Hardwicke Circus

Coming full circle carries a strange kind of power.

When we first started Hardwicke Circus, we were just a gang of best mates with crazy dreams about being in a band. Through the Carlisle community we built this thing from the ground up, playing hundreds of gigs in pubs, clubs, prisons, wrestling conferences and anywhere else that would have us.

“We are Hardwicke Circus from Carlisle”

All the long drives in old vans and a total lack of reasonable accommodation led us on to perform at Glastonbury, with Bob Dylan & Neil Young in Hyde Park & record our debut album, The Borderland.

Then time did what time does.

Life shifted. Covid came. Gigs disappeared. People drifted. Members came and went. That’s the weather for bands that keep swimming against the tide.

Out of nowhere, in 2025 as Tom & I started thinking seriously about the new album, some unexplainable force yanked the original bloodline back together. Jonny Foster. Tom Foster. Ben Wilde. Zack McDade. Andy Sax. And the new boy, Conor Morrissey. This is the Hardwicke Circus on the new studio album, with additional performances from the great Lewis Bewley-Taylor & John McFee (Doobie Brothers).

Growing up has a lot to do with it. Time has a funny way of stripping away the nonsense. We’ve all fucked up a bit more. Seen more. Regretted more. Learned more about ourselves and each other. Somewhere in all that, it became clear that we still want the same thing. Not some nostalgia malarkey. But great music, songs and a great record. The music dragged us back into the studio and we can’t wait for you all to hear it.

So here we is — but where is we?

In 2026 we release what we believe is our best album yet, produced by the legendary Alan Winstanley and Michael Smith.

“Behind the Lines of Reason”, we are mixing it right now in a studio underneath a chicken shop in Harrow, London. South Africa and China beckon. A rescheduled UK tour is coming soon (tickets from cancelled dates remain valid). We’ll be supporting Elvis Costello. We’re heading back to Ukraine and putting on a major fundraiser in the UK.

But first, we make our big return to The Brickyard on Sunday 28th June as part of the Everywhere at Once festival organised alongside the Music Venue Trust. It’s a big year ahead and we can’t wait to kick it off at The Brickyard.