Bloggerhythms

Cumbria Pizza is an all acoustic, concert album by Hardwicke Circus recorded at Pizza Express Live in Holborn, London, England in May 2023. Although the band currently has only two studio albums to their name, this recent release is subtitled The Greatest Hits Unplugged ,   and while it may seem overblown to talk about "greatest" hits at this point in the Carlisle, UK band's career - especially in America - that superlative easily applies to this show because they played their best-loved and most well-known songs. To quote the quintet's producer  Dave Robinson - who also was the legendary founder of Stiff Records - directly from the back of the LP cover,  "There are two kinds of people in the world, Hardwicke Circus fans and people who haven't heard them yet." Hardwicke Circus plays melodic, upbeat rock 'n roll with plenty of hooks. As mentioned in my earlier review of their latest studio album,  Fly The Fla...

The British Invasion may have been tamed by the Colonials a long time ago, but our original ancestral homeland continues to bombard our shores with some great music. We mustn't entertain any thoughts about striking back with a counteroffensive because  Hardwicke Circus - an energetic, creative young band from the northern English city of Carlisle - has been sent our way. The Hardwickes are a top notch, rock and roll quintet with a vintage sound and modern passions. Fly the Flag is their second studio record and it arrives after a live LP they recorded in an English prison. The 80s have always been a decade I've dumped on - and these guys sound like that's where most of their influences come from - but they don't rely on synths and drum machines as their modus operandi. Yes, electronic keyboards are part of the mix, but this outfit isn't Depeche Mode. They use modern technology the way it should be used -...