CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
In This City They Call You Love.
That city, of course, is Sheffield,
and that is the home of this next extraordinary artist,
Richard Hawley!
# Here is the story of a prism in jeans
# The words are blurred and the colours bleed
# To belong
# Oh, to belong
# She is the spectrum, she is the light
# She is the shadow, the mysterious night
# To belong
# She don't belong
# There is an epic loneliness
# That you just can't hide when you just can't fit
# Or belong
# Oh, to belong
# To belong
# She don't belong
# The wind blows forward and the wind blows back
# Catch the first train smoking and never look back
# I'll be gone
# I don't belong
# I'm trying to get where I understand
# I'm counting stars and I'm counting sand
# To belong
# I don't belong
# There is an epic loneliness
# That you just can't hide but you just can't fix
# To belong
# I don't belong
# She has an ocean's loneliness
# That there is no tide and there is no ship
# To belong
# She don't belong
# To belong
# She don't belong. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Thank you.
Beautiful voice and songs
of a beautiful man, Richard Hawley.
Who are our guests this evening? A room full of marvellous people.
From Birmingham, I'll be chatting to Dr Mykaell Riley!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
From Somaliland, it's Sahra Halgan!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
From South Indiana, Stephen Wilson Jr!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
From California, Remi Wolf!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
But now, from Yorkshire, we're delighted to welcome
Nia Archives!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# What's meant for me won't pass me by
# Kind of like when you give me the eye
# My lover, please, don't make me cry
# Don't want to find the good in bye
# When you get distant, I don't pry
# Unfinished business, I know why
# My lover, please, don't make me cry
# Don't want to find the good in bye
# I got a feeling that you have
# Unfinished business somewhere else
# I understand and give you grace
# Nobody comes with a clean slate
# You only kiss me late at night
# Somehow that proves my thinking right
# I got a feeling that you have
# Unfinished business somewhere else
# Somewhere else
# Somewhere
# Ooh
# Yeah, I
# I got a feeling that you have
# Unfinished business somewhere else
# I understand and give you grace
# Nobody comes with a clean slate
# You only kiss me late at night
# Somehow that proves my thinking right
# I got a feeling that you have
# Unfinished business somewhere else
# Decode every word that's said
# We get so inside our own head
# Deep breath, no need for defence
# This life really don't make no sense
# Decode every word that's said
# We get so inside our own head
# Deep breath, no need for defence
# This life really don't make no sense
# Got a feeling that you have
# Unfinished business somewhere else
# Got a feeling that you have
# Unfinished business somewhere else
# Got a feeling that you have
# Unfinished business somewhere
# Got a feeling that you
# Oh
# I got a feeling that you have
# Unfinished business somewhere else
# I understand and give you grace
# Nobody comes with a clean slate
# You only kiss me late at night
# Somehow that proves my thinking right
# I got a feeling that you have
# Unfinished business somewhere else. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Thank you, Nia Archives.
APPLAUSE
The wonderful Nia Archives with Unfinished Business
from her debut album, Silence Is Loud.
In a moment, I'm going to be chatting to Dr Mykaell Riley,
who's curated an extraordinary exhibition at the British Library.
But first, let's see him in 1978 with his band, Steel Pulse.
# Babylon is falling
# It was foolish to build it on the sand
# Handsworth shall stand, firm - like Jah rock
# Fighting back
# We once beggars are now choosers
# No intention to be losers
# Striving forward with ambition
# And if it takes ammunition
# We rebel in Handsworth
# Revolution
# Handsworth revolution
# Handsworth revolution. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Steel Pulse.
The Golders Green Hippodrome in 1978.
And that brings us to our guest, Dr Mykaell Riley.
Welcome to the show, Mykaell. Nice to have you here.
APPLAUSE
Nice to see you. Thank you. Yes.
You have now...
First of all, can you remember Steel Pulse in Golders Green in 1978?
Can you remember all of that?
You're asking a lot! Yeah!
Vaguely. Vaguely.
There's parts of that which are really clear
and parts which are just fog.
You've become a producer, an academic,
and most recently have curated a wonderful exhibition
at the British Library in London.
What is it an exhibition of?
Well, let me contextualise it in this way, the exhibition,
Beyond The Bassline,
which I share the curation actually with Aleema Gray,
it's looking at 500 years of African Caribbean contributions
to British music within this location.
And it attempts to curate an alternative story
as to what this contribution was, some of the key players
and the types of music that they contributed,
where and when and the impact it has had on the UK.
