Little Bangers From Richard Hawleys Jukebox Vol 2

Richard Hawley once again opens up his musical archives to give us unique access to a whole bunch of classic songs, mainly from the 50’s and 60’s, which he aptly entitles Little Bangers From Richard Hawley’s Jukebox Volume 2. As with its predecessor, this is a magnificent and inspiring collection of 28 songs which celebrates the musical heritage which has undoubtedly shaped so much of what has followed right through to the present day.

Richard Hawley was always destined for a musical career, having a father who was a respected musician in the Sheffield area, a mother who was a singer and an uncle in Frank White, another true Sheffield legend. Indeed, Richard attributes his rock’n’roll outsider look to his father who was a first-wave biker teddy boy, working in the steelworks but totally absorbed by all things rock’n’roll. And it is this good fortune of growing up in this family environment that undoubtedly shaped his life as a result of his absolute passion for music. And it is this passion which has inspired this second volume of classic songs from the 50s and 60s in the form of Little Bangers From Richard Hawley’s Jukebox, Volume 2.

The Hawley household was clearly immersed in an ever burning cauldron of music whether it be from the radio, a record player or his Dad’s guitar. As Richard describes, “There would be musicians coming round all the time. A constant benign bombardment of tunes, many of them by people on this very collection: Bo Diddley, Duane Eddy, Link Wray, Gene Vincent.” The uniqueness of his upbringing was clearly illuminated when visiting friend’s houses where he would not hear a single note of music at all.

The first volume of classic songs came out in 2023 as 28 Little Bangers From Richard Hawley’s Jukebox and proved to be spectacular collection of hand picked songs and instrumentals from his own personal archives which he has amassed over a very long period of time. It covered a whole range of artists from household names, the relatively well known right through to the positively obscure and totally unknown. And the genres of music covered a full gambit of rock’n’roll, garage rock, psychedelia, surf, rhythm and blues and anything else you might care to mention.

This second volume follows a similar format and continues to be what Richard describes as “the result of a lifetime obsession.” These songs have been culled from record shops across the globe although with a strong focus on both the UK and the USA, with Richard always trying to make time to plunder the depths of any vinyl racks he could find, even in the remotest of spots. I guess he probably sees himself as the Columbo of the music world, always “looking for an inspired title or a familiar credit” as if he was “a detective hired by your own ravenous appetite for the next epiphany.” Thankfully, through the release of this new collection alongside its predecessor, we are now the lucky ones benefitting from this relentless pursuit of our musical heritage, so its time to sit back and enjoy it.

This collection is presented with no particular theme in mind, as 28 songs sprawl across its deeply entrenched and highly inspirational grooves. This is not surprising given Richard’s confession that he does not store his vinyl in alphabetical order and his tendency just to pick out a batch of songs to play totally at random. This fact alone confirms the high quality of his record collection given what we have on display here.

The first bunch of songs are very much front loaded with instrumentals given how huge this music was in the pre-Beatles era. We get the classic cut of Trash from the guitar maestro of Duane Eddy & The Rebels, the Bob Diddley style vibes of Boo Boo Stick Beat by Chet Atkins and the sheer eloquence of Comanche by the guitar impresario Link Wray & The Wraymen. Then we are treated to the rumbling strat of Dick Dale & The Del-Tones as they tackle Jungle Fever, the feverishly fractured guitar rhythms of the legend himself Bo Diddley on Mumblin’ Guitar and the dulcet tones of Elvis Presley with The Jordanaires in the prototype garage rock of Put The Blame On Me.

We get phenomenal takes on two songs which have been covered by other artists innumerable times, namely Parchment Farm, performed here by Billy Lee Riley, and I’m Not Your Stepping Stone by The Flies. As regards the latter, if you thought the Sex Pistols did a killer version of this song, then check out this version which takes it to a whole new level. As for Sunshine Theatre by Mountain, well this might well date much later from 1971 but in it’s original 7” format remains the rarest record presented here with only 50 singles being pressed. But little doubt that it’s unique blend of hypnotic rhythms, pop melodies and wild, swirling synths have inspired many artists who followed in their wake.

