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Richard Willis Hawley (born 17 January 1967) is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. After his first band Treebound Story (formed while he was still at school) broke up, Hawley found success as a member of Britpop band Longpigs in the 1990s. He played with Pulp, led by his friend Jarvis Cocker, as a touring musician for a short time. Alt URL As a solo musician, Hawley has released ten studio albums. He has been nominated for a Mercury Prize twice and once for a Brit Awards. He has collaborated with Lisa Marie Presley, Shakespears Sister, Arctic Monkeys, Manic Street Preachers, Elbow, Duane Eddy and Paul Weller.
While still at school, Hawley formed the Treebound Story and at the age of 19 recorded a Peel Session together with the band. Following the band's split, Hawley briefly formed the Lovebirds releasing a single record in 1992 before being recruited to be guitarist in the Longpigs in 1993. Hawley was a member of the Longpigs until the end of the decade receiving critical attention and some, but limited, commercial success during the late 1990s Britpop era. As a member of the Longpigs, Hawley released two albums, The Sun Is Often Out and Mobile Home. After the demise of the band, he joined Pulp as a touring guitarist while also working as a session musician. During his time with both bands he was able to "quietly hone" his songwriting skills, citing that "I was never really very good about bleating on about being a songwriter".
Hawley later commented that "I think with anybody's early stuff you can batter it and take things apart. With doing those early records I was trying to get back to a way of being creative with recording rather than taking this dogmatic approach to it". He admitted that he did not get "it right every time but I got what I wanted to achieve. It was to try and find something in the song. And also, with those early records, there was no money". Clash Magazine described it as "a rather brief burst of seven mid-paced, ’50s-flecked moments of Jangle pop. Listening back now, it’s easy to spot the early signs of the grandeur that was to come, especially on standout "Sunlight" amongst these tentative 22 and a half minutes". The cover of the album was shot in front of a bingo hall in Cleethorpes.
In 2001, Late Night Final, named after the cry of vendors selling the Sheffield Star evening newspaper on the streets of the city, was released to positive reviews from the press. Hawley later explained that prior to going into the sessions "all I'd got was the riff to "Baby, You're My Light" and that the majority of songs were written during the sessions. As an example he cited "The Nights Are Cold" that was done in one take after Cooke asked "look, we've got a gig tonight, are we doing this or what?". Clash magazine called it "a remarkably assured, often truly gorgeous, collection of warmly evocative lullabies" singling out the songs "Baby, You’re My Light" and "The Nights Are Cold" as "mesmerising". The album was produced by Alan Smythe.
Two years later Hawley released Lowedges, named after a suburb of the city. The NME called Lowedges the "first great album of 2003" and it topped an end-of-the-year opinion poll held by Virgin Radio. Of the two albums, he later stated that "as those three records progressed you can see the band thing taking over more and more. By the time you get to Lowedges there's less of me playing everything and there's more of the guys. I was determined for it to be very ragged-arsed and not to be really polished and produced".
Hawley's 2007 album Lady's Bridge (again named with a Sheffield reference, after a bridge in the centre of the city) was released in the United Kingdom on 20 August 2007. He performed a 16-date tour during September 2007 to promote the album. Merchandising on the tour included T-shirts and posters, but also special edition bottles of Sheffield-made Henderson's Relish. The same year, Hawley's father died after a long illness. Setanta re-released his self-titled debut in 2007 extending it with five additional tracks. He later commented that the release "altered the flow, there's a track on it called 'Troublesome Waters' which is a cover of a Howard Seratt song and it's the only time me and my dad featured together on a published recording. He plays rhythm guitar".
On 14 January 2008, Hawley was nominated for his first solo Brit Awards for Best British Male Performer.[2] Hawley was a headlining act at the 2008 Festival Internacional de Benicàssim in Spain. Hawley produced, with Colin Elliot, and contributed two songs to the album Made in Sheffield, a compilation of songs by the Sheffield-based songwriters for Tony Christie.
Truelove's Gutter, Hawley's fifth studio album, was released on Mute Records on 21 September 2009. The album won the Mojo record of the year.
His song "Don't Get Hung Up in Your Soul" was chosen as the Starbucks iTunes Pick of the Week for 17 November 2009. and "Open Up Your Door" featured as the soundtrack song to the Häagen-Dazs ice cream TV commercial in the UK.
Hawley's track "Tonight The Streets Are Ours" was chosen as the title track for the Oscar nominated 2010 Banksy film Exit Through the Gift Shop which premièred at the Sundance Film Festival on 24 January 2010. This song regained popularity in 2022 when it was featured in an ad for Royal Enfield motorcycles. His 2011 song "There's a Storm Coming" was used at the end of the film Brighton Rock.
