Richard Hawley: “Rock’n’roll is very much a middle class thing now. It does piss me off”

nme.com:

Richard Hawley has shared the video for his new single ‘Prism In Jeans’. See it first exclusively on NME below, along with our interview with the Sheffield legend where he discusses his new album, the state of the nation, and what’s next for his huge musical Standing At The Sky’s Edge.Set for release on May 31, the former Longpigs and Pulp man turned solo star’s 10th album ‘In This City They Call You Love’ now comes previewed by ‘Prism In Jeans’.

The video was filmed in Sheffield city centre in the shadow of the Moore Street Substation, which features on the sleeve of the album.

The video features students from Sheffield’s Bailey-Cox Dance Academy, as Hawley plays a cameo of a workman who arrives to rest and watch the action unfold.Sonically, it leans into the “far-off netherworld” of the pre-Beatles rock era of The Tornadoes’ ‘Telstar’ and The Shadows, while lyrically it’s another love story playing out on the streets of Sheffield.

The album title was also inspired by his native city, and arrived long before the album was finished.“I was reading the news, and my mum said something to me,” Hawley told NME. “She’s not alarmist and has lived through a lot – she’s 82 – but she said, ‘It almost feels as bad as it did during the Cuban missile crisis, we’re on the edge of the abyss’.