You might not have heard of December 10 yet, the new boy band formed by music mogul Simon Cowell, who brought to the fore Little Mix, Leona Lewis and One Direction. The new fresh-faced act can, pardon the pun, go in either of two directions; the band may not be a success, or alternatively, they could become widely successful. Judging by tonight’s performance and audience reaction at Manchester’s Academy 3, the latter option seemed reassuringly likely – the loud screams from their mainly female fans were reminiscent of concerts by the boy bands back in the day.

Named after the last date of the Netflix television series, The Next Act aired that brought the group together; December 10 consists of Cruz, Sean and Hendrix – all aged nineteen; seventeen-year-old Josh, John and Danny; and sixteen-year-old Nicholas. Between them they can play fourteen instruments; they also bring Nigerian, Jamaican, Indian and Brazilian heritage to the group.

Despite their young ages, they are not all new to the music business; London-born Cruz played a young Michael Jackson in Motown: The Musical in the West End, Dubliner Sean sang soprano for the Irish National Opera, and Walsall-born Hendrix has performed as a solo singer for many years.

Their first single, Run My Way, is written by the same duo who wrote One Direction’s introductory hit, What Makes You Beautiful – not surprisingly, there is a familiarity between the two songs. They opened the second of two shows in Manchester with an acoustic version of the song.

The covers of Bruce Springsteen’s Dancing in the Dark and NSYNC’s Bye Bye Bye seemed to be included to show off the vocal prowess; thankfully, new songs Angel and End of Beginning both showed that the band have enough of their own tracks that sound like big hits.

There have been no boy bands in the UK at least since the aforementioned One Direction, and that was nearly fifteen years since they released their debut single. Whether a new generation of fans will embrace them as much as the other boy bands before them, time will tell. On a small stage in Manchester, the seven of them filled the stage with their personality, charm and talent. Having seven members in a group never did S Club 7 any harm, though with the mix of males and females, the vocal interplay worked in their favour.

With the group ending their short set with a full-blown version of Run My Way, the energy on stage and in the room reached fever pitch. By December 10 this year, the band could be even playing arenas – with a team assembled with some of the best people in the music business working with the act, December 10 has the potential to win over a large cross-section of the pop world and fill a huge gap that will make pop music exciting again.


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