Having grown up in the shadow of the steel industry in Sheffield’s tough Pitsmoor district, Richard Hawley has needed plenty of old-fashioned Northern grit and determination to survive for 30 years in the music industry.
His rise to prominence has been slow but steady. Long before releasing his self-titled solo debut for Setanta in 2002, he played guitar for 80s indie-pop contenders Treebound Story; enjoyed a first taste of commercial success with Britpop-era quartet Longpigs (whose debut The Sun Is Often Out went Top 30) and played alongside his old chum Jarvis Cocker in Pulp between 1998-2002.
As a solo artist, Hawley’s commercial breakthrough came in 2005 with Coles Corner, which was nominated for the prestigious Mercury Music Prize; a feat his Parlophone debut Standing At The Sky’s Edge (which also charted at No 3) repeated in 2012. Recently released, Hawley’s eighth LP Hollow Meadows features sublime new material, including the lush, romantic I Still Want You and the dramatic Heart Of Oak; the latter partially inspired by Hawley’s friendship with British folk legend Norma Waterson.
His new record’s arrival can only enhance Hawley’s reputation as one of Britain’s most consummate contemporary singer/songwriters, but while the wider media want to know all about Hollow Meadows, Hawley, as much a music obsessive as you could hope to meet, prefers to celebrate the music that inspired him to pick up a guitar and join a band in the first place.
“I just love hunting for vinyl, I’ve been into it ever since I was a kid,” he enthuses. “I’ve got some insanely rare records, but it’s 7”s that I really love. It’s such a wonderful format, because it forces the artist to engage with their audience in a really immediate way. I can honestly say some of the happiest moments in my life have been spent browsing in record shops.”
Hawley grew up knee deep in vinyl. His father, Dave, and his uncle, Frank White, were avid record collectors and respected figures on the Sheffield music scene during the 60s. An in-demand guitarist, White reputedly played a twin-neck guitar before Jimmy Page, while Dave Hawley featured in local bands including The Black Cats and put together pick-up bands to back legendary names such as Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson when they toured the UK. Richard inherited their love of the blues and 50s rock’n’roll, but genres as diverse as Northern soul, garage punk and rockabilly also feature heavily in the eclectic personal Top 31 he’s chosen for RC from a vast collection of over 5,000 45s.
“They are all favourites, but I don’t like the idea of genres and pigeonholing styles, so it’s a very varied selection,” he says. “It’s just the joy of playing records to make people happy that does it for me. I love DJing and when I play records, I like to cross-fertilise different styles by picking out one of my boxes of 45s at random. Though I thoroughly enjoy DJing I only play what I like, so be warned – don’t ask me to DJ at your wedding if you want The Beatles, The Bee Gees or Agadoo!”
Here, Richard picks out his Top 31 records that move him or influenced him in some way. We’ve priced them up, but make no mistake: for Richard it’s all about the music, not the money. The words below are all his.
31 BIG BUDDY LUCAS I Can’t Go (Caprice CAPRICE 120, 1963) £25
When I was in Boston, I found this little basement store with a sign saying they had a million singles in stock. Seeing my reaction, my tour manager groaned. He knew I’d be there all day and warned me to be at the venue for soundcheck.
I did stay there all day and eventually the store manager produced some sandwiches because he thought I needed to eat something! I got all Lee Hazlewood’s back catalogue in there for about 30 cents each and I thought I was robbing the guy, but he told me no one wanted these wonderful records anymore! Anyway, this Big Buddy Lucas record was in among loads of titles I got from that shop. I just love his huge vocal and the amazing baritone guitar part. I’m a huge fan of (Alabama-born saxophonist, vocalist and harmonica player) Big Buddy Lucas and even have some 78s. I’ve since got an original pressing of this, and it’s in my most prized record box which sits there with a machine gun nest trained on it!
30 TENNESSEE ERNIE FORD & ELLA MAE MORSE WITH CLIFFIE STONE’S ORCHESTRA False-Hearted Girl (Capitol 2215, 1955; B-side of I’m Hog-Tied Over You) £15
This is also in my ultimate singles box and it’s the original 7”. Tennessee Ernie Ford became like a film star representation of the US folk/country scene – he was years ahead of the pack. I also like his best-known hit from 1955, Sixteen Tons, and lots more. He also recorded a solo version of False-Hearted Girl which is OK, but there’s something about this version. The combination of Ernie and (Texan-born singer) Ella Mae, it’s really feisty and playful – like a forerunner of Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra. What more do you want – the moon on a stick?