500 years is going back a very long time.
What is the first black music in Britain
that you've managed to record?
Well, we are actually looking at contributors, as well as the music.
And the first person that we were able to evidence in that period,
which is really Tudor Britain, it's the 16th century,
is a character called John Blanke who was a trumpeter for Henry VIII.
So this is part of Hampton Court history.
He is the character amongst four other trumpeters
that you will have seen on tournament roll.
And the only character, in terms of a musician,
that we have evidence of from that period.
So it's a really important start point.
And he managed to convince the King at the time,
or a petition around his performances in payment,
to write a letter guaranteeing him payment.
And it's that evidence that allowed us to start at that point in time.
Is it something very special and personal to you
to want to make this exhibition?
Absolutely. I think it's important as a storyteller,
because that's what we are as musicians as well,
to tell your story.
So this is a story about Africans and Caribbeans
and their contribution to the UK.
And that is also my story.
And what sort of things and people can we see in the exhibition?
Well, this ranges from as early as the Fisk Jubilee Singers coming over
as one of the first touring kind of gospel outfits,
through to classical musicians like Samuel Coleridge Taylor
or Bridgetower.
And we identify these individuals
because of their specific contributions.
We come forward into jazz.
We look at various musicians within that narrative.
We highlight clubs, like Ronnie Scott's for example.
We highlight the BBC because of their contribution to jazz
and capturing certain musicians.
But also, we travel regionally to places like Wales.
We highlight Patti Flynn for example,
who at one point was as famous as Shirley Bassey.
And we come forward through the '50s, '60s, the '70s,
highlighting all the genres from ska to rocksteady to reggae,
into our own lovers rock.
And we travel through that into our own British funk,
British responses to American rap in terms of jungle,
trip hop, two-step, garage, UK garage.
It goes on right through to grime.
So it's a difficult jigsaw to put together, but that is the story.
One of the people who features in it of course is Winifred Atwell,
who I was a great fan of.
And she used to perform here for the BBC, actually.
We've got nice photographs of her here.
And of course, she remains the only female instrumentalist
to ever top the charts in the UK with an instrumental track.
Why was Winifred an important figure?
I think... Well, she was an important figure in my household.
It's music that my dad would play because at one point
she is the only black musician on British television,
on British radio.
But also, I think as a female, she stood out.
She is our first million seller, or multimillion seller in the mid-'50s.
She was a classical player
that then diverted into honky-tonk as her style,
but also it was her ability to just play,
I think wonderfully dexterously,
and to attract and maintain the attention of the audience.
And to also have the popular appeal,
where she played and everybody would be transfixed.
It was somehow not rarefied, which is very unusual.
There were very few instrumentalists, great instrumentalists,
popular instrumentalists and she was one of them.
She made it almost throwaway. It was casual.
It was almost at one point the pub piano gone upmarket.
And it initially looked like a pub piano
because that is the instrument, on occasions,
the upright piano rather than this grand thing here,
that she is performing on.
But it happens in a period, this is just pre rock and roll as well.
She is the star of the moment and she was from Trinidad
and so for the African Caribbean community in Britain,
this was amazing, to see a black face on television.
You'd get called into the room. "Look, it's Winifred."
So it was certainly in our house one of the first introductions
to successful popular music.
Let's have a little look at Winifred Atwell in 1958.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
The wonderful Winifred Atwell.
I'm here with Dr Mykaell Riley, talking about the fantastic
exhibition which is on at the British Library at the moment.
You can go in for free on a Wednesday.
There's so much stuff, really, when you think about it.
All the people like you say, Hutch in the 1930s.
Ska and reggae music. There is so much stuff. It's been great talking to you.
The exhibition, as we say, is at the British Library at the moment.
It's an amazing place, the British Library, isn't it?
Can I just say the name of the exhibition? Yes, please do.
It's Beyond The Bassline.
If you don't know where the library, it's King's Cross, and it's a must visit.
I am looking forward to that. Thank you, Dr Mykaell Riley.
Excellent exhibition.
Which I can't recommend enough.
APPLAUSE
So you can see Beyond The Bassline at the British Library
in King's Cross right now.
Next, we go over to this corner and we welcome an artist
who is about to release her second album - Big Ideas.
And she will make a Glastonbury debut at the end of this month.
