Richard Hawley, (born Sheffield, England) is a critically acclaimed guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer. Hawley initially found success as a member of Britpop band The Longpigs in the 1990s. When a drug-filled torpor after an extensive tour of America brought the band to the brink of extinction in 1997, Hawley was asked to play with Pulp by his close friend and Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker. "They saved my life," Hawley would later recall, "I was going mental with drink and drugs." The subsequent world tour in support of Pulp's album This Is Hardcore left Hawley emotionally and physically drained on his return to his home city. During this time, he would even consider leaving the music industry altogether.

It was an encounter at Hawley's Sheffield home that would lead the longtime collaborator out of the shadows. Impressed by a home demo of his songs, both Pulp's Jarvis Cocker and Steve Mackey urged Hawley to head into the studio and begin work on his first solo release. 2000s eponymous mini album would encourage Hawley to return to the studio oncemore. In 2001 Late Night Final, named after the cry of vendors selling the Sheffield Star evening newspaper on the streets of the city, would be released to positive reviews from the press, if unspectacular sales. Two years later Hawley would release Lowedges, another Sheffield reference, this time to the curiously named suburb of the city that had so entranced the young Hawley when he had seen it on the destination board of a bus. NME called Lowedges the "first great album of 2003" and it would top an end of year poll held by Virgin Radio. Critical praise was widespread, leading many big names such as Coldplay, Radiohead and R.E.M. to enthuse about Hawley's work.

After the demise of Setanta Records in 2004 Hawley would eventually sign to Mute Records, a division of the giant EMI. Legal wrangling would delay Coles Corner, Hawley's fourth release, until September 2005. Again Hawley mines the theme of his beloved home city, this time referencing the location where courting lovers would meet. Coles Corner would eventually gain a nomination for the acclaimed Mercury Prize in 2006

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