29 FRANKIE LEE SIMS Walking With Frankie (Ace 527, 1957) £25
My copy is in good condition and I got it about 10-15 years ago. Frankie Lee Sims was one of the great down-home blues men from Texas and Lightnin’ Hopkins’ cousin! I love Walking With Frankie because it sounds like it’s come straight outta the church. It’s got this one-note groove and it’s so raw and rough; like a Bo Diddley groove. The vocal’s a call-and-answer workout; the sort of thing that might once have been heard in the cotton fields. It’s not straight blues, it’s like proto-rockabilly, but it defies all genres.
28 LITTLE WALTER Up The Line (Checker 1043, 1963) £20
I’ve loved Little Walter since childhood. I first bought one of his records from a family store in Sheffield called Bradley’s when they were closing down. I got totally hooked on Little Walter after that. He was the first person to amplify his blues harp and his playing makes me think of a saxophone from outer space. On Up The Line, though, he plays a chromatic acoustic harmonica and they’re incredibly hard to play. Bending a note on one’s like bending a fucking iron bar! I’ve said this before but I think Little Walter’s the Charlie Parker of the blues. If the groove on this song doesn’t move you, then forget it – you’re dead!
27 THE HO-DADS Honky (Imperial 6601, 1963) £30
Honky is reputedly one of Jimmy Page’s favourites and you can hear why as the baritone fuzz guitar riff it’s built around is just way ahead of its time. It sounds like a forerunner of Led Zeppelin’s How Many More Times. It’s primitive, yet – like a lot of records made at this time – it’s probably actually greater because of the limitations of the technology then available.
26 LITTLE BOB I Got Loaded (LA Louisianne, LL 80671965; B-side of Nobody But You) £35
I Got Loaded is a party classic and popular on the Northern soul circuit. I first heard it in a club called The Hideaway in Manchester about 25 years back and then spent ages tracking my copy down. It leans towards where soul was going at the time; there’s a bit of a Cajun influence and the lyrics are pitiless. Little Bob (real name Camille Bob, who died on 6 July 2015) is drunk on gin, whiskey and wine in the song and he sounds like he doesn’t care one bit. It’s nihilistic, yet the lyric goes against the grain because the music is so joyful. I love this song so much I wrote to the label and asked if they had plans to reissue it. Their succinct one-word reply came back: “No!”
25 JOHN LEE HOOKER Think Twice Before You Go (Bluesway BL 61017, 1968, B-side of Backbiters & Syndicators) £20I’ve got the original pressing on Bluesway in the standard company sleeve. The harmonica playing and that simple groove are astonishing. It’s got the spirit of Chicago and when I hear it, I always think of Chicago’s Maxwell Street with the market and the place where John Lee Hooker’s playing in the street during that famous scene in The Blues Brothers. The first time I was in Chicago it was a Saturday afternoon and I got a cab down there. I loved it because it was just like I imagined it would be, but when I was last there the whole area had been knocked down and it was just a vacant lot. I wept!
24 ELMORE JAMES Done Somebody Wrong (Fire 1031, 1961, also on The Best Of Elmore James, Sue ILP 918, 1965) £70
I confess I don’t have the original of this one, though I do have some of Elmore’s other titles on Fire, including Rollin’ & Tumblin’. I’ve got Done Somebody Wrong on a Charly EP, but then “reissue” isn’t a dirty word for me. I just love collecting regardless. This is just a killer track. It’s really soulful, it’s got this machine-gun staccato rhythm and feels like there’s a lot of New Orleans in there. I DJed at a wedding in North Wales recently and this was the first track I played. I didn’t know if they’d be a crowd who’d want this kind of thing, so it was risky, but I thought if I play this and they get it, then I’m in business. It brought all 500 guests onto the dancefloor and they stayed there all night.
23 CHUCK BERRY Dear Dad (Chess CRS 8012, 1965) £10
Chuck Berry needs no introduction. What can you say about one of the finest lyricists, guitarists and performers known to rock’n’roll that hasn’t been said? I picked Dear Dad partly because it’s got loads of raw energy and also because of the sting in the tail in the lyric, where the protagonist’s writing to his Dad wanting a new car – a classic Chuck Berry theme – but eventually it turns out the guy’s actually Henry Ford’s son writing to his old man. It’s great, and the way it all culminates is really clever.
