PETE WILLIAMS, a much-travelled performer who found 1980s fame with Dexy's Midnight Runners and as a founding member of The Bureau, has added to his songwriting credentials with his third solo album.

“Pete Williams is a storyteller in his songs, and writes as a mature man who has lived and suffered and loved. The soulfulness that Pete brings to everything that he does is inspiring. He has the passion of a young writer, and the philosophical overview of a wise man,” said Craig and Charlie Reid, of The Proclaimers after Williams supported their 2015 UK and European tour.

Williams' third offering, H.O.L.L.A.N.D. – which stands for Hope Our Love Lasts And Never Dies – is officially released on Friday, July 27, on Basehart Recordings - as it happens, the very evening he performs one of only a handful of UK shows to promote the album, at the Westgarth Social Club, in Middlesbrough.

H.O.L.L.A.N.D. follows See, in 2012, and Roughnecks + Roustabouts, in 2015, and is the final chapter in what Williams describes as his Sheffield Trilogy. Like its predecessors, it was recorded at Tesla Recording Studios in Sheffield, and produced by Mike Timm and Shez Sheridan.

Alongside Williams on vocals, ukulele, clarinet and piano, the album features his regular band of Shez Sheridan (guitars, lap-steel), Dean Beresford (drums), Laurence Saywood (bass) and Andy S Wellings (guitar).

H.O.L.L.A.N.D. is an album about crossing borders, some real, (Paradise - a dash through Europe to post revolution Romania), others imagined, both physical and metaphysical (Wind Whispers). Williams writes about checkpoints in his life, journeys out of the ‘twisted and cramped’ environment where he grew up, through green belt and forest to the great outdoors (Caledonia) and ‘the distant Black Mountains ‘ (So Far So Good) and longing for home 35,000 ft above Surabaya on a long haul flight (Heart etc.)

H.O.L.L.A.N.D. is an acronym, scrawled on graffitied maisonette walls by SPAR-crossed lovers in Launderettes in the high rise estates where Williams grew up. A reflective but forward looking record with wit, optimism and warmth in its grooves.

n Pete Williams, Westgarth Social Club, Middlesbrough, Friday, July 27. Advance tickets are £10, or £12 at the door, from bigfigurepromotion.co.uk or by calling 07769258035 or Westgarth Social Club on 01642 242164