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Richard Hawley review – homecoming hero is in the mood to celebrate

Playing his largest ever gig in the city, the singer croons his musical love letters to the people and places of Sheffield with tenderness, while his biting political songs turn into rousing singalongs

There is an unquestionably celebratory, and very Sheffield, mood in the air tonight for the endlessly proud local as he plays his biggest ever home town show in the city – headlining the opening night of a four-day event at a venue that holds 10,000 people. It’s somewhat ironic that the song Standing at the Sky’s Edge is now synonymous with catchy singalong for tourists in the West End, as it unfurls with a slow-building, almost western desert rock snarl. “I hope these words come true,” he says as he introduces Tonight the Streets Are Ours, which he calls a celebration of the exit of “those Tory fuckers” and inspires a rousing cheer and sing-along.

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