Talk about good fortune. Carlisle band Hardwicke Circus was plucked from obscurity to potential stardom at Glastonbury last weekend, thanks to a request from a music icon. The six-piece rock band played the Rabbit Hole stage at the festival after the Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney heard their music and asked if they could be included in the line-up. In a tweet, Glastonbury stage officials said: “When a request from Sir Paul came through to Rabbit Hole HQ to ask if we could fit in a band he was a fan of, the White Rabbit’s ears pricked up.

The band, who say they are proud to be based in Carlisle, have played almost 200 gigs supporting Bob Dylan & Neil Young in Hyde Park, Madness, and Bob Geldof’s Boomtown Rats, but it is this gig at Glastonbury that will give them their shot at the bigtime. Their sound is a mixture of The Waterboys, the Artic Monkeys, and the Clash with a dash of Midnight Oil thrown in for attitude. The Sunday Times calls them “bulletproof”, but now they have their break, we need to see if the songs can introduce them to a global audience far beyond the hills of Cumbria.

https://www.hardwickecircus.tv @hardwickecircus #hardwickecircus #sirpaulmccartney #cumbria #theborderland #athermajestyspleasure #emrecords #glastonbury