Richard Hawley

Musical campaigners have successfully reversed a ban that had prevented inmates of British prisons from being able to use steel strings on guitars.

Billy Bragg had led the campaign to reverse the steel guitar string ban in British prisons

The ban had meant that the only strings available to inmates were nylon ones, used primarily for classical and Spanish styles and largely unsuitable for steel-strung acoustic guitars due to the way that they’re attached. But now steel strings will be available again, to be paid for out of prisoners’ wages and earned on a privileges basis at the discretion of individual governors.

Continue reading: Musicians Succeed In Reversing Prison Guitar String Ban

The vinyl list has been released for this year's Record Store Day, which will be celebrated by 240 independent music shops throughout the UK with over 600 exclusive releases available. More big-name acts than ever before have lent their music to the unique event, which is designed to save the nation's record shops from the threat of online shopping and big corporations.

Californian Sister Trio Haim Are Contributing Vinyl-Based Music To Record Store Day 2014.

Placebo, Green Day, Outkast, Bombay Bicycle Club, Chvrches, Disclosure, Dinosaur Jr, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, Jake Bugg, The Flaming Lips, Elbow, Fleetwood Mac, Haim, Richard Hawley, and Johnny Cash represent just a handful of the most high profile LP or EP releases this year with an eclectic range of genres for music fans to flick through.

Continue reading: Placebo, Outkast, Bombay Bicycle Club Lead Record Store Day 2014: Race You There!

Richard Hawley plays one of his many splendid guitars.

Camp Bestival 2013 took over the weekend (August 2nd - 4th) at Lulworth Castle in Dorset last week, with some superb live headline and DJ sets each day. 

It was an eclectic line-up of artists both legendary and newly emerging and ranging from the underground cult favourites to the more chartworthy pop stars. Richard Hawley, formerly of Britpop band Longpigs and Pulp, played an awesome headline set on day one with an array of different electric guitars. He shared the stage with 'I'm Gonne Be (500 Miles)' hitmakers The Proclaimers as well as reggae veteran Max Romeo, Manchester trio I Am Kloot and folk punk activist Billy Bragg.

Continue reading: Richard Hawley And Grandmaster Flash Among Camp Bestival 2013 Highlights [Photos]

Doing little to dispel their image as white, middle class indie kids, Alt-J pointed out in their acceptance speech at the 2012 Barclaycard Mercury Music Prize that the £20,000 that they won could go towards paying off their student loans. And taking their parents out to dinner. Somehow, you couldn’t imagine Plan B, or Richard Hawley making the same references if they’d won the title.

We’re not entirely convinced by the band’s assertion that they hadn’t thought to prepare for winning the award. As they took to the stage, they said “wow, we literally haven’t prepared for this.” Which shows a gross lack of time management skills, then, given that they have been hailed as the favourites for the award for weeks now and managed to fend of competition from Richard Hawley in the bookies’ odds. By their own admission, they had been tipped as favourites to win before the shortlist even came out. The band decided against naming the people that they wanted to thank, but chose to acknowledge everyone in “team Alt-J,” instead.

Whilst Alt-J are understandably revelling in the praise that has been heaped upon them, for fighting off competition from the likes of Jessie Ware, Plan B and Richard Hawley, one man has taken to Twitter to reveal how Alt-J allegedly tried to prevent him from reviewing their gig, to avoid him publishing a negative reaction. The latest post on the matter, from The Independent’s music critic Simon Price (@simon_price01) reads “Ironically, the call about being banned from the ‪@Alt_J gig came just after I'd been lecturing Solent uni kids about editorial independence.”

The winner of this year's Mercury Music Prize will be announced at a ceremony in London tonight, with British indie pop quartet Alt-J the bookies favourite at 6/4. However, an interesting market mover has sent tongues wagging as to the possibility of an outsider scooping the £20,000 prize.

When the nominations were first announced SkyBet had Sunderland rockers Field Music at 14/1 for their fifth album Plumb, though today, just hours before the ceremony, the band's odds have more than halved to 6/1. That puts them third favourites behind Alt J and Richard Hawley and Field Music are now shorter than Jessie Ware's record Devotion, which has been quietly tipped for the prize. Early favourite Plan B has drifted out to 9/1, while Django Django have also drifted to 8/1. Reacting to a wave of support on their Twitter page today, Field Music told followers, "Thanks everyone for all the kind wishes. Whatever happens we're going to have a right laugh and maybe even a few shandies." Late market movers can often suggest information has leaked out, so if Field Music's odds go any shorter, we suggest sticking your money on! Odds aggregating website Oddschecker.com has obviously noted the market move, tweeting, "Field Music are the big mover ahead of tonight's Mercury Award, 10/1 tops and cut across the board."

Lauren Laverne and Nick Grimshaw will host coverage of the Mercury Prize, which begins at 9.45pm tonight on 4Music. 

Continue reading: Mercury Music Prize: Field Music's Odds Plummet As Ceremony Looms

As the Barclaycard Mercury Music Prize 2012 draws near, we have a look at the shortlist and the likelihood of each act actually walking away with the prize. There’s no such thing as a done deal when it comes to the Mercury Music Prize; the ones that you think are the favourites never seem to walk away the title, the judging panel is very hard to second guess. But hey, that’s not going to stop us giving it a try!

Alt-J: An Awesome Wave

These quirky popsters have crept up on the public throughout 2012, and with their debut album garnering critical acclaim in all corners of the press, they’ve been pegged by many as the favourites to win. A recent survey conducted by Spotify showed that Alt-J’s tracks had been streamed more times that any other nominated artist. That doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re going to walk home with the prize though.

Continue reading: Barclaycard Mercury Music Prize 2012: Our Predictions

The Mercury Prize is set to be awarded tomorrow (1st Nov. 2012), and true to form and tradition, many of the artists in the nomination lists are ones that you may never have heard, or even heard of. As such, we thought it'd be useful to give you a brief breakdown of three acts topping the list of favourites, Alt-J, Richard Hawley and Jessie Ware. 

Jessie Ware's album 'Devotion' is nominated and 3rd in the favourites. Ware used to be a vocalist with drum and base act SBTRKT. Some of that synthy influence can be heard in this album, but the vocals hark back to the '80s and early '90s, though with her own twee stamp. 

Richard Hawley comes in second. He was originally in the Britpop band Longpigs and also played with Pulp for a few years before launching his solo career. He's nominated for his whimsically titled album 'Standing at the Sky's Edge'. Despite that whimsy, he has described this album as 'angry', to the Guardian. The guitars and vocals are verging on gritty, but angry? Not quite. 

Continue reading: A Brief Run Down Of The Mercury Prize Favourites