Sheffield star shines at Olympia in Dublin

Steel City serenader Richard Hawley has a wonderful new album out this week, In This City They Call You Love, although, as he jokes, “They call you other things in Sheffield as well”, which most to the sardine-packed crowd in Olympia. they haven’t heard yet. That doesn’t stop him from playing more songs from it, but nobody’s moving, because they’re great and Hawley is a hypnotic performer.

Resplendent in a pink-stained western shirt, dark glasses and perfectly tousled hair – like a young Elvis on a night out – Hawley is savvy enough to surround himself with a crack band that’s on fire on this first night of the tournament, apart from a warm-up in Wales. With a guitarist on either side, including longtime cohort Shez Sheridan and his own making three, it’s a sumptuous orchestra more than just a “rock band,” with more pedals on the floor than after a factory explosion in Raleigh. .

Orchestral is also the word for his remarkable canon of material. Opener “She Brings The Sunlight” features a psychedelic light show and paint-streaked solo. “Open Up Your Door” earns a roar for just its first chord and goes on to round out a sound so big it could be directed by Cecil B DeMille.

Hawley could have played anything from that enviable catalog and everyone would have smiled, but to hear him sing Morrissey-style ‘Tonight The Streets Are Ours’ was a special treat, as was ‘Don’t Stare At The Sun’ with a swirling guitar solo that shares a common ground with U2’s ‘Love Is Blindness’.

As he has said many times before, Hawley loves being in Ireland and has enjoyed interacting with worshippers, whether mishearing the age of a 15-year-old woman (“That’s the end!”) or questioning the request to someone for “God Save The King” (“Where are you from?!?”).

He dedicates a wonderful “Heavy Rain,” another instant classic from the new album, to his departed friend Steve Mackey and then, impossibly, gets even better for the encore. The drop of a needle would have sounded like a fire alarm during a quiet “People” and then unleashed the full scale, enveloping the listener in velvet, for a powerful “Ocean”.

“Dublin, you never let us down,” he tells us, but it’s actually Hawley who never lets us down.