"You And I" by Richard Hawley and The Death Ramps (aka Arctic Monkeys), was released as the B-side of the Arctic Monkeys' single "Black Treacle" on 23 January 2012.
In October 2014, his previous record company, Setanta, re-released the first three albums both on vinyl and CD. He also contributed a number of songs to the soundtrack of the documentary film Love Is All in 2014. In September 2015, Hawley released his seventh album Hollow Meadows.
A musical based on the album Standing at the Sky’s Edge premiered at the Sheffield Crucible Theatre in March 2019. It moved to London in February 2023 at the Olivier Theatre and subsequently transferred to the Gillian Lynne Theatre in the West End in February 2024. It won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical for 2023 and Hawley won award for best original score alongside collaborator Tom Deering.
In 2023 a compilation album, Hawley's first, was announced, titled Now Then. The album was both a 22-track double vinyl and 32-track double CD album featuring Hawley's own selection of key tracks and singles from throughout his solo career, including some songs re-recorded especially for this album.
Hawley's tenth studio album In This City They Call You Love was released in May 2024, and was preceded by three promotional singles: "Two for His Heels", "Heavy Rain", and "Prism in Jeans".
In 2002, Hawley produced the debut single "So Young" by Sheffield band Hoggboy, co-produced the band's two albums Or 8? and Seven Miles Of Love, co-wrote second album track "Hello", and also played on a cover version of Little Walter's "Come Back Baby", which was released as a B-side to the single "Believe". Hawley also produced material by lead singer Tom Hogg's next band The Hosts.
Praise from R.E.M.'s Mike Mills led to Hawley being approached to support the group on several concert dates in 2005. After contributing to Nancy Sinatra's 2004 self-titled album, Hawley supported her on a European tour in 2005 and duetted with her on several of the tour's concerts.
Hawley provided vocals for "Bad Woman", a B-side to Arctic Monkeys' single "Teddy Picker", released on 3 December 2007. He also co-wrote and provided vocals and guitar to the song "The Fix" on Elbow's Mercury Prize-winning 2008 album The Seldom Seen Kid. Hawley also performed the song with the band at the Glastonbury Festival in June 2008, on The Culture Show in June 2008, at Elbow's homecoming gigs in Manchester in 2008, Wembley Arena in March 2009, Blackpool's Empress Ballroom in March 2009 and at the MEN Arena in September 2009. He reprised his collaboration with Elbow on 17 January 2009 for a special recording of The Seldom Seen Kid with the BBC Concert Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios, which was subsequently released as a special edition CD and DVD set titled The Seldom Seen Kid Live at Abbey Road in March 2009. He appeared with Elbow on 19 March 2011 while the band were in Sheffield to perform "The Fix" during their UK tour.
Hawley's song "Baby, You're My Light" was included on the CD soundtrack for the 2008 film Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. Hawley himself made an appearance in the 2007 film Flick.
In October 2009, Hawley was joined on stage by Lisa Marie Presley in London for an encore; she sang vocals on a song the pair had been working on called "Weary". The two embarked on a song writing partnership in which Presley wrote the lyrics and Hawley the music. Presley's album, Storm & Grace, was released in 2012 and included the track "Weary" featuring Hawley.
Hawley worked again with Sheffield band Arctic Monkeys in January 2012, providing vocals for the "Black Treacle"'s B-side, "You And I", which was released on 23 January that year. The band usually used the alias of the Death Ramps when working in collaboration with Hawley. In 2024, Hawley featured on lap steel guitar on the track "Woke Up", which was written by Paul Weller and appeared on Weller's album 66.
