Underground Circus

About the band

A dark, breezy summer night in Ealing

It was a dark, breezy summer night in the leafy streets of Ealing, queen of the London suburbs, when future Underground Circus lyricist and singer Mark Bradley first met drummer William Hatfield and bass guitarist Simon Senior in a mutual friend's garden. Talk of music, lyrics and shared influences — chiefly Duran Duran and David Sylvian's arthouse ensemble Japan — lit the spark that became Underground Circus.

Alongside other New Wave contemporaries like The Cure and Bauhaus, and older touchstones such as Bowie, Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground, those influences shaped a sound that took the band from a converted loft in Ealing to sold-out nights at the Astoria, the Hippodrome and the Hammersmith Palais — and, eventually, a deal signed with Duran Duran producer Dave Ambrose.