Slinging on the first of many guitars, Richard Hawley looked genuinely taken aback by the grandeur of London’s Somerset House and the huge crowd ahead of him.

“I can’t believe there’s so many of you. When we started out we played to no one!” he lamented before going all theatrical and demanding: “Let the music commence!”

What followed was the loudest version of ‘Standing At The Sky’s Edge’ I’ve ever heard. So loud infact, that we were forced to move from our smug front of stage location to about ten rows back.

Fans of Hawley have come to expect a mesmerizing set juxtaposed with his unique style of banter and he didn’t disappoint. If he wasn’t so good at this music lark, he could definitely consider a career in stand up.

“I’d get you a beer but they’re a fucking tenner aren’t they? I’ll get one and 5,000 straws,” scoffed Sheffield’s finest, who then launched into a trippy ‘Don’t’ Stare At The Sun’.

Crowd pleaser ‘Tonight The Streets Are Ours’ followed, which, he told his enthralled congregation, had been used in an “arty film” and also in The Simpsons. “I know which one I fucking prefer,” he laughed.

Throughout the gig Hawley swapped guitars continually as he took us on a journey through psychedelic tracks like ‘Leave Your Body Behind You’ to the more recognisable sounds of ‘Serious’ and ‘Open Up Your Door’ from earlier albums.

But he looked most in his element letting rip rockabilly style with his double base wielding pal Johnny Wood (at least I think that’s what he called him). Johnny also looked well chuffed.

After playing two jiving tracks with Johnny, he swapped the strawberry milkshakes mood for a turn towards the dark side again with a spine-tingling, ‘There’s a Storm Coming’.

Definitely a highlight judging by his now fully entranced crowd who were also lapping up watching velvet-voiced Hawley underneath the moonlight, with the atmospheric back-drop of this historical landmark.

Thanking everyone for paying to see him play and therefore keeping him in sociable aids like, er, booze, Hawley then belted out an all guns blazing version of, ‘The Ocean’, before heading off stage, presumably for a very expensive beer.

Jenna Good

@JennaGood