How did an Aussie, a Texan, an Irishman and three Cumbrians find themselves on the road on the Ukrainian frontline? For classic rock collective Hardwicke Circus, it was a no-brainer: ‘We thought they’d like to hear some rock’n’roll’
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t 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.
