Hawksley Workman at The Borderline
The Borderline, 15 June 2012
I've pretty much comes to terms with the fact that seeing Hawksley Workman these days is not about hearing songs from his latest album or surprise additions to the set list. Instead it's about hearing old favourites from his first few albums with lots of audience participation and letting Hawksley tell funny stories in between. And you know, it's a formula that works and is always fun plus, with all Hawksley's often surreal ad-libs and spontaneous additions of other pop songs, it's definitely never boring and the songs always sound different.
Unlike last time (I saw him on Valentine's Day at this same venue last year, the post about it is here on this blog somewhere), Hawksley's old friend Mr Lonely is back with him accompanying him on keyboards and while he without a doubt is able to ably carry a show all by himself, he does sound particularly great with Lonely backing him and singing harmony vocals. It's no surprise then that Mr Lonely gets a couple of big cheers from the Hawksley-loving crowd. And the people here tonight really do unashamedly and joyfully adore him: they call out song requests, answer his questions, make jokes with him and more than anything sing along! It's just amazingly wonderful and you really have to be there to experience just what a fabulous rapport he has with his crowd. I really don't know if it's just a London thing or he has it everywhere he goes but it helps makes the show hilarious and hugely entertaining.
His fans here in London are also fantastic singers, they don't just sing along on the choruses or the bits everyone knows, they often provide the backing parts from the records and at some points various members of the crowd are singing different parts, like a well orchestrated choir aiding Hawksley's musical vision. It's pretty amazing and it nearly always sounds great. For instance behind me there is a group of women singing one part, while at the back there are some deep-voiced rowdy men singing another, all with Hawksley on stage singing his part above it all. I really can't think of another artist who inspires such musicality in his audience. It also produces some wonderful comical moments such as the deep-voiced guys shout-singing "We will still need!" as a echo to Hawksley's We Will Still Need A Song and cracking us all up including Workman himself (this happened last time as well). During Tarantulove Hawksley then, randomly, got a need to start singing various Bee Gees-penned tunes starting with How Deep Is Your Love and going on more amusingly to Woman In Love (displaying some pretty impressive vocal gymnastics I must say) and then Islands In The Stream. Of course the crowd all heartily and loudly sing along with those too and when Hawksley returns to the original song the deep-voiced lads suddenly start singing Woman In Love again, which starts Workman off again singing it! It was crazy, bizarre, fun and extremely good-hearted all round.
His fans here in London are also fantastic singers, they don't just sing along on the choruses or the bits everyone knows, they often provide the backing parts from the records and at some points various members of the crowd are singing different parts, like a well orchestrated choir aiding Hawksley's musical vision. It's pretty amazing and it nearly always sounds great. For instance behind me there is a group of women singing one part, while at the back there are some deep-voiced rowdy men singing another, all with Hawksley on stage singing his part above it all. I really can't think of another artist who inspires such musicality in his audience. It also produces some wonderful comical moments such as the deep-voiced guys shout-singing "We will still need!" as a echo to Hawksley's We Will Still Need A Song and cracking us all up including Workman himself (this happened last time as well). During Tarantulove Hawksley then, randomly, got a need to start singing various Bee Gees-penned tunes starting with How Deep Is Your Love and going on more amusingly to Woman In Love (displaying some pretty impressive vocal gymnastics I must say) and then Islands In The Stream. Of course the crowd all heartily and loudly sing along with those too and when Hawksley returns to the original song the deep-voiced lads suddenly start singing Woman In Love again, which starts Workman off again singing it! It was crazy, bizarre, fun and extremely good-hearted all round.
Hawksley himself is in good form, wearing a rather dodgy waistcoat (I'm not a fan of waistcoats without shirts or this sleeveless look and he had sprayed a bunch of ink all over his arm, which looks very bizarre) but a very hip and smart hat, he sounds in good voice and grins and giggles his way through the show. He also amuses us with stories of fighting bears now that he lives in the country, staying in a hotel in Canning Town and going off on strange, quirky ad-libs about wanting to see his drumkit (I really don't know why either but we laugh every time).
Despite what I said earlier there are actually a couple of newer songs, well one song from his last album to be exact (the fantastic Warhol's Portrait Of Gretzky, which everyone seems to know the words to as well) and a brand new song from the musical he's writing, which sounds absolutely fantastic. It was only the closer by default I think since he had gone more than 15 minutes over his timeslot and a Friday night club was due to start directly after (causing an argument at the back between two Borderline people), but really it's a perfect last song showing that he isn't all about old songs but is still creative and exciting, producing interesting and beautiful music worth hearing. I love the singalongs and all the fun but I do hope that next time we will get to experience more of that joy from hearing his new work too.
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