Music is neither made nor experienced in a vacuum. Artists are influenced by their past and present life experiences, of course, just as every fan hears through unique ear trumpets crafted by their own brushes with love, heartache, disappointment and more. Everyone looks back. Everyone looks ahead. We just do so from slightly different perspectives.
I start there because Hardwicke Circus’ sophomore studio set, Fly the Flag, is an utterly infectious outing that’s simultaneously retro and modern; it borrows from the past to celebrate the present and future. On first listen, one hears overt and covert echoes of Motown, the Jam and Clash, plus the Beatles and other bygone bands, not to mention an artist who’s still going strong: Bruce Springsteen. As my wife observed when I played the album for her, they’re an amalgamation of the New Wave groups of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. But while they wear their influences on their sleeves, their sound is fresh and new. One need not know all or any of the antecedents to appreciate them.
The band is led by lead singer/guitarist Jonny Foster and his brother, drummer Tom Foster, and includes bassist Joe Hurst, keyboardist Lewis Bewley-Taylor and saxophonist Jack Pearce. Fly the Flag, which was produced by Stiff Records co-founder Dave Robinson, features a few cool guest spots, too from guitarist Earl Slick, saxophonist/flautist Snake Davis, saxophonist-trumpeter Terry Edwards, and organist Seamus Beaghan.
In short, theirs is the kind of music geared to getting people out of their seats and onto the dance floor. There is an unabashed joy that underlines the tunes even when the lyrics detour into dour topics, whether being shot down by a girl in “Bang My Head (to the Rhythm of Life),” pining for someone to love in “True Love & Near Misses” or musing about rejection and regret in “Rejection Is Better Than My Regret.” In addition to the New Wave rhythms, there’s way cool Northern Soul grooves going on.
That’s not to say all the songs will having you doing the Monkey or Jerk. Midway through the 12-track set, “Battlefield” slows things down to a slow sway while ruminating about the lost and wounded found on the battlefield that can be love. The lead single, “A Johnny Come Lately,” picks up the tempo a few notches while “The Colour of Everything,” which mines the Four Tops’ “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch),” introduces the cry of the infatuated to the mix. The mid-tempo “Our Town” continues the mood with a jaundiced view of hometowns everywhere: “Whatever happened to that four-leaf clover?”
Run, don’t walk, to the streaming service of your choice and add Fly the Flag—which is slated for release on June 9th—to your library, or hit up their official store to buy the physical product. And in the days between now and Friday, or after, be sure to check out their 2021 studio debut, The Borderline, and 2022 live set that was recorded at the British prisons HMP Standford Hill and HMP Elmley, At Her Majesty’s Pleasure. It’s easy to hear why no less than Paul McCartney requested Glastonbury officials add Hardwicke Circus to the festival lineup when he headlined the event in 2022. They’re phenomenal.
The track list:
The Old Grey Cat 
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