We welcome Remi Wolf.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# I can be yellow
# I can be orange by the afternoon
# And I'm purple
# So quick when I switch it up
# Hurtful to mellow
# I can be anything I wanted to
# Any colour of the rainbow
# Yeah, me and the boys in the hotel lobby
# Low tide, moon's so bright
# Moving my hips from left to right
# My, my, check my phone
# Feel it in my belly when you're driving home like
# Low tide, moon's so bright
# Moving my hips from left to right
# My, my, check my phone
# Feel it in my belly when you're driving home like
# Like Cinderella making babies on the company's dime
# We're making pennies out of paper
# Better find a new slime
# Me and the boys in the hotel lobby
# Is there something wrong with the way that I'm designed?
# I can't find comfort in anything
# Yeah
# Should I change, should I leave myself behind?
# And buy a boat to a private island
# Baby girl
# Won't you dry your eyes?
# Don't stress because you're doing it right
# What they say
# Anything at all
# Don't need a thing because you're in control
# Oh-oh-oh-oh
# I can be orange by the afternoon
# And I'm purple
# So quick when I switch it up
# Hurtful to mellow
# I can be anything I wanted to
# Any colour of the rainbow
# Yeah, me and the boys in the hotel lobby
# Low tide, moon's so bright
# Moving my hips from left to right
# My, my, check my phone
# Feel it in my belly when you're driving home like
# Low tide, moon's so bright
# Moving my hips from left to right
# My, my, check my phone
# Feel it in my belly when you're driving home like
# Like Cinderella making babies on the company's dime
# Ooh
# We're making pennies out of paper
# Better find a new slime
# Me and the boys in the hotel lobby
# Me and the boys in the hotel lobby. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Remi Wolf!
APPLAUSE
The wonderful Remi Wolf.
Next, an artist who started his career as a boxer
but then brilliantly turned his hand to music.
With a song from his debut album, Son of Dad,
please welcome Stephen Wilson Jr.
APPLAUSE
# I must admit I felt the flame
# Kurt Cobain, a Fender Mustang
# MTV brought me up
# "This is your brain on drugs"
# And I won't forget that first girlfriend
# Got me into Boyz II Men
# I grew up a lot that year
# My sweatshirt said "no fear"
# My life was a stereo
# Man, it was everything
# First one in line for The Last Dance With Mary Jane
# Hiding in my headphones
# Laying on a bedroom floor
# 1994
# Tell Mum, "See ya later
# "Don't be blowin' up my pager
# "When the show's over, I'll come home
# "When that is, I don't know"
# Teen spirit in the air
# Before we all owned cellphones
# In study hall, passing notes
# Yes, no, or I don't care
# My life was a stereo
# Man, it was everything
# Soundtrack, first kiss
# Out at the roller rink
# Hands held, two hearts
# Falling on a hardwood floor
# 1994
# Think you know it all when you don't know any better
# Tell yourself you're gonna live forever
# Fire's burning and I'm still holding the torch, yeah
# From 1994
# A year to be young
# A year to be, hey
# A year to be young
# When my life was a stereo
# Man, it was everything
# Soundtrack takes me back
# Through all those memories
# Hiding in my headphones
# Laying on the bedroom floor
# It takes me back to the days when a song
# Was worth so much more
# 1994
# 1994. #
APPLAUSE
Excellent! Thank you! Stephen Wilson Jr!
APPLAUSE
And now we welcome in this corner another excellent person.
We welcome the wonderful Richard Hawley!
APPLAUSE
Great to have you here, Richard Hawley.
So, it's great to have you... be back in this room with you.
And In This City They Call You Love, and that can only be about one city.
Mm. Which is the city that you've stolen the sign from over there.
Yeah, I don't want to get in trouble with the council.
They actually made that, to be fair.
Is it right that you decided on that,
In This City They Call You Love,
you decided on that as an album title
before you'd even started the album?
Yeah, it's just something that's on my mind.
Because the news obviously, always, is grim
and it's only a partial reflection of what's happening in the world.
But at the moment, it is pretty depressing.
And I kind of get a lot of solace from the fact that,
in the city that I was born and raised, people -
minute to minute, hour to hour, day-to-day -
just call each other love.
And it's not like a sickly thing, as you know.
You've spent enough time there. It's not something...
It's kind of in passing in the way that people say it.
You know, if you go to a supermarket.
They'll go, "Oh, yeah, that'll be £68.40, please, love." Exactly.
And if you are go in a pub, you know, it's like,
"Hiya, love, what do you want?"
Affection immediately.
