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It is late October and, 10 kilometres from the frontline in Donetsk, east Ukraine, the inhabitants of a reconditioned ambulance are completely lost. While opening your phone and logging on to a maps app might appear the obvious solution, this would be extremely unwise here: Russian drones are overhead and hunting for any signals.
Inside the van are a motley crew: an 81-year-old Irish music industry veteran; a 72-year-old Texas rocker; an Australian keyboardist; a Ukrainian saxophonist; and three twenty-something musicians from Carlisle, Cumbria. Their destination is a military base where they are to perform for Ukrainian troops.
Dave Robinson, the Irishman, likens the wayward nature of the tour to when he was managing Jimi Hendrix in 1968. Joe “King” Carrasco, the ebullient Texan, compares it to “playing for the Sandinistas in Nicaragua when they were fighting the Contras”. For the younger, less experienced inhabitants of the ambulance, though, it is a mighty long way from Carlisle and Melbourne to this bleak, chilly no man’s land.
“We were more excited than anything,” reflects Jonny Foster, lead singer and guitarist of Hardwicke Circus – now safely back home in Carlisle – as he, alongside Robinson and Carrasco, discuss over a video call what it was like to traverse these real highways to hell. “We just wanted to do our bit to support Ukraine’s war effort and thought the locals might enjoy hearing a live rock’n’roll band.”
Hardwicke Circus toured war-torn Ukraine in June of this year, the only British musicians to have done so. The experience made them determined to return, thus their late October-early November trek. The band didn’t undertake these tours to generate money – all proceeds were donated to local Ukrainian charities – nor as a publicity stunt. “We once toured British prisons,” says Foster, “for the same reason: we believe music is both entertainment and art, and all people should have access to it.”
Teenage brothers Jonny and Tom Foster formed Hardwicke Circus in 2015, and since then have self-released three albums, plus a live-in-Ukraine LP, One Hour Ahead of the Posse. Their classic rock sound might not be fashionable – their sax-accompanied narrative songs suggest Thin Lizzy or mid-1970s era Bruce Springsteen – but regular touring has seen them gather a loyal following. Paul McCartney asked for Glastonbury to add them to its 2022 lineup (they closed that year’s festival playing the Rabbit Hole stage to a rapturous audience) while Bob Dylan added them to the bill of his Hyde Park concert in 2019.
The Fosters were inspired to tour Ukraine after performing in the Czech Republic earlier this year. “We were naive,” admits Jonny, “and thought Ukraine was a short drive over the Czech border – it’s 1,000km across Poland! Back in Carlisle we contacted Derek Eland, a Cumbrian painter who had done a lot to support Ukraine. He linked us with Okazia, a female rock trio in Ukraine, and we approached them about playing dates together. They loved the idea and it became the quickest tour we’ve ever booked!”
Remarkably the band weren’t warned off the trip by the UK Foreign Office. “We were waiting to hear someone shout ‘Don’t go!’” says Robinson, “but nobody did. People think we’re mad as a box of snakes” – he laughs – “and maybe we are.”
Still they did hit a snag: Hardwicke Circus’s non-Foster members refused to tour Ukraine. “Four of our band got scared,” says Foster, “and their mums forbade them to go.”
“Which is understandable,” adds Robinson.
“Yeah,” agrees Foster, “Saying, ‘Do you want to come and play in a war zone for no money?’ isn’t appealing to most people.”
Instead the brothers reached out to former member Bill Wilde and Australian keyboardist Conor Morrissey – both London-based – who subsequently signed on. Also joining on guitar was Carrasco, a Tex-Mex musician whose dedicated his life to rocking all over the world. “I started playing in bands as a teenager,” he recalls, “and since then I’ve played everywhere – all over Latin America, Botswana, Zimbabwe, India, Cambodia, Morocco.”
The Carrasco connection came via the band’s manager, Dave Robinson, a music industry veteran who is best known for co-founding and managing Stiff Records, the London-based indie label that launched Elvis Costello, Ian Dury, Kirsty MacColl, the Pogues and Madness (who Robinson signed after they played his wedding, then directed their groundbreaking videos).
Stiff released Joe “King” Carrasco’s eponymous 1980 album, which failed to match the success of the aforementioned artists. “Joe’s always been a brilliant performer and total rock’n’roller,” says Robinson. “The UK wasn’t ready for him in 1980, but this didn’t faze him.”
Carrasco did get a taste of US success: having signed to MCA, he found his videos were played on the fledgling MTV channel, while Michael Jackson sang backing vocals on his 1982 album Synapse Gap (Mundo Total). “We were both recording at the same Hollywood studio complex. Michael was a nice guy who had incredible mic technique,” Carrasco says. “He had a white Rolls-Royce and there were all these teen girls hanging around his car. Michael seemed perplexed by it all.”
Carrassco’s brush with fame proved fleeting, ensuring he continued playing bars and touring where most acts never ventured. Robinson invited him to join his youthful charges playing UK dates in 2022. “Great band, in it for all the right reasons,” Carrasco says of Hardwicke Circus.
“When Joe heard we were planning to tour Ukraine he said: ‘Count me in’,” says Foster. “He’s really committed to singing for the people.”
“And I’m committed to dogs,” adds Carrasco: having discovered in June how Ukraine is now home to many abandoned canines, he subsequently raised funds to buy large amounts of pet food for animal shelters. “We took pet food to one dog shelter just three kilometres from the frontline,” he says. “Here we could feel the intensity of the struggle – that this conflict is a war between good and evil – with the Russians and North Koreans very nearby.”