22 JOHNNY HORTON Lover’s Rock (Columbia 4-41043, 1957) £15
Johnny Horton’s well-known for his massive country-inclined hits such as The Battle Of New Orleans, and of course his wife, Billie Jean, was formerly married to Hank Williams! But Horton also recorded lots of pioneering honky-tonk rockabilly such as Lover’s Rock. There’s a hell of a guitar solo on it from Grady Martin, who along with Nashville A-Team session men Bob Moore (bass) and Buddy Harman (drums) all played on Johnny Burnette’s records. I also love the way the drums are right up front. You can hear the way the R&B influence was coming in and changing the way country records were then beginning to sound.
21 VINCE TAYLOR & HIS PLAYBOYS Brand New Cadillac (Parlophone R4539, 1959; B-side of Pledgin’ My Love) £60
As with Chuck Berry, this requires no introduction and of course it reached a whole new audience when The Clash covered it on London Calling. But I still love Vince Taylor’s version. He’s underrated in a big way. I covet my copy of this. It’s still in amazingly good condition and it was formerly my dad’s.
20 SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON Trying To Get Back On My Feet (Checker 1065, 1963) £20
Some of Sonny Boy Williamson’s later tracks – Help Me for example – have become mod/Northern staples, but I’m wary of genres. I think this is a really playful record, though his lyrics always grab me. They’re very shrewd; streetwise, but with a sort of mystical quality, like they’re wrapped up in voodoo. My dad worked with him. He was in the group backing Sonny when he played in Sheffield once. Sonny wouldn’t go onstage until he had a bottle of whisky, which eventually necessitated the band getting in the van and having to nick a 40-year old bottle of Laphroaig from my grandad!
19 JOHN LEE HOOKER Money (Impulse IMP 242, 1966) £35
A second John Lee Hooker selection, but probably there should be far more. I appreciate this Berry Gordy song’s been covered by everyone from The Beatles to The Flying Lizards, but there’s something special about John Lee Hooker’s take on it. It just pounds along. It goes straight down my spine and makes me wanna drink, fight, fuck… all the essential human responses!
18 THE T-BONES No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach’s In) (Liberty LIB 55836, 1965) £12
I originally thought this was used in an ad for toothpaste, but apparently it was for Alka-Seltzer! Anyway, it’s a great record regardless, even if it’s too arch to be innocent and if Hal Blaine’s on drums, the chances are the rest of the other LA session aces may also feature. I don’t know, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Carole Kaye’s playing bass and Glenn Campbell’s on the 12-string guitar. It’s got elements of mod, soul and rockabilly, but it defies genres. I’ve only got quite a scuffed-up 7” of this which I bought from a great shop called Beatniks on Magdalen Street in Norwich.
17 BUDDY & EDNA No Change (Savoy 1548, 1958) £15
I’m conscious that I don’t have as many female voices as I might in this list, though I like many female singers and Edna McGriff is up there with the best for me. She’s duetting with Big Buddy Lucas here and their voices are fantastic together. It’s got this amazing double snare drum sound and I like the song’s steady pace. It’s not hell for leather; it’s a stroller, you might say. It’s a tune that doesn’t feature on many R&B compilations to the best of my knowledge and it certainly took me forever to track the 7” down.
16 BB KING My Baby’s Coming Home (ABC-Paramount 10334, 1962) £5
Like Chuck Berry, you’re spoilt for choice with BB King, he recorded such a wealth of great music, but I particularly love My Baby’s Coming Home. It’s partly because his guitar solo’s such a stinger, but also because the song itself is so relentlessly joyful. Happy records are often shit, but this one’s just totally life-affirming. If his baby’s coming home, from the sound of this, she won’t be keeping her underwear on for long!
15 DICK DALE & HIS DEL-TONES Jungle Fever (Deltone, 45-5018-1, 1961, promo only) £7
I’ve got an original promo copy of this one on Dick Dale’s own Deltone imprint. It’s really battered, but it plays a dream and I picked it up for peanuts. When I first heard it, I thought it was outrageous… like Bo Diddley on acid, though it’s also got a flute on it, but don’t let that put you off! Dick Dale’s not called the king of the surf guitar for nothing – he really lets rip on this and for me it remains one of his very best.
