RICHARD DAWSON & CIRCLE Henki WEIRD WORLD
WHEN Richard Dawson picked his favourite records for Uncut in 2017, his choices provided an unusually deep insight into his music. Mix Éliane Radigue, Orchestra Baobab and Sun Ra and you may, if you’re as talented and hard-working as the Newcastle songwriter, end up with records as special as Peasant or its 2019 follow-up, 2020.
Dawson’s first choice for that list, however, his earliest mind-blowing moment, was Iron Maiden’s self-titled debut. Their influencedissection of medieval matters, to the chugging gallop of ’s “Jogging”. , however, is Dawson’s first actual heavy metal album. He’s long been a huge fan of Circle, and described being invited onstage with them at Helsinki’s Sideways Festival in 2019 as “like being a teenager and suddenly being asked to go onstage with Iron Maiden”. The group soon suggested making a full album together, and the bulk of it was tracked in their hometown, Pori, before the pandemic hit.
