Hard to Beat the return of Hard-Fi
Following an overwhelming response to their live return last year, indie rockers Hard-Fi have announced a full nationwide tour of the UK – and the first date is Cambridge in October.
The band, who first got together 20 years ago, returned to the stage after more than 10 years away last October, selling out the O2 Kentish Town Forum in under 10 minutes.
They also played Manchester’s Neighbourhood Festival before headlining Stand Up to Cancer’s annual charity show with an intimate set at London’s Union Chapel at the start of 2023.
Additionally, the quartet – singer Richard Archer, bass player Kai Stephens, drummer Steve Kemp and guitarist Ross Phillips – have been confirmed as special guests at Portsmouth’s Victorious Festival on August 27, and the revered Sunday afternoon slot will be Hard-Fi’s only UK festival appearance of 2023.
Speaking to the Cambridge Independent from a park in his home town of Staines in Surrey, Richard, 46, says: “We never really split up, the guys were doing other things…
“Saying that, it’s very hard to be a band now – especially if you’re starting out – and at the time we felt like we kept running into a brick wall with what we were trying to do, with the label and all this kind of stuff.
“So we just sort of stopped, and then just before lockdown I’d been working on another project called OffWorld, which was slightly different stylistically, with some different musicians – Amy Winehouse’s bass player, a drummer who played with Joe Strummer, and the guy who produced our Stars of CCTV album – and an amazing female singer called Krysten Cummings, who did some stuff for us with Hard-Fi.
“Back in the day she was a Broadway singer and was up for an Olivier Award in the West End – she came over here and did Rent.
“So it was really interesting and different and I really enjoyed it. Obviously lockdown kind of curtailed what we were trying to do, but we started looking into the whole livestreaming thing.
“I was on my own – Krysten had gone home – and, looking for something to do, I livestreamed the whole of Stars of CCTV from my kitchen, acoustically.
“It seemed to really kind of cut through and people really enjoyed it. I enjoyed doing it and it got a really great reaction and it just made me think, ‘How about maybe when we get out the other side, we do a couple of gigs?’
“So I spoke to my tour agent and I wasn’t sure if anyone would really give a monkey’s as to what we had to say anymore, but he said, ‘Let’s put a gig on and find out’ so we did it and it sold out in 10 minutes.
“We really enjoyed the gig, really enjoyed being back in the rehearsal room together. A lot of the old tension that might have been there had gone, everyone was a little bit older and wiser, so I was thinking, ‘Well let’s take this a little bit further’ so we started looking at organising some more shows.
“It’s easier said than done – the live music industry is still kind of dealing with the aftermath of Covid, people are still trying to reschedule shows.”
Having made their debut with the Mercury Prize-shortlisted Stars Of CCTV in 2005, the four-piece impressed with their tales of high street life, club-driven weekends and keeping your head above water on the breadline.
The record, which yielded five top 40 singles, celebrated its 18th anniversary on July 4, while the 18th anniversary of one of the band’s best-known singles, the top 10 hit Hard to Beat, was on June 20.
“Yeah, 18 years, I can’t quite believe it,” says Richard, a music graduate from Kingston University, “when I think back to what we were doing – I think we were doing Top of the Pops...
“The album came out July 4 so I’ve done a little Spotify playlist of all the tracks we were listening to that influenced Hard to Beat. We haven’t got anything [new] to release, but it [the album] is old enough to vote.”
Hard to Beat is arguably Hard-Fi’s signature tune. Supporters of Brentford FC – Richard’s team – were regularly regaled by the song as the team made its way up to the Premier League for the first time ever, and the album Stars of CCTV has since gone double platinum in the UK alone.
Their second studio LP, 2007’s Once Upon A Time in the West, also topped the charts, while its lead single, the insanely catchy Suburban Knights, became another top 10 hit and understandably a firm favourite at festivals.
At the height of his fame, in 2006, Richard was nominated for Sexiest Male, alongside Liam Gallagher, Pete Doherty, Carl Barât and Maxïmo Park’s Paul Smith, at the NME Awards, losing out to Doherty.
“Yes, I wasn’t keeping my ear to the ground on this, making sure,” recalls Richard, “but apparently that’s what happened.
“Obviously some people have to have a bit more discerning tastes – what can I say. It’s all just a bit of fun really, isn’t it? And I miss the fact you don’t have that so much these days. Everyone perhaps takes themselves a bit too seriously, don’t they? I’m sure they did then as well but...”
The band played one of the longest residencies at the O2 Academy Brixton – a feat they share with the likes of Bob Dylan and The Clash – by performing at the London venue for five nights straight in 2006.
And Hard-Fi’s gigs have been consistently praised by critics and concert-goers alike for living up to the good times invoked by their anthemic single, Living for the Weekend.
[Read more: As The Libertines head to the Secret Garden Party 2023, Carl Barât tells of ‘brotherhood’ feeling, Andy Burrows of Razorlight: ‘Bands are complicated beasts’]
Find out what all the fuss is about when Hard-Fi play the Cambridge Junction (J1) on Thursday, October 5. Tickets, priced £34.50, are available at junction.co.uk. For more on the band, go to hardfiofficial.com.
