The underrated

Ask your friends if they’ve heard of Sheffield singer-songwriter Richard Hawley, and chances are they won’t have a clue. And yet, listening to his songs, you’ll feel as if you know them already. His melancholy love songs, bitter-sweet lyrics and references to the everyday details of life in his hometown evoke the best of Jarvis Cocker or Neil Hannon. On the 16th of this month he visits Sala Bikini to promote his latest album, Truelove’s Gutter.

Hawley has hovered on the edge of the limelight for the past two decades, forming part of Nineties’ Britpop group The Longpigs and playing guitar with Pulp. But it’s his recent solo work that has brought him closest to mainstream success. His highest-charting single, 2007’s ‘Tonight The Streets Are Ours’, peaked at number 40 in the UK charts, while the album it was taken from reached number six.

He may not have reached super-stardom, but Hawley’s music is hugely respected. He finally landed a Mercury Music Prize nomination for 2006 album Coles Corner, but lost out to the all-conquering Arctic Monkeys. Hawley at least got a nod from the band’s frontman and fellow Sheffield native Alex Turner. Accepting the award, he shouted, “Someone call 999, Richard Hawley’s been robbed!”