Richard Hawley

Richard Hawley (born 17.1.1967)

Richard Hawley is a British singer-songwriter and music producer. He first found fame as a member of the 1990s Britpop band Longpigs. He then found greater notoriety, however, as a solo artist and has released six solo albums.

Richard Hawley: Longpigs

Richard Hawley played guitar for the Sheffield band Longpigs. The other members of the band were Crispin Hunt on vocals, Simon Stafford on bass and Dee Boyle on drums. Boyle was formerly a member of Cabaret Voltaire.

Longpigs first found success with the release of their single 'She Said', which received extensive radio airplay from the likes of Jo Whiley and Steve Lamacq. The band's debut album, The Sun Is Often Out was released in 1996 and was well received. In their early days, they supported bands such as Supergrass, Echobelly and Radiohead.

In 1997, Longpigs toured America with Echo and the Bunnymen and Dandy Warhols, as well as opening for U2 on their PopMart world tour.

The band's popularity declined after the release of their second album, Mobile Home.

Richard Hawley: Life after Longpigs / Solo Career

After the demise of Longpigs, Hawley played guitar on tour with Pulp. It was a meeting at his house with Jarvis Cocker and Steve Mackey of Pulp that led Richard Hawley to launch a solo career. As a result of their encouragement, Hawley recorded his first solo release - a self-titled mini-album.

In 2001, Richard Hawley released Late Night Final, to great acclaim, if not the sales to match. Two years later, Lowedges was released. The album received a great deal of praise from publications such as NME and also topped an end-of-year poll conducted for Virgin Radio. Soon, he was cited by other popular acts such as R.E.M and Coldplay as a talented contemporary songwriter.

Richard Hawley's fourth release, Coles Corner, was initially delayed, due to legal problems, after he had signed to Mute Records (part of EMI). Coles Corner was nominated for the 2006 Mercury Music Prize. When Arctic Monkeys won the prize, their lead singer, Alex Turner, said "Someone call 999, Richard Hawley's been robbed."

The theme of referencing his hometown of Sheffield in his album titles continued with his next release, entitled Lady's Bridge, which is a bridge in the centre of the city. Amongst the merchandising that Hawley sold on his promotional tour were special edition bottles of Henderson's Relish (a vegetarian alternative to Worcester Sauce, which is made in Sheffield).

Richard Hawley was nominated for a BRIT Award, in the Best British Male Performer character.

His sixth studio album, Truelove's Gutter was released in September 2009.

Hawley has collaborated with a number of artists during his career, including Hank Marvin and Jarvis Cocker (and Jarvis' post-Pulp project Relaxed Muscle). He also played the guitar solo on the cover of Red Hot Chilli Peppers' 'Under The Bridge', that was released by All Saints. He also co-wrote 'Clean', a song on Robbie Williams' debut album Life Thru A Lens. He contributed to Nancy Sinatra's 2004 album, entitled Nancy Sinatra. He subsequently toured with her in 2005. On Elbow's 2008 album The Seldom Seen Kid, Richard Hawley can be heard singing and playing guitar on 'The Fix'.

Richard Hawley auditioned to be a guitarist in Morrissey's band, but lost out after singing an Elvis Presley song during the audition. Elvis' daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, sang onstage with Richard Hawley on a song called 'Weary'.

Hawley is staunchly proud of his working-class Sheffield roots and is an avid supporter of Sheffield Wednesday football club.