Sara Hawley & The Bang Bang Club: Library

'..cool'

review of The Castle, Oldham gig.

Sara Hawley and The Bang Bang Club are so damn tight. The guitar and bass are completely locked in and the six string antics are full of impressive inflections and shrewdly applied effects. Sara Hawley herself, despite a Doctors enforced rest recently, is on top form – her vocals clear and direct and ready to deliver the songs, many of which were crafted entirely herself. But this is the best, most settled line up of The Bang Bang Club - they’re a band and seem organically connected from the drums up. Tracks like “Bad For Me” stick out like hits within a set itself embarrassed by a potential plethora of potential singles. Hawleys top hat gets passed around the crowd and by its return, there’s already enough evidence to justify both Sara and the bands ascension, to something much, much, much bigger.

Practically defined by the personality and style of feisty frontwoman Sara Hawley, the band effortlessly turn out top class power pop, with the attitude and rage of a punk band. This is relentlessly enthusiastic, and there are no apologies made for the noise.

Hard Rock Café has decided that for the month of March, they’ll take their focus off past musical icons, and examine the future stars of Manchester, starting with Sara Hawley

When Sarah Hawley takes to the stage, a quiet hush descends over the listeners and diners before a note is uttered or played. Her attention-grabbing outfit comprises of a tight fitting black basque and black bowler hat sitting snugly on her blonde locks.
Luckily, the band is not all style over substance. Hawley has a glass-shattering vocal talent, and once she has grabbed your attention, she doesn't intend on letting it go. It’s dynamic power pop stuff, delivered in such a confident manner that you would easily forget that Hawley is still a teenager.

It's also easy to overlook the other members of the band, but the contribution they make to the solid sound is essential to allow Hawley to dominate the stage and perform her aural gymnastics. If you bare in mind that Strokes producer George Raphael recorded her first two singles, maybe the Hard Rock have hit it spot on first time round!

on-line interview

Retching broken tusks and Salome’s tomagotchi; inhabiting den FNF habit dis week: Sarah Hawley & The Bang Bang Club. The much discussed well spent youth (growing old with robots instead of Bagpuss / ignorance of 10p bottle returns) conquering mountain 3rd Round proper (after tricky away ties) and commendations so T-riffic the vidi-printer spells the word to confirm the number! The British Tourist Board (In America) supersede “Ich bin ein Berliner” using SH & TBBC’s heads and faces to magnetise USA Americans to the island apes; the BBC wish to screen their bodies on their so called ‘Big Screen’; and former Beatles founder, Alan McGee, says they’re mint.

“…mint!” Alan McGee

Sara Hawley & the Bang Bang Club. Heard that name before ? You should have. MM were banging on about this young lady's talent whilst she was preparing to revise for her GCSE’s. There are plenty of emerging, but purposely suppressed endorsements already, but that’d be name dropping.... So after chucking her in at the deep end during 2004’s In The City Electric Circus, it's rewarding to see a brand new band, Hawleys vocals improved beyond a starting point way out of reach of 99% of singers and a host of brand new songs. It’s not hard to see why The Bang Bang Club also filled an apparently thrilled Mr McGee's 'Death Disco' . Their songs are powerful rock set pieces. It cuts across the current grain of wearing Top Shop clothes and declaring you’re in a post-punk garage band and saying you wished you lived in London. Tracks like “Sad & Gone” are really just sitting there waiting to be catapulted into the top 30. With some spine tingling guitar phrases and a solid rock rhythm, Sara Hawley and Co are on a journey – it’s a question of when, rather than if, they’ll reach their destination

Another huge homegrown teenage talent. Sara’s debut EP was recorded when she was 16, now just 18 , and with a voice like Janis Joplin meets Tracey Thorn plus the looks of Ashlee Simpson and a young Beki Bondage (ask yer dad if he was a punk, ha ha) she can’t go wrong.

Sara Hawley is going to have a blinding career.....we could have an Alternative Artist that competes with America..watch this space!!

