LIVE FROM THE PIT: Justin Hawkins Rides Again Live

Justin Hawkins Rides Again was wonderful midweek entertainment, full of games, gossip, and the platforming of local music. 

The bulk of the evening was spent discussing music, which in the first half manifested in a discussion of the best and worst of songwriting conventions. For the best, Hawkins mused on “three chords and the truth”, using Dead Flowers by The Rolling Stones as an example for how telling of the worst aspects of oneself can create music that captivates. To this end, he performed a gentle acoustic track he had written over Christmas - a heartfelt reflection on watching someone falling out of love with you, accompanied by personal friend Ian Norfolk. For the worst, Hawkins ranted about major to minor key changes and their use to change a song's mood to sad: he used the trope as the first audience game where the Fire Station were told to shout at him when he did the key change. This section was especially entertaining as he started bickering with the rest of the guitar players in the room while he tried to teach those not in the know what the different chords he was playing were. While no one seemed to guess the changes correctly, the buzz in the room from attempting was addictive, and there was an intimate energy in Hawkins shouting about chords to the standing balcony that felt like having a cigarette with performers who’ve just played an open mic.

In the second half, the musical discussion was an interview with the frontman of Sunderland’s own indie rock duo, Field Music - David Brewis. Hawkins looked adoringly as he sat down in the leather pants Brewis promised he’d wear for the live show. The interview itself mainly concerned their creative process as a band, which Brewis explained as breaking down tracks to their bare bones to identify and reimagine their best elements. Brewis also remarked on the heavy influence of The Beatles on their early work rather than the power chords dominant in their 90s rock contemporaries. To this end, they joked, their first two albums were written with very few drum parts on the first beat, making it easy to weed out drummers when it was time to tour.  

Brewis himself was happy to be there, if a little deprecating about Field Music, whether it was remarking about how easy it is to have least favourites when looking back on old songs or joking that they were aiming for George Harrison but landed at Cardiacs. Despite this, the chemistry between the two was bromantic, with Brewis grinning ear to ear for the duration of his stage time and Hawkins creating a long compilation of his favourite Field Music songs as part of the introduction.  

The striking thing about Justin Hawkins' live was the charisma that emanated from him as he chattered away on the fire station stage. Standing relaxed behind the microphone in his signature leather trousers, a flowing white slightly ruffled shirt and a fetching scarf-tie he opened the evening with a VT of his youtube setup, complete with a framed photo of Robbie Williams and himself, a lifesize cutout of David Hoffman, and two copies of a pirate bodice ripper with a suspicious amount of tissues that introduced the humour of the evening. Hawkins was full of personality with the touch of cheek to be expected from any self-respecting queer person, shown clearly in his chosen punchline this tour - Gary Barlow. 

The first comments on Gary Barlow were that of conspiracy, mainly that he was using the Bee Gees’ Barry Gibb as a ghostwriter. The reasoning? He’s not good enough to have written Back for Good, and covering How Deep Is Your Love so soon after is proof of the quid pro quo. “They’ll have to prove me wrong”, Hawkins grins as he settles into the chatter portion of the set. The next shot was at his autobiography, dramatically reading the beginning page and a page from the end of a chapter at the end of the first part. The latter part landed better, where Hawkins reenacts Barlow falling in his chair before finishing the segment with a string of food-related renames of Take That songs. The first part was a straight reading of the first page, where Barlow recounts an instance of his bulimia, read in a nasally impression by Hawkins, who opens the segment with enjoying character stories starting at the lowest. While funny, watching this segment without the knowledge of Hawkins’ own bulimia was a little jarring - the catty jokes at the beginning about being bigger and smaller than him were ambled over and didn’t quite make the point. This said - the passages were badly written.

Otherwise, Hawkins came across as genuine, be it in his animated passion for music or when recounting drafts from the autobiography in the works. The crowd chose the first - a story of a 5ish-year-old Hawkins realising he had skids in his underwear after an accident so had fashioned them into a speedo for a later PE lesson so nobody would notice, then bridging the gap with a joke about getting it from both sides when questioned about the incident before reciting draft number two, a raunchy yet honest few pages concerning the fledgling years of his bisexuality. Contrasting his own work with Barlow's was cheeky in itself, though offset with a joking admission of the ghostwriter he’s hired, who went to school with him.

The main area that his personality shone through, though, was because of the participation of the mackems in the fire station. Be it the group “whey!” after Hawkins remarked that the only thing wrong with his last live tour was that it wasn’t in Sunderland (easy bet), or the heckles that punctuated every segment. In the first half, it was the reminder that Robbie Williams made him famous, or the guy who suggested that the calling card for when he did a major to minor change should be “Justin wants to f*ck me!” One heckler got nervous and punctuated his comment with “Love you Justin!” to which Hawkins' automatic response of “love you too!” stopped him from wishing profanity on the audience member

 By the second, the hecklers were their own segment, starting with the same guy who had the suggestion in the major to minor segment, stopping the interview segment to plead with Hawkins to override his removal from The Fire Station after complaints from those around him. 

“Not my problem”, Hawkins figured, then immediately got heckled about the amount of money The Masked Singer made him - enough for a new Porsche, he admitted without skipping a beat. It was almost like watching a stand-up, with musical gossip woven in. 

To close out the evening was a connections game, which saw Hawkins playing music videos and covering parts of songs for the audience to guess the connection between them. The winner was given slippers from the hotel they were staying in - a satisfying callback to the interview Hawkins showed earlier, where he’d rocked up the BBC studios in the slippers from that hotel. As Hawkins played Norfolk, now donned in a spandex leotard and bomber jacket, danced around the stage to a chorus of giggles. As for the connections, the first took a little time for someone to get, but the second two, both being on The Lost Boys soundtrack, had so many people shouting that Hawkins was left slapping the slippers against his head to work out who earned them. For the final connection, there were some chord issues that managed to end in a small rendition of Surprise! Surprise! By Cilla Black in her voice. The final call was the whole crowd singing a few verses of American Pie with Hawkins while Norfolk pretended to slap his arse in the background, and with a flare of the introductory flamenco hand, the show was over. 

Justin Hawkins Rides Again was an intellectual cabaret full of character - Hawkins' love of music was the passion that drove an evening of laughter and an intimate feeling show that had Sunderland leaving Fire Station still giggling. It was great to see Hawkins spending time on the local music of the areas that he’s in, and we can only hope the hotel didn’t fine him for stealing all their slippers. 

Words: Julia Brunton

Photos: Sarah Barlex