Image by Mark Thompson.
Hard-Fi make their welcome return with brand new single ‘Don’t Go Making Plans’ on Ignition Records. Their first new material in ten years, the track marks a taste of a forthcoming EP of brand new songs. The band have also revealed details of a big UK headline tour this November, bringing them to Portsmouth Guildhall.
Rolling around a sun-scorched groove and boisterous beats, ‘Don’t Go Making Plans’ is a soul-infused summer anthem, recorded at the band’s own Staines studio, produced by frontman Richard Archer and long-term contributor Wolsey White. It’s the end result of the first session together since their 2011 album Killer Sounds and follows a series of sold-out tours and live shows over the last 18 months – listen here.
As with many of the band’s songs, there is a thought-provoking depth behind Hard-Fi’s pop sensibility. The song’s defiant themes were initially inspired by the UK Government’s attempts to criminalise many aspects of popular protest through the 2022 Public Order Act, while the issue has been thrown into even sharper focus over the last year as police and people have repeatedly clashed on streets around the globe.
“Don’t Go Making Plans is sort of a protest song about protest, but I wanted to encapsulate that message into something that was still a pop song,” Archer explains. “A track that you can still dance to in a club or play on the radio, because a song like that you can make a real connection to and circumnavigates the pointless restrictions being put in our way. Governments passing laws to stop protests that cause more than minor disruption feels like something out of a dystopian film. The whole point of protest is disruption. You’re trying to interrupt the inevitable flow of things, to encourage the people running the country to think again, especially when you have a government that doesn’t seem to be bothered by what people actually need.”
The new single is taken from the forthcoming Don’t Go Making Plans EP released on November 1st.
The new music is released alongside news of a 10-date UK headline tourin November – tickets on-sale now here.
UK Tour Dates
November 2024
Sat 16th Hastings, White Rock
Tue 19th Portsmouth, Guildhall
Thu 21st Cardiff, Tramshed
Fri 22nd Wolverhampton, Wulfrun
Sat 23rd Nottingham, Rock City
Mon 25th Glasgow, Garage
Tue 26th Sheffield, The Leadmill
Wed 27th Manchester, Ritz
Fri 29th Leeds, Stylus
Sat 30th London, Roundhouse