14 BILLY LEE RILEY Parchman Farm (from In Action EP, Disques Vogue INT 18124, 1966) £35
Billy Lee Riley is best known for his 50s-era Sun recordings; rockabilly tracks such as Flying Saucer Rock’n’Roll, but he was actually very consistent and continued to make great music during the 60s without ever getting the recognition he deserved. This is from a fake live EP on a French label where the audience was later dubbed on. Parchman Farm was written and reputedly first recorded by Bukka White (as Parchman Farm Blues) in around 1940. It’s been covered many times and it’s a great prison song about a guy shooting his wife. The lyric’s really nasty and pitiless. The protagonist’s attitude is basically: “So, I shot my wife, it wasn’t another man, so why am I doing time here?” so it’s hard to feel any sympathy for him!
13 THE BLUE RONDOS Baby I Go For You (Pye 7 N 15734, 1964, B-side of Little Baby) £30
I used to wonder if my copy was an acetate because it’s pressed on really heavy vinyl and a tan-coloured label with hardly any information and the ink bleeding into it. There’s not much care been taken with it. Baby I Go For You is Joe Meek at his very best. There’s so much cross-pollination going on… the rockabilly influence; classic 60s organ sound and that insane proto-freakbeat fuzz guitar, rumoured to be by Jimmy Page (though it’s not, it’s Roger Hall). How Meek achieved the production quality he did working out of that tiny studio on the Holloway Road is mind-boggling. The word “genius” gets bandied around too much, but it’s apt where Joe Meek’s concerned.
12 TIM ROSE I Got A Loneliness (CBS CBS 3277, 1968) £30
I was lucky enough to encounter Tim Rose’s first LP (Tim Rose, which features this track) when I was very young and it’s mind-blowing. The band on it – including a young Bernard Purdie on drums – are superb and there are so many great tracks. Morning Dew is a belter and there are some lovely ballads such as Come Away Melinda and I’m Gonna Be Strong. I Got A Loneliness draws me in because there’s no pity in the lyric and it’s such a powerful, well-produced song.
11 THE SHADOWS Scotch On The Socks (Columbia DB8034, 1966, B-side of Hank Marvin’s The Dream I Dream) £30
I’m a big Shadows fan and I think Hank Marvin’s massively underrated. I always think if they hadn’t worked in light entertainment so much they’d be remembered in a more positive light and be seen as a much more ground-breaking band. On Scotch On The Socks, Hank uses a DeArmond pedal, which was first used by Chet Atkins on Chet Atkins In The Studio. Jimmy Page then got one, then my dad and Uncle Frank. It’s likea precursor to the wah-wah, but it’s on a ball and doesn’t move up and down. I play my dad’s on Open Up Your Door, from my LP Truelove’s Gutter.
10 THE RUMBLERS Don’t Need You No More (Downey D-103, 1963, B-side of Boss; reissued as London HLD 9684) £40
The Rumblers were pretty obscure. They were a bit like The Sonics in that visually they looked quite clean-cut, but their music was really dirty and far out. They were basically a proto-garage band and did their thing well. You can hear where The Cramps got Garbageman when you hear this record’s A-side, Boss, but I prefer the flip. It’s got a really ferocious vocal supplied by their drummer Adrian Lloyd.
9 ALBERT KING Oh, Pretty Woman (Stax STX-10594, 1966; included on King Of The Blues Guitar; Atlantic 588173, 1969) £40
A monster record. If you listen to the melody, it’s obvious (The Doors’) Robby Krieger probably heard it before he wrote Maggie M’Gill (from Morrison Hotel) as they’re very similar. I’ve got the original of this with a beautiful blue label. Albert King was a phenomenal guitarist; he usually played a Gibson 345 and he just rips into this song. It’s so beautiful, it makes me wanna burn a village!
8 RON WRAY LIGHT SHOW Speed (Eceip, PS-1000, 1970) £50
Obscure New York State garage-punks. I love this primarily for the insane wah-wah guitar. You think it’s going to go somewhere else entirely, then it briefly stops and there’s this really inept drum fill (laughs) and then you can just feel the first 10 rows of the audience’s faces’ melting as the fuzz guitar riff kicks in. Stunning stuff and rare as a hen in a dentist’s chair.