'Sara's voice has more tone and power per square inch than other singers can ever think about' -

Hopefully someone, somewhere is beginning to take notice of Sara Hawley. After her debut demo last year and her appearance at MM’s ITC04 event, things seem to have gone quiet. With a band walkout, bust ups and splits, Hawley has stood back and written new material for her second band. And she’s only just 16. A lifetime of band experiences and the signatures are still not that dry on those GCSE certificates. “Tell Us Something” is more of a vehicle for Hawley’s vocal range, using the thrusting guitars and trad-rock outlook to let the vocal power burst through. More interesting though is “Breathe” which is more angular and dynamic - this time Sara really grinds out the tension before letting things build up into flyaway conclusion. But save the best for last, “Sad & Gone” is a rattling, exciting guitar workout, with narrow, tight interludes, great guitar hooks and anthemic ambition, all neatly arranged into a pulsating but slightly dark rock song. For someone so young doing much of this themselves it’s not far short of incredible

Sara.....'out-Pinks Pink and blows Pat Benetar out of the water'

Sara's voice....'stamps her out as potentially one of the most capable singers we're likely to come across'

The songs.....'an amazing benchmark that few other bands have managed to achieve, even with experience under their belt'

Sara Hawley's 'Mind Games'....in full Gordon Raphael produced glory, with its uber-PINK rock and leftfield riffs-these make Hawley one of the most exciting prospects as Manchester's next female rock star. You've been warned!

...'spikey...an up and coming artist'

Sara... just gets better and better...

Sara Hawley has undoubtedly got something going on. Mind Games has a spikey punk charm, while Broken has a smashed tender heart under a rock skin .............she could be huge....

Sara Hawley contacted me when she was 15 years old and sent me a demo of herself singing Janis Joplin's Piece of My Heart. I was surely skeptical when it started ( I was in the studio recording The Strokes Room On Fire) - but was greatly impressed because not only could she nail the notes and power required for the vocals on that song, but she made all the right decisions in presenting the attitudes and emotions of that heartfelt, rootsy blues song. So many times she could have gone the show-off talent route and been overly concerned with her abilities while singing, but instead she chose to focus on the feelings and depths of expression that the song is really about. When I recorded her in my studio in London, I was once again impressed with her fantastic singing and how she can communicate intense power and truth through her physical instrument. It might make some people uncomfortable to have tears come to their eyes during a song, and that doesnt happen with many performers- but Sara really can do it......

Sara Hawley has an amazing voice and just turned 17 is going to have a blinding career ahead of her given the right breaks. Just listening to this six track Promotional CD confirms what I´m saying is going to happen. Remember the name Sara Hawley! The backing band I hope she keeps as they compliment her amazing voice. The guitaring for most Pop Punk/Alternative bands stink of the same old riffs. Not with this band though! Sara is well up there with the likes of Pink, Avril Lavigne, Sinead O´Connor and Delores O´Rioardan as a vocalist - Just listen to her songs such as ´Broken´, ´Breathe´ and ´Sad And Gone´. Gordon Raphael producer of The Strokes has already picked up on her so maybe we could have an Alernative artist that competes with America. Watch this space as there´s going to be a bright and colourful future for Sara Hawley. (Self Financed) 9/10

Fronted by the powerful vocals of Sara Hawley …..the guitars have a shattering jangle that mixes the intersecting hooklines with crunching chords and some song closing feedback. In front of this powerhouse, Hawley is pitch perfect and thrusting a heady performance in our faces - which could all easily spill over into the street below. Undeniably it’s tracks like “Mind Games” that are quite unforgettable. The barbs of the guitar riff jam right into your head and Sara Hawley matches the driving force of the bass / drums with astonishing ease. The future starts here


After trawling around Manchester for two days listening to various acts trying to be the next best thing, I’m smiling, because the only bands I’ve heard who know what a chorus is have just played in front of me.