I was born in Marple Bridge, near Stockport in Greater Manchester in 1965 - the same day The Rolling Stones released "Get off of my Cloud"! Now actually I'm called William Allen, but for some reason at an early performance at the Witchwood in Ashton near Manchester I decided that Hawthorne - that's actually my middle name, sounder more like a singer-songwriter than "Allen". perhaps I should tell Lily...

I was inspired to begin playing guitar after a 1976 BBC screening a season of the Beatles' films, also collected everything I could get his hands on by that group, and then the Rolling Stones, The Who and The Kinks. After learning a few Beatles, blues and folk songs I started trying to write my own. Subsequently, throughout the school years music was a prominent factor - both academically and recreationally. At the expense of most of my school work

A major illness in 1984 prevented me from going to college or going into employment after school. Music played a crucial role at this time - as well as appreciating the therapeutic qualities of music making, I was able to hone my playing, writing and recording skills during the period of enforced sabbatical. From the late eighties onward I worked in recording studios, producing and engineering for other artists. This work ran parallel with work in gigging with a number of bands and duos,as well as teaching guitar, bass and musical drama.

In 1994 the first Will Hawthorne album, Hey Freud!, was recorded and released independently through Sunbeam Music. Cassette copies were sold at gigs for £2. These actually had a lyric sheet included, and are now worth anywhere up to £2.

This was followed in 1996 by Roman Roads which was also available on CD, if you actually knew me that is.

Shortly after that, in September 1996, I left the North to study music further at Brunel University in Twickenham (I subsequently lived in the West London area until April 2005).

1998 saw the release of a 5 track sampler CD EP The North-South Divide. This featured 2 new songs alongside 1 song each from the previous albums, plus Until You Get There,one which seems to go down quite well at song-night appearances (recorded during the Hey Freud! sessions).

The next CD was Artistic Licence Detector Van (21/08/00), a new 12 track album as well as the launch of this website, and a prestigious support slot at the Garage in London. I also played guitar on a radio session, and several gigs with top American singer-songwriter Maureen Munroe.

2001 saw the successful completion of an MA course in Soundtrack Music Composition at Kingston University and I was employed to write the incidental music to the audio play (starring Paul Mcgann) Dr. Who : Minuet in Hell for Big Finish productions (NB ; I am credited as William Allen on the subsequent CD release, as well as the music only version. On the Links page you will find directions to these CDs).

In October 2002 a headline appearance at the Twickenham Folk Club coincided with the release of a new album ; Are You Being Reserved? : The Acoustic Sessions . As it's title suggests this CD consists entirely of acoustic versions (one vocal, one guitar) of 13 songs (some that were included on previous CDs, some previously unreleased).

In 2005 I moved back up North and completed work on another full length album You've got to hear this, Baby! and play regularly now at The Iguana Bar in Chorlton.

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