FIRED up on nothing stronger than ginger beer – a rewarding glass of red would follow on stage – Richard Hawley was playing his first gig for two years.

“So if we’re c**p…” he said in the deadpan way that only a Yorkshireman can.

Well, he threw in one extra chorus that neither band nor the audience had noticed, much to his amusement, but last Friday’s debut appearance at Pocklington was anything but c**p.

“Bring earplugs”, advised Pock Arts Centre assistant manager James Duffy, “It’s going to be very loud”.

Anyone acquainted with Hawley’s essentially acoustic Coles Corner album would have been surprised at such a health warning, but this spring he has returned to the fray in these red-raw political times with the electricity turned up, the guitars tuned to psych-rock.

Opener and title track Standing At The Sky’s Edge heralded this graver tone, brought on by his despair that the Coalition is condemning British people to darker days, and later Leave Your Body Behind You and Down In The Woods were magnificently moody too.

While the new album was rightly prominent in the 100-minute set, Hawley the retro crooner was present too, reviving Tonight The Streets Are Ours for the first time in five years and rending hearts anew with the peerless Lady Solitude.

His first show for two years it may have been, but Hawley’s guitar playing was as committed as Hendrix, all fire and swoon, and Shez Sheridan’s pedal steel a tender joy too, as Hawley vowed to return to Pocklington, “the city they built on rock’n’roll”.

He was only teasing, but this was another cracker from a venue that continues to punch above its weight.