大象传媒

Hawley played his first gig at the tender age of 12. Ok, it was a family wedding but only two years later he found himself on a tour of Europe.

Soon after Hawley tasted fame with Treebound Story in the '80s gaining recognition from the late great John Peel, and before his solo career tasted fame with The Longpigs and of course Pulp.

New material

Vicars Row is the B side for the first single off the album, and as Richard told us the song's name hails from the road on which he grew up in Firth Park:

"It's kind of supposed to be a song about happier times, before my dad got made redundant at the steelworks, and when he was still in full employment.

On the other version of the single release are live versions of I Sleep Alone and Coming Home, recorded at Sheffield City Hall. A gig which Richard remembers fondly:

"That's one of the favourite gigs we've ever played. Playing Sheffield, and then to sell the City Hall out, we could have sold it out two nights running.

"For the people of Sheffield to actually pay their hard earned money to come and see us, was just such a buzz, it really was. I don't take things like that for granted, or take it lightly.

"It was such an electrifying night, the atmosphere was amazing, but yeah that was probably my favourite gig of all time and I've played quite a few."

Tonight The Streets Are Ours

"It's kinda about reclaiming the streets for us. I watched this programme which was all about councilors and politicians slapping each other on the back because they'd cleared the streets of this anti-social behaviour problem.

"I wanted to kick the telly in... I proper wanted to show it in it made me so angry, because this piece of paper just imprisons people, and mainly children. I don't condone a lot of the behaviour 'cause it's not right, but there has to be a different way to show them how to behave.

"I was brought up in Pitsmoor and I never thieved anything, maybe the odd song idea [laughs]... but you don't want to be a little old lady getting kicked up in the air and is afraid to walk the streets, and it's just about that really."

The album

"I started on it on January 3rd, and finished it... relatively quickly [laughs]. They [songs] kind of pop into your head at really odd times, the best time is night time when I should be sleeping.

"But they come at really odd times, like when I'm washing pots... Coles Corner, I wrote that pushing the kids on the swings in Endcliffe Park... er not very convenient.

"There's one song on the album, I'm Looking For Someone To Find Me it's called, I wrote in a tour bus in Norway in snow. That was a classic, we had to pull up and I had to sing into this dictaphone, that was quite good."

• Richard releases The Streets Are Ours on 6 August, and the album Lady's Bridge is out on 20 August.
• He will be touring the country, including a performance at Sheffield City Hall on 12 September. Check his website for more details.