| 1996 | The Sun Is Often Out | Longpigs | As band member Vocals, guitar | |
| 1997 | Life thru a Lens | Robbie Williams | Co-writer of "Clean" | |
| 1998 | Manna | The Spokesman | Guitar and harmonica | |
| 1999 | Mobile Home | Longpigs | As band member Co-writer, vocals, guitar | |
| 2001 | Richard Hawley | Himself | Mini album Writer, producer, vocals, lap steel and twelve-string guitars | |
| We Love Life | Pulp | Lap steel and twelve-string guitars | ||
| Late Night Final | Himself | Writer, co-producer, vocals, guitars, harmonica, piano, organ, glockenspiel, drums, mixing | ||
| Loud Like Nature | Add N to (X) | Guitar on "Sheez Mine" | ||
| 2002 | Len Parrot's Memorial Lift | Baxter Dury | Guitar on "Beneath the Underdog" | |
| "Bad Cover Version" | Pulp | Guitar on "Disco 2000" (Nick Cave version) | ||
| Total Lee! The Songs of Lee Hazlewood | Various artists | Guitar, keyboards on "The Cheat" (with Jarvis Cocker) | ||
| 2003 | The Last Great Wilderness | The Pastels | Soundtrack album Guitar | |
| Lowedges | Himself | Writer, co-producer, vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards, glockenspiel, vibraphone, lyre, drums, percussion, mixing | ||
| A Heavy Nite With... | Relaxed Muscle | Credited as "Wayne Marsden" Guitar | ||
| 2004 | Neveroddoreven | I Monster | Guitar | |
| Much More Than Much Love | Finley Quaye | |||
| A Girl Called Eddy | A Girl Called Eddy | Co-producer, backing vocals, guitars, keyboards, glockenspiel, vibraphone, lyre | ||
| Nancy Sinatra | Nancy Sinatra | Guitar, harmonica, lyre, vibraphone | ||
| Seven Miles Of Love | Hoggboy | Co-writer, additional producer, guitar | ||
| 2005 | Coles Corner | Himself | Writer, co-producer, vocals, guitars, keyboards, piano, glockenspiel, vibraphone, lyre, drums, percussion | |
| The Sweet Escape | Gwen Stefani | Guitar on "Wonderful Life" | ||
| Heights soundtrack | Various artists | Producer | ||
| 2006 | Poison Sweet Madeira | Sophie Solomon | Vocals, percussion | |
| Jools Holland | Jools Holland | Vocals on "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" | ||
| Jarvis | Jarvis Cocker | Guitars, background vocals, piano, lyre, celeste | ||
| Stephen Singleton | Stephen Singleton | Harp | ||
| The Silk Ripped Dress | Chicken Legs Weaver | Guitar on "Monday Man" | ||
| 2007 | Lady's Bridge | Himself | Writer, co-producer, vocals, guitars, keyboards, piano, glockenspiel, vibraphone, lyre, drums, percussion | |
| Jools Holland | Jools Holland | Vocals on "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" | ||
| "Teddy Picker" | Arctic Monkeys | Vocals on "Bad Woman" | ||
| 2008 | The Seldom Seen Kid | Elbow | Co-writer, guitar, vocals on "The Fix" | |
| Made in Sheffield | Tony Christie | Co-producer, guitars, bass, background vocals, piano, lyre, autoharp | ||
| 2009 | Electric Butterfly | Sally Doherty | Guitar on "Something More", vocals on "Milk And Honey" | |
| Truelove's Gutter | Himself | Writer, co-producer, vocals, guitars, bass, percussion | ||
| Further Complications | Jarvis Cocker | Guitar | ||
| Live at the Devil's Arse | Himself | Live album | ||
| Broken | Soulsavers | Co-writer, vocals on "Shadows Fall" | ||
| 2010 | Wake Up the Nation | Paul Weller | Remix of "Andromeda" (deluxe edition) | |
| 2011 | Road Trip | Duane Eddy | Co-writer (four tracks), co-producer, mixing | |
| 2012 | Storm & Grace | Lisa Marie Presley | Co-writer (three tracks) | |
| See | Pete Williams | Guitar | ||
| Standing at the Sky's Edge | Himself | Writer, co-producer, vocals, guitars | ||
| "Black Treacle" | Arctic Monkeys | Co-writer, vocals, guitar on "You and I" | ||
| "Time Doesn't Matter" | The Cuckoo Clocks | Co-writer | ||
| 2013 | Rewind the Film | Manic Street Preachers | Vocals, guitar on "Rewind the Film" | |
| The Conversation | Texas | Co-writer (seven tracks) | ||
| Vagrant Stanzas | Martin Simpson | Producer | ||
| 2014 | Love Is All | Himself | Soundtrack Writer, producer, vocals, instrumentation | |
| 2015 | Hollow Meadows | Himself | Writer, co-producer, vocals, guitars, lyre | |
| 2018 | Richard Hawley Live at the Devil's Arse 28 April 2017 | Himself | Live album | |
| Funny Cow | Himself | Soundtrack Writer, producer, vocals, guitar | ||
| True Meanings | Paul Weller | Remix of "The Soul Searchers" (deluxe edition) | ||
| 2019 | Further | Himself | Writer, vocals, guitars | |
| "When She Finds You" | Shakespears Sister | Vocals | ||
| 2021 | Hi | Texas | Co-writer (five tracks) | |
| 2023 | Asteroid City (Original Soundtrack) | Various artists | Co-writer (two tracks) | |
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