From the veteran Modfather to a teenage pigeon fancier: the best original photographs from the Observer commissioned in May 2024
May 2024
Richard Hawley: ‘If I stopped what I’m doing the songs would still come’
On a tour of his home city that begins ‘at the crack of midday’, the singer discusses his new album, how his musical, Standing at the Sky’s Edge, has hit a nerve, and his main hope for Keir Starmer
December 2023
‘The story tells itself’: Richard Hawley, Sheffield’s greatest export, gets city’s biggest honour
The acclaimed singer and composer is ‘mind-blown’ after receiving the coveted maker’s mark
April 2023
Olivier awards 2023: full list of winners
My Neighbour Totoro, A Streetcar Named Desire and Prima Facie were among the winners at the Royal Albert Hall ceremony
February 2023
The week in theatre: Phaedra; Sylvia; Standing at the Sky’s Edge – review
Lyttelton; Old Vic; Olivier, London Janet McTeer is mighty in Simon Stone’s electric remaking of myth; dance, not speech, powers Kate Prince’s suffragette musical; and Richard Hawley’s paean to Sheffield finds a home from home
Sixty years on, the housing estate I helped build is still being celebrated
Roy Hattersley
Sheffield’s Park Hill, once dismissed as a folly but now the setting of a hit musical, saved the city from its homes crisis
Standing at the Sky’s Edge review – Richard Hawley pulls on the heartstrings in his Sheffield opus
This new musical traces the intersecting lives of three families on the Park Hill estate in this spine-tingling and sentimental love song to the steel city
April 2022
Pride and politics of Sheffield’s Park Hill
Letters: Claims that the estate was neglected by the council are challenged by John Kirkwood, while Chris Bone celebrates a theatrical tribute to the people who have lived there
November 2019
'Your ego has to be left at the door': the secret life of the understudy
From the warm-up comic to the F1 test driver and the reserve goalie, what is it like to work in someone else’s shadow?
June 2019
Richard Hawley: Further review – all swagger and croon
(BMG)
May 2019
Richard Hawley: Further review – mellow fellow keeps it rocking
His eighth album sees Hawley ruminate on themes from ageing to solitude, with the guitars turned up loud
March 2019
Richard Hawley: ‘I’m never going to write a finger-wagging, soapbox song’
The week in theatre: Standing at the Sky’s Edge; Downstate; Richard III – review
Standing at the Sky’s Edge review – Richard Hawley's ode to Sheffield estate
'Richard Hawley gets it!' Park Hill residents praise Sheffield musical
March 2018
Make ’em laugh? Serial killers, suicide and now a Sheffield estate are the grit of musicals
Stephanie Merritt
Richard Hawley writes musical about Sheffield's Park Hill estate
February 2018
Readers recommend
Readers recommend playlist: songs about rendezvous
Artists ready to meet up for this week’s date include Basement Jaxx, Canned Heat, Frank Zappa and the Rolling Stones
October 2017
Funny Cow review – Maxine Peake blazes in the dark days of standup
Peake is hypnotically belligerent as an ambitious club performer trampling over prejudice and sticky carpets on the 1970s comedy circuit
September 2017
Let’s shout it from the dales: here’s why Yorkshire is the best
Dave Simpson
Part of the the county has been named as the happiest place in Britain. To music and football writer Dave Simpson, that’s no surprise
