Hardwicke Circus's Ukraine Tour Diary - Part 3: Next Stop Ternopil, Ukraine

We were holding a workshop for some kids in a music school.

Nobody was wearing shoes or socks.

Freaked me out a little bit.

We talked music, played music, and the class introduced us to a song that translates to ‘The Bus’.

Later that day, the class joined us on stage and we played ‘The Bus’.

It was a hell of a lot of fun.

Good voices too.

A girl asked me about fame and fortune.

I told her I had neither, but Hot Press might publish my writing.

She had no fucking idea what that meant and politely moved on to someone with higher prestige.

What I enjoy about touring is the progress.

Every day we get closer to the perfect shape – until we fall off a cliff.

Brilliance comes into reach – and then you lose sight of it again.

After the show, I sang ‘Garden Party’ to Roman and I guarantee you he’s still singing that right now.

Vinnytsia Ukraine, and it’s Snishka’s birthday.

Another workshop in the day.

Another show at night.

The crowd went wild – but Joe ‘King’ Carrasco went wilder.

The setlist was:

'Man of the Town'
'It’s Not Over Till It’s Over'
'Night Train to London'
'Kicks On You'
'Hey Joe’
‘Lockdown'
‘Highway'
'Ballad of Alexander Usyk'
'96 Tears'
‘Gloria'
'Walking on Broken Glass'
(The crowd wanted more)
'Woolly Bully'
(And even more)
'Little Queenie'

 

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Straight To The Shelter

It was 45 minutes until curfew.

We were relying on a 26-minute pack.

It’s martial law or something here – you can’t be out at night or the police can get you.

Not to mention: the ballistic missiles and drones come out at night.

So the clock strikes 00:00 and hip hop hooorayyyy!!

We had Kyiv cake and tequila.

And for the non-drinkers – kvas.

(Personally, I wouldn’t wash the wheels of my car with that piss – but it’s better than the alternative, I guess.)

After a brief chat and a few toasts to the birthday girl, I lost my missile-siren virginity.

We calmly but quickly went straight to the shelter, while Maria brought some food.

Roman and Jon brought tequila.

The nine of us played cards and a few games of Up Jenkins.

An hour or so later, we heard some shuffling upstairs.

We’d run out of kvas and celery sticks with tomatoes.

So we ventured upstairs.

It was Joe ‘King’ Carrasco pottering around.

“Joe! What are you doing? Can’t you hear the siren?”

“All I’ve heard since the ’80s is a crash cymbal. Why – what’s happening?”

We told him it was an air raid alert.

So he said he’d go get Dave and join us for a game of Up Jenkins.

When Joe told Dave about the sirens, Dave’s response was:

“Let me sleep. Fuck off.”

I think he was speaking for many Ukrainians in saying this.

So Joe sang a swampy 12-bar blues version of ‘Happy Birthday’ to Snishka and wished us goodnight. Connor brought out his tin whistle.

The night went on, and on.

And out of nowhere – it was day.

After breakfast, an hour of shooting was organised.

Nobody shoots clay like Dave.

Joe’s from Texas but he rejects the whole thing.

Dave and Adrian wanted to beat the traffic.

I was easy – I was just taking everything in all at once.

Strangely enough – I was happy.

Tomorrow: Part 4 – an insight into the true cost of the Ukrainian war, an emergency retreat to the bunker, and playing a theatre on the Dnipro river.

Read Parts 1 and 2 here.

Hardwicke Circus’s new single ‘Hollow’ is set for release on Friday, August 1.