The June tour of Ukraine, which saw the band play eight dates from Lviv in the west to Kharkiv in the north-east, was, all three agree, life-affirming. “We knew we weren’t going to end the war,” says Robinson, “but seeing people smile and sing along, the tension draining from their faces, that made it worthwhile. “Our most popular number was one we’d originally written about Tyson Fury but, for the tour, we changed it to be about Oleksandr Usyk.”
Afternoon acoustic concerts in hospitals and schools added another dimension to the tour. “We wanted to bring some light relief to people who have been through so much,” says Foster. “One afternoon we played a set at an amputee hospital and there, lying on a stretcher, was a soldier who had recently had his left leg amputated – blood was seeping through his bandages. He was singing along with us and applauding. That was incredibly moving.”
At another venue, a school workshop, they met an autistic teenage girl who was traumatised from having lived for a long period under Russian occupation. ”She really responded when we played music. So much so that we invited her to sing with us, Her teacher later said that our performance saw her begin coming out of her shell.”
The impact the June tour made on Hardwicke Circus ensured that they were determined to do it again. “We considered waiting until winter was over,” says Robinson, “but thought: No, let’s show our support now. And off we went.”
This time the tour involved plenty of prep: the support of several Carlisle businesses and general fundraising saw the purchase of two emergency evacuation vehicles to donate to the Ukrainian military. Leaving Carlisle, it took the band five days to drive the SUVs, alongside a band van – “Jonny had bought a complete banger for tuppence,” notes Robinson – to Lviv, where warning signs of the forthcoming eastern winter greeted them. “It was getting really cold, heavy rains, and the Russians were doing their worst before winter really kicks in,” he says.
An early incident almost ended the tour – and their lives. “I was driving down a steep mountain road on a very wet night,” recalls Robinson, “and the van’s steering lost power. I had to make a snap decision, so drove into a forest road. When we got out we saw we were on the verge of a 200-metre drop. If we’d gone over that we would’ve joined Buddy Holly in rock’n’roll heaven.”
With the group’s van now unsafe to drive, Adrian Simpson, a British national whose organisation Mission Aid For Ukraine had provided advice and support, stepped in. “Adrian lent us a reconditioned ambulance,” says Robinson, “and, as we were heading to Donetsk, he advised us to remove the red crosses as Russian drones seek out ambulances – it’s fucking immoral what Putin’s doing. So I got out my penknife and scratched them off.”
Hardwicke Circus could have left the SUVs in Lviv to be collected, but instead they were determined to deliver the vehicles to military bases near the frontline. And to sing for the soldiers. “We wanted to show our solidarity with those who were doing the fighting,” says Foster. “When we delivered a vehicle to the 81st Brigade it was one of those ‘lost for words’ moments. We’d spent months fundraising and here we were giving the vehicle over to those who needed it. They signed our British flag and we signed their Brigade flag and it was all very emotional.”
Travelling by ambulance proved handy as Robinson soon succumbed to pneumonia. “I woke up in hospital not knowing where I was,” he says, “and they kept me there a week. Worst food I’ve ever eaten – but they fixed me.” After eight days recuperating he travelled to Kraków in Poland and then home.
The band’s bassist Wilde, meanwhile, had such bad flu that he couldn’t feel his limbs and was put on a coach to Poland. Not long after, the band’s Ukrainian saxophonist Ptashka Khromchenko needed to be hospitalised for bronchitis. The Foster brothers and keyboardist Morrissey came down with flu, meaning only Carrasco, veteran of so many tours, remained unscathed.
“The weather was bitter and we were playing concerts in hospitals so picked up viruses,” says Foster. “We soldiered on – when you’re in a nation under attack you don’t complain about feeling poorly.”
The concerts – held in Ternopil, Cherkasy, Dnipro, Poltava and Kyiv – were often held in subterranean venues and had to finish before the midnight curfew, and drew largely female audiences, as most men are on the frontline.
“Touring meant sirens going off, staying in hotels with bunkers, hearing missiles and drones above us, being woken by explosions,” says Robinson who, even after being hospitalised, felt emboldened. “It was intense and an incredible time.”
“It was dangerous, yes,” says Foster, “and there is no guide book, but we have a lot of info we can share if people want to take their art to Ukraine.”
“That’s what people in the west need to do,” says Robinson. “Get out there and support Ukrainians. See how they conduct their lives during wartime.”
“Ukrainians fight hard and don’t take no shit,” says Carrasco. “They sleep in their bathtubs to avoid being sprayed with broken glass and don’t complain. Instead, they get up each morning and fight on. Alamo spirit!”
After 18 days touring Ukraine and seeing this spirit, it was time for Hardwicke Circus’s surviving members to head home. After instructing the rest of the band to follow Robinson in flying out of Kraków, Foster stayed on to collect their now semi-repaired van. Packing it with band equipment, he drove for five days back to Carlisle.
“I kind of collapsed when I got home,” he says. “Exhaustion – I’d driven a five-and-a-half-thousand-mile round trip! But it was worth it. And we all aim on returning to Ukraine in 2026.”
“More touring without a safety net,” says Robinson. The three veterans of Hardwicke Circus’s Ukraine campaign all laugh in recognition.
Hardwicke Circus continue to fundraise for Ukraine at crowdfunder.co.uk/p/hardwicke-circus
