“De nieuwe Hawley is intens, hypnotisch en ongeborsteld.” (Focus Knack)
“Eentje voor de eindejaarslijstjes.” (De Morgen)
“Een juweeltje van een gevoelig man in een wilde bui.” (Humo)

Richard Hawley from Sheffield played with Pulp for a while, at the side of his mate Jarvis Cocker. It was that same Cocker who convinced Hawley to take his own home-recordings seriously and to release them. That was in ’00. His album ‘Lowedges’ (’03) didn't provide an instant audience breakthrough but did earn him praise from the likes of Coldplay, Radiohead and R.E.M. In ’06, when Hawley saw his nomination for the famous Mercury Prize snatched from under his nose and go to The Artic Monkeys, Alex Turner responded publicly with: "Someone call 999, Richard Hawley's been robbed!" The mutual respect even resulted in collaboration (google: The Death Ramps).

His musical CV developed into one out of a thousand. Hawley’s ’06 album ‘Truelove’s Gutter’ was the ‘Record of the Year’, according to Mojo, en Banksy chose ‘Tonight The Streets Are Ours’ as the title track for his ‘Exit Through The Gift Shop’. In between all that, he readily worked with the likes of Robbie Williams, Nancy Sinatra and Elbow.

But, even so, the general public didn't yet fall for him in a big way. Hawley’s recent – again (inter)nationally praised – 7th album ‘Standing At The Sky’s Edge’ should finally bring about some change there. We can’t see a single reason why it shouldn't. The romantic ballads Hawley still croons are injected with a good dash of searing, sensational rock. Fans of Mark Lanegan: this is your thing! Hawley finally verges on a big breakthrough.

Support-act will be the band Smoke Fairies, acclaimed by Richard Hawley. “Frankly the best thing I have heard in years" he once said. Their folk and blues drenched sound also convinced Jack White, who had them record a single for his Third Man Records (as the first British band to do so). Bryan Ferry and Laura Marling are also fans and toured with them.