Richard Hawley’s album of rarities from thrift shops and old pub juke boxes

This year he won an Olivier Award for best Original Score with Standing At The Sky’s Edge which is his homage to his home town of Sheffield. The stage production will now open in the West End in 2024.

Richard was a member of Britpop band Longpigs then joined Pulp before going solo in 2001. This new compilation album features 28 rarities that he found in thrift shops, travels, family, friends and old pub juke boxes. Some are dance worthy and some just highlight the guitar above the melody and the set opens with Curtis Knight & the Squires from 1966 with Jimi Hendrix on guitar from a time he signed away his rights for a $1 advance.

It took until 2003 to sort the legalities out, and the estate has never released the record so only a few DJ copies exist. Co-written by Hendrix himself, his undermixed guitar battles away with a swirling Hammond organ at the forefront. Path Through The Forest by The Factory was written and sung by Pat Rollings in 1968 but is in fact the late pre-fame Clifford T Ward.

In the 1966 line up of The Shadows with John Rostill joining Bennett, Welsh and Hank Marvin we get the twangy guitar meeting Hoots Mon (Lord Rockingham’s XI) on Scotch On The Rocks which gloriously only reached 42 in the chart as ‘B’ side to The Dream I Dream. Dream Lover the million-seller written and performed by Bobby Darin is far removed from his political track Long Line Rider about unmarked graves that is included here and quite a rarity.

The Surf sound is never far away on this collection and while Quasimoto, a 1963 formulaic surfer from The Road Runners hits the spot while acts like Link Wray perfected the genre with his 1962 Poppin’ Popeye with just guitar, bass and very simple drums.