7 PAPA LIGHTFOOT Mean Old Train (Savoy 1161, 1961) £7
I don’t know all that much about (Mississippi-born) Papa Lightfoot. I discovered him though (Richard Hawley band) drummer Dean Beresford, who played me this track. I loved it, Googled it and picked up a copy about six years back. I don’t like some of his stuff, I find it quite slow and turgid, but Mean Old Train is definitely a boss tune. It’s just drums, guitar and harmonica and he’s singing through the harmonica mic. A classic train song.
6 SMILEY LEWIS She’s Got Me Hook, Line & Sinker (Imperial IM-1057, 1956) £7
People recall Smiley Lewis for I Hear You Knocking, popularised by Dave Edmunds. But like Fats Domino – who also recorded the song – he recorded for Imperial and Dave Bartholomew wrote for them both. Lewis’ voice is outrageous on this. He’s already up to what you think’s the top of his range and then he goes right up again. He was also a great ballad singer, though, so he had way more in the tank than just standard R&B.
5 LES BROWN JNR Swingin’ & Surfing (GNP Crescendo GNP 191, 1963; also on Wildest Drums Yet; Vocalion VA 8011, 1963) £15
In one way, this is as cheesy as fuck, but that knockout fuzz guitar sound and Brown’s monstrous, Sandy Nelson-esque drums. There’s a brilliant cross-pollination of styles in there. I’ve got this in a picture sleeve and Les Brown looks so scarily clean-cut, but don’t be fooled, there’s a lot going on here.
4 DOCTOR ROSS Cat Squirrel (Fortune, 857-F221, 1961; reissued on Northwood NW 45004) £8/£20
Isiah ‘Doctor’ Ross was a one-man band, playing guitar, drums and harmonica simultaneously. I first heard him on a great compilation LP called The Blues Come Down From Memphis (Charly, 1977) a wonderful collection of pre-Elvis recordings from Sun. His Chicago Breakdown (recorded as Cat’s Squirrel by Cream on Fresh Cream) is better known, but I prefer this. The one-note groove’s so hypnotic it’s like it’s on a loop, like a proto-sample.
3 JIMMY McCRACKLIN Get Together (Minit MLF 11003, 1968, B-side of How Do You Like Your Love) £10
I can get pretty evangelical about Jimmy McCracklin. Everyone knows him for [his 1957 hit] The Walk and it’s OK, but like Booker T & The MG’s’ Green Onions, it’s ended up defining him, so he gets called a one-hit wonder, which is grossly unfair. He was a really prolific creator, writer and producer and most of his work is phenomenal. I love the vibe on Get Together; his voice is so powerful and I like it that the drums don’t swing like they should on a soul record. The beat sounds like Queen’s We Will Rock You speeded up, but it works perfectly.
2 NOBODY’S CHILDREN Good Times (Gasoline Powered Clock GPC 1944, 1967) £35
This one of my absolute favourite records. I first heard it on Get Primitive! The Best Of Pebbles Vol 1 (Ubik, 1986) and it’s one of the most sarcastic, cynical records ever made. I’ve since tracked down the original 7” with the green GPC label. It’s just ferocious. The manic laughter on it… it’s like the singer (Al Schramm’s) hair’s on fire or something and the way he sounds like he’s sticking two fingers up at everything! They were a short-lived garage band from Texas and this is just the total antithesis of that whole lame San Francisco hippy stuff dominating 1967. It’s closer in spirit to the venom John Lydon would be spitting out a decade later.
1 BIG MAMA THORNTON Wade In The Water (Arhoolie 45-420, 1968, B-side of Ball & Chain) £35
This is arguably my favourite record on the list. The Ramsey Lewis version is far better known and both Billy Preston and Herb Alpert have covered it, but for me this is the one. It’s partly because her vocal’s stunning and it’s a transcendent recording, but it’s also for personal reasons. When my sister got married, it was the happiest day of her life, but mine too as I gained a brother-in-law, Lee Radforth, who has the same passion for record collecting. I couldn’t get this 7” for love nor money, but Lee somehow acquired it for me for Christmas and it remains one of my most treasured possessions to this day. Thank you Lee!
