Richard Hawley @ Queen's Hall, 13 Oct

Richard Hawley hails from a bygone era, crooning like Scott Walker before he turned avant-garde and penning luscious odes to courting couples and, er, his hometown of Sheffield. Despite graduating from Pulp, being Mercury nominated, and even garnering more populist award nods from the Brit committee, Hawley still largely operates under the radar, his chamber-pop shtick too kitsch for some. A new album in the same vein is unlikely to alter his standing greatly, but let’s accentuate the positive: rather than suffering soulless corporate enormo-venues, we instead get to savour his symphonies in the more alluring Queen's Hall. Lovely.