Hawksley Workman at St Pancras Old Church

Hawksley Workman 

St Pancras Old Church, 12 September 2019

When The Borderline sadly closed its doors for the last time last month it left Hawksley Workman without his usual venue, one that he has been regularly playing for the past 20 years. I've seen him play there many times and he had even earned a photo on their wall of fame, something Workman laments tonight, telling us how he impressed friends in the past with the fact that his picture was on display in the middle of Soho. Swapping The Borderline for the much smaller and extremely atmospheric St Pancras Old Church though certainly isn't a bad thing though if this show is anything to go by.

The church is actually smaller than The Borderline, and, praise Jesus!, has chairs. I've been to a couple of acoustic shows here before and the acoustics are wonderful. Hawksley himself seems impressed to be playing in a 4th Century building with so much character, although he spends almost as much time talking about the outdoor toilets (there's an intermission halfway through and he urges us to go look but I have to say I wasn't tempted) that he jokes he would charge admission to.

Yes, Hawksley is in a happy, thankful mood tonight, full of jokes and stories and song. Accompanied once again by his pianist Mr Lonely, he gives us a people-pleasing set and even a few new tunes from his latest record, Median Age Wasteland, which is easily his best album in years.

He begins though at the start with No Sissies and Safe And Sound from his debut album, For Him And The Girls, with the audience actually taking over the singing on the latter, much to Workman's delight. It's interesting just how well these songs stand up with just guitar and piano, but then Hawksley's voice is pretty incredible and at times he actually steps away from the microphone yet it still sounds just as impressive.

There's plenty of old favourites such as Your Beauty Must Be Rubbing Off (which becomes an extended jam with Workman joining Mr Lonely at the end on piano), Jealous Of Your Cigarette, Oh You Delicate Heart and the perfectly timed Autumn's Here but it's actually the new songs that I find particularly striking tonight. There's something nostalgic and yearning in them. 

The song 1983, the year he tells us that things really changed for him, particularly showcases this with Workman remembering scenes from his childhood before breaking into a gospel-like chorus, where he urges "go tell it on the mountain, go tell it to the deepest sea."

Before he begins Battlefords, he says the intricate picking on the song was inspired by observing

older artists who have endured like "Gordon Lightfoot, who is still very popular and... very, very old," he giggles. With its shuffling beat and hopeful feel, he bridges the new with the old by bringing in a snippet of Suspicious Minds near the end in a surprisingly effective way.

He apologises profusely before every new song though, admitting he usually groans when an artist says "here's a new one" (I must be unusual in that I like to hear the latest tunes I suppose), but when he plays Birds In Train Stations, it is particularly well received, the song perfectly demonstrating how the singer-songwriter is so adept at finding beauty in the mundane. He does interrupt halfway through to admit that he took some artistic liberties with the lyrics "Gare du nord goes straight to Waterloo" because it actually, funnily enough, in fact goes straight to St Pancras (he thought we would notice, but I had no clue), "but St Pancras is super unsexy" he laughs.

The nicest moment came later in the set when Workman pulled out a track, A House Or Maybe A Boat, from his absolutely wonderful Christmas EP, Almost A Full Moon, asking us "it's not too soon is it?" He then tells us how he wrote the whole EP when he was living in Paris years ago and trying to fast in order to lose weight, "I can admit it now," he laughs, "but I was always trying to look thin and sexy for some magazine shoot." Now he says he no longer on TV and sees how silly it all was (he may not be skinny now but looks pretty great still), but at the time he distracted himself by writing Christmas tunes. He also reminisces about coming to London and visiting the Christmas department in Selfridges and seeing an unimpressive $1000 tree, "in Canada I could get you a much more convincing tree for less than $300!" he jokes.

After keeping with the seasonal theme and singing Autumn's Here, he wins my heart completely by giving us one of my all-time favourite Hawksley tunes, the sombre but utterly beautiful Goodbye To Radio.

There were stories aplenty throughout, my favourite was probably when he explained why he kept telling us "here's a song I wrote" because he didn't want anyone to think his mum wrote the songs (although he had as a child written with his mum) and it was all down to a teen skate band, years ago, whose career was derailed when it emerged that one of the band member's mother wrote the songs. The story sounds so familiar but I can't find the name of the band sadly.

He also tells us that as a young man he used to be angry all the time but now finds himself crying at everything, which he says is definitely much better. It certainly makes for more emotional songs but even better it's nice to see Hawksley looking so happy and he keeps telling us how much more grateful he is and to be playing a sold out show here in London in such a beautiful venue. Workman has always been incredibly charming but it's always nice when artists come across so nice.

For the encore he asks for request (my call for Infracombe sadly fell upon deaf ears) and instead he decides upon No Beginning No End, which actually sounds wonderful and ends with Workman standing in front of the audience, without a microphone, and a member of the audience, who I presume is a friend of his, standing up and joining him to sing the song. The guy had an incredible voice and the two harmonised perfectly so I have no clue if it truly was a spontaneous moment or the whole thing had been planned, but it nevertheless a pretty special way to end the show.

One thing is for sure, Hawksley Workman is always a joy to see live and although I will never understand why he isn't a bigger, more famous artist, I am forever grateful I get to be part of such intimate shows as this.