't have both in a set that is under half the length of a normal gig!

I know how upset he was at Garforth that his set was cut by 20 minutes so that the audience missed out on several songs!