Laura Morley-
Having been featured on BBC’s ‘Sound of 2010’ shortlist, massive hype surrounded the debut of Mancunian synthpop duo Hurts. By now, we’ve seen the full potential of Theo Hutchcraft and Adam Anderson, and their debut album Happiness quickly became one of our favourites last year. It turns out that the two met by chance when their friends were involved on opposite sides of a bar-fight outside a Manchester pub in 2005. Hutchcraft and Anderson began to chat out of boredom and before long, discovered that they both had a passion for music. “We practically started to make music together before knowing each other,” says vocalist Theo.
The Academy was packed to the gills by the time lights dimmed and an ethereal, post-rock sounding introduction welcomed support act Clare Maguire to the stage. It wasn’t long, however, before the calm atmosphere erupted into one of 90’s style disco pop, and the artist, clad in a dangerously short sequin miniskirt, got into full swing with her Eurovision-esque single “Ain’t Nobody.” While Maguire did manage to grasp the crowd’s attention, her over-the-top vocal vibrato and repetitive-sounding songs did start to get quite tiring. By the end of her set, the crowd were relatively pleased to see the back of her.
After about half an hour’s wait, our attention was drawn to the backdrop of faux blinds which acted as both scenery and screen, displaying images of ballerinas and dancers throughout the performance. As searchlights lit up the surprisingly diverse crowd, Theo and Adam took to the stage impeccably dressed in their sharp uniform of classic suits. According to an interview with vogue.it, Adam’s style icon is none other than his grandfather; “My style icon is my grandfather. He was so elegant, his shoes always smelled good and he had an amazing waistcoat and seven monkeys.”
With vocals as flawless as his atire, Theo opened the set with ‘Unspoken’, followed by the more upbeat ‘Silver Lining’, as Adam sat serenly at his synthesizer. Despite the fact that their music is based primarily on synth, it is quite easy to draw an analogy between Hurts and 80’s sensations such as New Order or Spandau Ballet, and they certainly mirror that New Romantic vibe. Oozing confidence, favourites ‘Wonderful Life’, ‘Happiness’ and ‘Blood, Tears & Gold’ followed as white roses were tossed into the crowd all the while. ‘Evelyn’ was where the performance really came to a climax as Anderson briefly left his synth in favour of a guitar. Each track was truly as studio-perfect and solid as the last, and on came the flowing melodies of ‘Sunday’, b-side ‘Mother Nature’, the brief but beautiful ‘Verona’ and then ‘Devotion’, which famously featured Kylie Minogue on the album. The setlist began to come to an unwelcome end with ‘Confide In Me’, and ‘Stay’ in which Theo really alivened the spirit of his fans and had us all hanging on his every perfectly-formed syllable. ‘Illuminated’ ended too soon as Hurts departed the stage, before returning for an energetic encore featuring their debut single ‘Better Than Love’.
Displaying an overt sensuality and charisma throughout, and simply epitomising all things suave, Hurts really hit the nail on the head as far as their performance was concerned, and they left a thoroughly satisfied crowd behind them. Hurts embody unique features which have forever been missing from standard Britpop, and come forth with a refreshingly refined and mysterious air on the cards.
