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Hardwicke Circus is another UK band who have flown under the radar. Cumbria Pizza (Alternative Facts) documents an unplugged “greatest hits” concert at, er, Pizza Express in Holborn, London. Taking liberally from classic British bands like Dexys Midnight Runners and The Jam, the Carlisle group work up a folk-pop storm, with heart-on-the-sleeve singalongs like Johnny Come Lately and Helmand-set Can You Hear Me Now? chart hits in a parallel universe. Ian Sinclair

Delayed Plays: Cumbria Pizza by Hardwicke Circus

Rock is dead—or so some social-media hacks crow in hopes of egging folks like me into expressing our outrage in their threads. The indignity of such a statement! There are a slew of artists and bands that continue to champion the backbeat first laid down by Elvis, Chuck, Buddy, John and Paul, and some who infuse their music with the funky R&B that accented much of ‘70s rock—you know of what I speak, with songs accented by soaring saxophones that conjure Clarence Clemons, Alto Reed and even Raphael Ravenscroft, who blew the memorable riff that accents Gerry Rafferty’s “Baker Street.” The music’s easily found! Here, let me reel off a handful of hip young rock bands that have caught my ear over the past few years!  

In other words: engagement farmer, 1; me, 0. 

Hardwicke Circus is one of those hip young bands, though they—like many of the artists and bands I spotlight in these pages—might take umbrage with me calling them “young.” (But fact is fact; compared to me, they’re mere kids.) From Carlisle in Cumbria County, aka North West England, the six-piece group makes music that sports a throwback sound—think Bruce Springsteen circa Born to Run or the Boomtown Rats circa Tonic for the Troops, not to mention—as I noted in my review of their last album, Fly the Flag—Motown, the Jam and the Clash.

The live Cumbria Pizza, released last month, was recorded at Pizza Express in Holborn, London, in July 2023. It’s an intoxicating “unplugged” set that features songs from their two studio sets, The Borderline (2021) and Fly the Flag (2023), a previously unreleased single, and a cool cover song, to boot. Though there’s been some change-over in the band since, the lineup here features Jonny Foster on guitar and vocals; his brother Tom on drums and vocals; Lewis Bewley-Taylor on keyboards and vocals; Joe Hurst on bass and vocals; and Andy Phillips on saxophones and vocals.

One highlight is “Rejection Is Better Than Regret,” which conjures the Beatles by way of “Twist and Shout.” The track that follows, “Can You Hear Me Now,” follows the Springsteen mid-‘70s playbook, with a sax solo that conjures Clemons and a piano part that channels Roy Bittan, while the lyrics travel far beyond the backstreets to share the experiences of refugees fleeing Afghanistan and Vietnam. It’s cinematic in both scope and presentation and, to my ears, represents everything that’s good about rock ‘n’ roll music.

The same’s true of the album writ large. It may be unplugged, but it squeezes out sparks on each and every cut, mining both the light and shadows for drama and even comedy. “Once I’m Gone Your Sun Is Coming Up,” the previously unreleased track, is a good example of the latter; it’s a fun kiss-off about being kicked to the curb by an ex. That the 12-track set ends with a rendition of Gerry Rafferty’s “Baker Street,” about losing one’s self in self-pity and drink before allowing the sun—and hope—to chase the blues away, is fitting.