Yeah, and there's something disarming about it.
And it's like a signal as well, saying,
"I am no threat to you."
I mean, it can be said,
"Listen, love...!"
LAUGHTER
That's the way you always say it to me! Yeah, that's what I say to you.
Yeah. So, on the album, you've used a lot of special guitars.
Your father's guitar, Scott Walker's guitar, Duane Eddy's guitar.
Do you think guitars can have the spirit imbued in them
by their previous owners?
Yes.
Simple question.
Yes.
And I know that guitars go to sleep as well.
If they're not played for a long time,
particularly acoustic guitars,
they go to sleep.
And they're there waiting for someone to find them
and wake them up out of their slumber.
Almost like Sleeping Beauty, you know? Mm.
And so, Dad's guitar, which is the last thing I've got of him,
is this beautiful thing.
And Duane's guitar obviously, because...
I mean, we were Duane's UK and European band, you know?
We played with him for a long time.
I'd rather have Duane and I'd rather have my dad,
but if I'm going to be given these gifts,
it's such a legacy to be given,
to make music with these things
that I actually physically made music with these human beings -
and to continue that thing going -
and all of the lessons that I learned from them,
is important.
We've got a little bit of footage of Duane Eddy. Mm.
But it's just him playing sort of his great riff.
He really invented a style, didn't he?
Yeah. I mean, I could talk about Duane, as you know, for ever.
I can eulogise about him.
I learned so much from him.
He was incredibly funny, generous and very dry.
And he was from Phoenix. He was raised in Phoenix.
And when he first came to Sheffield and hung around with us,
we took him in Fagan's pub,
which I've taken you to before.
And the humour was very similar.
And there was all the Irish musicians
playing in the back, doing the ceilidh sessions.
And Duane just laid back as though...
He goes, "Hey, man!
"This is just like Nashville used to be!
"I want to live here!"
And he seriously... Him and his wife, Deed,
were looking through property thingies
to actually buy a house in South Yorkshire,
which I just thought was going to be amazing. Lovely.
But the thing about Duane is very simply put
as a musician.
There aren't many musicians anywhere in music history
where you can hear two notes and you know who it is.
Yeah. And that's Duane.
Let's hear those two notes.
DUANE EDDY PLAYS
Wow! That bending note!
Fantastic!
APPLAUSE
The great originator, Duane Eddy,
who we very sadly recently lost.
Now, on a very positive note, your musical,
Standing at the Sky's Edge,
has opened in London's fashionable West End
to a dazzling, triumphant opening.
Incredible reviews. Everybody's loved it.
It must be very...
I mean, I've known you for ever and love you,
but I've never realised that you were a musical writer.
And it's amazing. It is one of the best things...
Even if people don't like musicals, they'd love this, I think.
Well, I didn't know that I was a musical writer,
because to be honest, Jools, I hate them.
LAUGHTER
I hate musicals.
I always have hated them.
And...
JOOLS LAUGHS
But when I got...
I probably always will.
But when I got approached to do this,
we were on tour in Europe.
We were playing the capital cities of northern Europe,
on a pretty gruelling tour, playing with Nancy Sinatra.
And my manager rang me and he says,
"There's a gentleman coming to see you.
"He's a producer from the West End."
This guy called Rupert Lord.
And he said, "I really think that your songs would be
"absolutely splendid in a musical."
And we just fell around laughing.
Not laughing now. No, exactly.
And then we were on the ferry going home across the Bay of Biscay
the next day and I was thinking about it.
And I thought, "I hate musicals,
"I know nothing about theatre,
"I really, probably would be so massively out of my depth.
"Let's do it."
Do you know what I mean? It's kind of...
It's the one thing that your instinct
is telling you not to do.
And it's kind of out of your comfort zone. And just go...
I did it and it's not turned out too bad.
It's a huge success. It's inspired by your home city of Sheffield.
If you weren't in Sheffield,
if you were going to go to another city and live somewhere,
where would it be?
If I left Sheffield literally to live,
I think my heart would literally burst
or break in two.
I'd find it really difficult.
I mean, the...
I love travelling and I love visiting places.
But my heart and my roots, that are very ancient -
you know, they go back hundreds and hundreds of years with the family -
and I do mourn when I leave Ireland there.
Because of, you know, the Guinness, really. Yeah.
So maybe Dublin. Yeah.
It's handy for a pint. Well, the funny thing...
When we come up to Sheffield,
I have such a wonderful time when I come up.
