Camden Underworld, London

THE CIRCUS hits town at around ten o'clock on a Thursday night.

The lights dim and necks crane as something happens onstage. We can only assume this to be the arrival of new dark pop sensations Curve, because apart from the eager folk pressed together in the front three rows, only the seven-footers in our midst can actually see what's going on.

And then the low rumble of 'Blindfold' slaps us in the gut, and we know we guessed right. Suddenly the voice of Toni Halliday appears, pure and soft with a strange echo effect that makes it sound like the lost children in Poltergeist.

Fighting towards the front, you get your first glimpse of Halliday. She looks surprisingly confident, bearing in mind this is only Curve's fifth gig (one of their first - talk about incongruous - was a Swansea date with the Manic Street Preachers!).

Another forward push reveals a full trad rock line-up onstage, which comes as a surprise to those who felt sure Halliday was singing to a Cocteaus-style taped guitar wash, such is the effortless power of the band's surging, seductive sound.

It's a moody storm that could be accused of straying too close to early Banshees/Cure copyism if it didn't take us just a little bit further than all that.

Meanwhile, the crowd is falling under the band's spell. The smouldering clatter of 'I Speak Your Every Word' inspires the evening's first outbreak of stage-diving, while 'Ten Little Girls', Curve's Big Song, sends the kamikaze crew into an orgy of self-destructive action that seems very much at odds with the beautiful din rattling out of the speakers.

It's strange, but encouraging, to find this indie mob taking Curve to its bosom with such glee. You'd think their Dave Stewart connection (the pony-tailed Eurythmic runs Anxious Records, the band's label), along with the set's slightly muso-ish slickness, would have the kids pelting the stage with rotten vegetables at the very least.

But the funny thing is, although it's hard to believe, Curve are every bit as good as their 'Blindfold EP' suggests. Quite remarkable.

review by Mr Spencer (nicked from 'Sounds', dated 23 March 1991)