Hurts' New Music Video for 'Ready to Go' Mirrors Life and Death, Love and Anguish

English synthpop duo Hurts launch an emotionally polarising new music video for latest single ‘Ready To Go’. Directed by Black Dog Film’s Thomas James, ‘Ready To Go’ is the second single from Hurts’ fourth album, DESIRE which is due for release later this month. Produced in partnership with LS Productions, the film mirrors an emotional parallel of love and grief in time-mirrored sequence.

The band describe DESIRE as “an album full of passion, pain and lust”, emotions captured in the visually immersive storyline for the video of their latest release. Filmed on a derelict industrial estate dressed to look like a travellers site and working Men’s Club in Horwich, the video portrays an emotional story of life and lust, grief and sorrow, as Hurts frontman Theo Hutchcraft plays the role of a bereaved partner.  The narrative is told through a sequence of scenes depicting the couple’s passionate relationship, all choreographed and cleverly cut against parallel footage of the grief-stricken frontman at his late partners wake.

The music video was shot at various locations in and around Horwich and Bolton, Greater Manchester – Hurts’ home city. The two-day shoot required 26 cast members, one horse, three locations, one caravan, 30 live butterflies and several stunts.

Abi Atkinson, LS’ producer on the ground in Manchester and the LS team in Scotland pulled the shoot together in just five days, organising locations, casting, equipment, props and crew for the complicated shoot. 

Abi comments: “The first thing to do once the main crew was on board was to find suitable locations; ones that would work from both an aesthetic and logistical viewpoint. They had to be in the same vicinity, to avoid any large unit moves.

We needed to find locations that offered up multiple shooting options whilst also being true to the brief. The working men’s club for example was shot on a Saturday, so we needed to find somewhere that didn’t have a function on that evening, was interesting visually - carpets, patterns, panelled walling - and was amenable to a crew coming in and taking over the joint for two days! Then there was the caravan park where our hero couple lived. Finding and filming a real travellers caravan park, as you can imagine, is a tricky proposition. Freelance location manager Mike Higson found the derelict steelworks at Horwich and we knew that that was where our caravan park had to be. The location was so interesting visually and had a lot of areas nearby that we could shoot at without doing a unit move, such as the scene in the grass, the horse and trap, the car driving scene and the scene where Theo is riding the horse.”

The casting for the shoot was all completed in Manchester, bar the leading lady Poppy, who was scouted in London. 

“Theo and Adam were an absolute joy to meet and work with, as was Poppy. Theo put everything into the dance routine, led by fantastic choreographer, Ally Green. We really did have it all; exploding glasses, horses, children, supporting artists, dancing, choreography, large set dressing, multiple locations and caravans. The cast and crew really did give it their all though and I think it shows on camera. We’re lucky to have such a great, hard-working, talented bunch of crew to work with in the North West,” says Abi.