And you show me around, which is one of the best things.
But you often get up with us and we'll pay tribute
to one of the artists that we both love.
And I think we both put him on a pedestal
because he is one of the greatest people of all time.
Tell us about who he is.
Well, Fats Domino. No great surprise.
But he's somebody that I've been listening to since I was a child.
And even now at 57 years old,
the records that I listened to when I was a little boy
with my uncles and Mum and Dad is the things that always...
It's like the things you hear when you're young,
they seem to just go in so deep.
Could we do a little bit of Fats?
Yeah, of course. This was....
This was a song written by Bobby Charles.
OK, one, two, three, four.
# This time I'm walkin' to New Orleans
# I'm walkin' to New Orleans
# I'm going to need two pair of shoes
# When I get through walkin' these blues
# Get back to New Orleans
# I've got my suitcase in my hand
# Now, ain't that a shame
# I'm leavin' here today
# Yes, I'm goin' back home to stay
# Yes, I'm going back to New Orleans
# You used to be my honey
# Till you spent all my money
# No use for you to cry
# Yes, I'll see you by and by
# Cos I'm walkin' to New Orleans
# I've got no time for talkin'
# I've got to keep on walkin'
# New Orleans is my home
# That's the reason why I'm going
# Yes, I'm walkin' to New Orleans
# I'm walkin' to New Orleans
# I'm walkin' to New Orleans. #
APPLAUSE
The wonderful Richard Hawley.
The next artist we're going to meet is a truly remarkable person.
She started nursing injured soldiers
and sang to them when they ran out of anaesthetic
to try and make them feel better,
and that's how she developed her voice.
So now, with Sharaf from her third album, Hiddo Dhawr,
please welcome Sahra Halgan.
APPLAUSE
SHE SINGS IN SOMALI
SHE CONTINUES SINGING IN SOMALI
Yeah!
SHE CONTINUES SINGING IN SOMALI
SAHRA ULULATES
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# Coincidentally, I met you
# By Temple Bar back in April
# I think I needed to meet you, yeah
# Puttin' my cards on the table
# We dialogue in our own way
# Say what you think, it'll be OK
# This thing with you needs no label
# Puttin' my cards on the table
# Yeah
# When I'm with you, it's always fun, you make me feel so young
# Hung up on you, you're one of one, you ain't just anyone
# Your eyes are blue, mine are brown with a tint of hazel
# Ain't no-one like you, I guess that my cards are on the table
# Workin' too much, I forget I'm young
# They tryna tell me how my life should run
# Work is a chore, deep down I want fun
# Yeah, I learn to slow down, take things one by one... #
Woo!
# Yeah
# When I'm with you, it's always fun, you make me feel so young
# Hung up on you, you're one of one, you ain't just anyone
# Yeah, your eyes are blue, mine are brown with a tint of hazel
# Ain't no-one like you, I guess that my cards are on the table
# When I'm with you, it's always fun, you make me feel so young
# Hung up on you, you're one of one, you ain't just anyone
# Your eyes are blue, mine are brown with a tint of hazel
# Ain't no-one like you, I guess that my cards are on the table
# Workin' too much, I forget I'm young
# They tryna tell me how my life should run
# Work is a chore, deep down I want fun
# Yeah, I learn to slow down, take things one by one. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Nia Archives, thank you so much.
Yes!
APPLAUSE
Thank you to all my lovely guests.
And now we finish with the man we started with -
the fabulous Richard Hawley.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# Love swims in the sun, drowned down by the rain
# One to care for beyond us is only for the truest flames
# Got to get myself on the top of that hill
# Her daddy got drunk and he wanted to kill
# If she don't love me, then nobody will
# It's one for the Jacks and two for his heels
# Two for his heels
# Tell our secrets to the heart of my open road
# Never get to paradise if paradise, she all alone
# Got to get myself on the top of that hill
# Her daddy got drunk and decided to kill
# If she don't love me, then nobody will
# It's one for the Jacks and two for his heels
# Two for his heels
# Here I am, a being on the dark of the edge of town
# Like the howling in the heart of a dog as the sun goes down
# Got to get myself on the top of that hill
# Her daddy got drunk and decided to kill
# If she don't love me, then nobody will
# It's one for the Jacks and two for his heels
# Two for his heels
# Love swims in the sun, drowned down by the rain
# To care for one beyond us is only for the truest flames
# Only for the truest flames. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
MUSIC: Cinderella by Remi Wolf