Some are built to lead and some to follow, but some – it seems – are made equally well for both. Ahead of his appearance at the Galway Arts Festival, Andrew Hamilton chats to Pulp guitarist Richard Hawley, Sheffield’s last working class hero.
“SOMEONE phone the police, Richard Hawley has just been robbed.” The cry from the stage at the 2006 Mercury Music awards as Alex Turner accepts the applause, and the award, for the Arctic Monkeys. But then the monkeys are good Sheffield boys, and like all good Sheffield boys they know their history. And over the last two decades, Richard Hawley has been a central part of that history. A self-proclaimed musical grafter, his rise in the public eye has come about slowly. Avoiding the lime- light, whether with the Longpigs or with Pulp, Hawley was always contented himself with a place in the background – a minor note. That is until now. “I wanted to record the music that was in my mind but I never really though that it would end up the way it has. At first I looked for a singer to work with – because I couldn’t find anyone with a deep enough voice for what I wanted – so I eventually ended up doing it myself by default,” said Hawley.
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