We also get a majestic blast of keys in The Yo Yo’s take on Gotta Find A New Love which features some scorching guitar solos which are quite simply worth the admission price alone. Meanwhile Man From Nowhere by Jet Harris, otherwise known as the bad boy of The Shadows, takes us down a far more sophisticated and sumptuous musical path with a song which could have soundtracked any Bond movie you may care to mention. In sharp contrast I’m Out by The Surf Riders is nothing short of a stripped-down skiffle-infused rock’n’roll classic.

I am so glad that The Ventures made it onto this collection as a band who I was first alerted to when I became aware of their classic take on The Chantay’s instrumental Pipeline, which Johnny Thunders so often covered in his live shows, proving once again how the lineage of rock’n’roll runs very deep indeed. This time we get a deeply entrenched skuzzy guitar driven instrumental, Fuzzy And Wild. Then we get the Buddy Holly inspired Mail Train by Billy Joe Tucker and a gloriously melodic version of The Day The World Turned Blue which shows another side of the rockabilly pioneer Gene Vincent.

Richard Caiton’s Listen To The Drums is quite simply a soul-fired classic, whilst My Baby by The Girls treats us to some classic 60s girl group harmonies accompanied by some hypnotic vibes from the 12-string guitar. The garage rock rhythms of I’m A Nothing by The Magic Plants could well be Iggy in a former life and a hard-edged forerunner to the raw and aggressive proto-punk movement that would follow years later.

It’s almost mind blowing to realise that a song like Pink Cadillac by Johnny Todd was recorded back in 1957 at the very gestation of the rock’n’roll revolution but here it is in all its glory with its brightly coloured infectious rhythms. And if you are not dancing around the living room by now you really need to have a word with yourself. It also seems fitting that as we head towards the end of this collection, we get the last song ever recorded by Richie Valens, an instrumental entitled Fast Freight which really gets you movin’ and a groovin’. Released posthumously, this was strangely credited to Arvee Allens but, regardless of this, it stands as a fitting tribute to one of the greats from this era.

The songs presented here on Little Bangers From Richard Hawley’s Jukebox Volume 2 show just how much he is steeped in the heritage of the classic rock’n’roll music that has gone on to shape so many subsequent generations of musicians. And If you have ever had the good fortune to attend one of Richard’s DJ sets that he does from time to time, playing a vibrant mix of songs just like these, then it becomes patently obvious what influenced Richard’s own craft. It is so fitting and poignant that this collection is dedicated by Richard to the memory of his friend, musical collaborator and guitar legend of the very highest order, Duane Eddy, and I count myself very lucky that I was able to see them performing together in Manchester back in 2018 which proved to be a magical evening.

Behind all this of course is Richard’s obsession for collecting vinyl which is something both I and so many others can identify with. I remember when I first started to handle vinyl in my early teenage years, amassing a huge collection of Stones 7” singles right back to their earliest days and then moving onto collecting every punk single that I could afford. I have long regarded the collection of vinyl in this way not so much as an obsession but more of an artform, through the appreciation of what those grooves contain as well as the thrill of handling the vinyl and absorbing whatever image and information sits on its cover and label. And whilst I am lucky enough to have had quite a few entertaining conversations with Richard over the years, I remain jealous of all those who have seen his vast personal collection of vinyl at first hand.

There is every likelihood that if the public’s interest in this collection is strong enough, there will be many more volumes to come as Richard continues to plunder his archives in his typically random fashion. So, I can only hope that music enthusiasts in all parts of the globe realise the significance of what is on offer here and get their hands on a copy of this vinyl to hopefully open the door to further collections in the future, allowing more golden nuggets to emerge to educate, entertain and thrill us all in equal measures.

You can pre-order the album here.

You can find Richard Hawley on Facebook, X (Twitter), Instagram and his website.

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All words by Ian Corbridge. You can find more of his writing at his author profile here.