Queerguru’s Robert Malcolm reviews HAMISH HAWK who is definitely taking A FIRMER HAND with his music (and men?)

You may not have heard of indie singer-songwriter Hamish Hawk, but he is starting to make waves on the European music scene with his third solo album A Firmer Hand.But first, let’s talk about his audience. At tonight’s Usher Hall concert in his hometown of Edinburgh, at least half the crowd were of his parent’s generation, and I don’t think they were all just friends and family. You see, Hamish has nostalgia appeal for us oldies. He has been compared to Morrisey, Scott Walker, The Divine Comedy, Jarvis Cocker and even Elvis, and his music until recently has uniquely drawn on the sounds of the eighties and nineties. In Scotland he channels bands like Simple Minds, Travis, and…well, all the Scottish bands of that period. But the fact is, he is a highly talented, very charismatic performer and can write and sing amazingly in any genre.Despite his sexual ambiguity it has been his previous reluctance to publicly align himself with any of the letters in the LGBTQ+ family, as if he was additionally mimicking closeted twentieth century artists, which has not sat well with those of us at QueerGuru.However with the songs and lyrics of his altogether darker album, A Firmer Hand 2024, we can be in no doubt that regardless of what he has said in the past, Hamish is a man who likes to have sex with men.And in recognition of LGBTQ+ history he has even penned a ballad called Christopher Street, about Marsha P. Johnson.Recently he has proclaimed that he has a “growing unwillingness to compromise” with his audience and might find himself “in deep water” with them. I can’t help feeling that he is talking specifically about the very straight Edinburgh audience tonight.So, he arrives on stage, ash blond, smartly dressed in dapper shades of grey, looking like a Swedish fashion student.Immediately he launches like a missile, into four of the best songs from A Firmer Hand, the most compelling and explicit being Machiavelli’s Room, a reference to James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room, with the memorable lines:“There’s nothing he likes moreThan to watch me disappearing inside him.Uh-huh”Uh-huh indeed !Hamish is an exciting performer. Never staying still for long, he runs across the stage pumping his fists in the air like an angry child unable to express himself. And his baritone voice soars and sometimes sends tingles down my spine. It’s as if he is possessed.In fact, critics have already noted his Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde personalities as he switches from the new raunchy tracks to the old romantic melodies. Robert Louis Stevenson’s gothic novel is an Edinburgh trope and its citizens are infamous for their polite Protestant respectability concealing transgressive Pagan decadence. “All fur coat and no nickers” as a Glaswegian would say.In between songs he is bashful and charming, thanking Edinburgh for its support of his career and informing us that he used to work in the Usher Hall, “so be nice to the staff.” And he gives a big shout out to the club which gave him and many others their first break, Sneaky Pete’s in the Cowgate.As the evening progresses he falls back on tracks from his first two albums Heavy Elevator 2021, and Angel Numbers 2023 and I start to get bored by the wholesome eighties vibe. The candid, confident and cosmopolitan Hamish of 2025 is preferable to his former suburban self.The one exception to my eighties weariness is The Mauritian Badminton Doubles Champion 1973, which is as close to happy-sad pop perfection as you can imagine.After his rousing last song, Caterpillar, which I take as an homage to Talking Heads, Hamish returns for an encore with a thrilling, unexpected cover of the Rolling Stones’ Satisfaction. And it all seems to make sense. He is acting out his desires, lusts and sexual frustrations on stage. In revealing his true identity, shy unassuming Clark Kent is becoming a Superstar.So where will Hamish Hawk go next and who will his audience be in the future? Following A Firmer Hand and this tour, I predict that his fame will spread far and wide and his audience will get younger, and queerer than ever.Edinburgh was the last stop on this European tour.https://open.spotify.com/album/4rQxc2wbx5mEV5Dnu8eWHX?si=Mpxk6myGTrS61K_2o6BhbA

https://queerguru.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/getmyfb.com_1740454962405.mp4

 

 

 

Robert Malcolm is an Interior Designer who relocated from London to his home town of Edinburgh in 2019. Under the pen name of Bobby Burns he had his first novel, a gay erotic thriller called Bone Island published by Homofactus Press in 2011.