Banner Shot (1 of 1) The Struts — The Struts

By Desh Kapur, Rock At Night Manchester

Venue: Manchester Academy-THE STRUTS w/ King Nun-11th October 2019

There was a buzz in the Academy as I walked in. Tight leather, sparkles and make up, this should be interesting. The Struts were bringing all that is Glam to Manchester and back to old Blighty after kicking some serious goals in the United States of America.

But before we got to that, there was time for new punk alt rockers King Nun to rip up the stage and give us a serving of their Pixies-inspired bangers. Yelled vocals, sonic guitars and a so very intense and edgy lead singer, Theo Polyzoides, manically throwing himself around the stage, at times it seemed chaotic and on the verge of collapse, but that’s what this band do so well and I love that. So if you like your music hard and edgy and your lyrics a little dark and you want to see a no holds barred live performance then King Nun is the band for you.

Then it was time for tonight’s serving of glam-inspired Rock and Roll that is The Struts. Hailing from Derby, UK, but looking like they walked right out of the halcyon days of 1970s, with a little bit of early 80’s Motley Crew, Aerosmith and Twisted Sister sprinkled in for good measure. The Struts are Luke Spiller, lead vocals & piano; Adam Slack, guitar & vocals; Jed Elliott, bass & vocals and Gethin Davies on the drums.

As the band kicks in to the first rock anthem of the night the sold out Academy crowd erupts, boom and we are off.

Luke Spiller is a front man in the truest sense of the word. Yes, he has large shades of Freddie Mercury, but he carries enough Luke Spiller so that never becomes a problem. He covers every inch of the stage with the strut and swagger of a man who is having the time of his life and he is!! The Struts have worked hard to get ahead in the music world. Picked up by record labels, dropped by record labels, but they kept doing their thing and now they are beginning to see the rewards of their hard work.

Tonight has everything, massive stadium anthems, audience sing-a-longs, power ballads, piano ballads, but most of all catchy well written songs. Add in a brilliantly tight band and front man like Luke Spiller and everyone in the venue is having the time of their lives.

The Struts play with passion and a true love for good old-fashioned stadium rock and they do not take a step back or apologies for that. They wear some of their influences very much on their sleeves, and they don’t apologies for that either and I hope they never do. The Struts are a band that music needs in an era of bands being, too cool for school, introverted and clever but quite frankly, in some cases, bland. They are truly refreshing and I left the Academy in Manchester truly energised.

These Derby lads, as I mentioned earlier, are doing great things in the States, remember Def Leppard?? And you can see that they are ready to play a lot bigger stages than the one here in the Academy. The way they work the stage and seem to cover every inch of it, they way they grab the audience from the off and hold them in the palm of there hands, but most importantly the way they make there fans feel special, like old friends, fully paid up members of the Struts glam gang, niice!!!