The Darkness

The rise, fall, and rise again of The Darkness contains all the ingredients of a classic rock opera. The basics are a matter of public record: unfashionable good-time hard rock band from Lowestoft slog their way around the Camden pub circuit, build a word-of-mouth following that can fill theatres without a record deal, then rocket to world stardom selling over 3 million copies of their debut album worldwide, winning three Brit awards and becoming one of the biggest British rock bands of the Noughties. Charismatic bassist gets kicked out in acrimonious dispute during making of fine-but-flawed second album, which ‘only’ goes Platinum. Singer supposedly burns through a reported £150,000 on cocaine. They try to make him go to rehab, and he says “yes, yes, yes”. Singer leaves band, and in doing so, falls out with his own brother. Badly.

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What came next, after The Darkness’ dramatic demise in 2006, is less well-documented. Singer Justin Hawkins launched his own band, Hot Leg, threw himself into production roles (see Foxy Shazam’s The Church Of Rock’n’Roll for evidence) and writing songs for others (Meat Loaf, Adam Lambert and more). Departed bassist Frankie Poullain wrote a “nonsensical and contrarian” autobiography, ‘Dancing In The Darkness’. The remains of The Darkness - guitarist Dan Hawkins, drummer Ed Graham and late-period bassist Richie Edwards, resurfaced as The Stone Gods, whom Ed later left due to a medical problem which necessitated a double hip replacement. “I went from having money and being in a successful band”, he recalls, “to being skint and walking with a limp.”

If rock’n’roll tore them apart, rock’n’roll brought them together again. In March 2009, Hot Leg played Brighton, where Dan was living, and Justin invited him along. “That was the key one,” remembers Dan. “A hug hello.” Two months later, Hot Leg were back by the seaside for The Great Escape festival and, after much audience-assisted cajoling, Dan joined Justin onstage for a historic rendition of “I Believe In A Thing Called Love”, calling his brother “an absolute cunt” in the process, in what Dan calls “the big Spinal Tap moment. (It’s on Youtube, have a look.) “I think he realised he was missing it,” says Justin. “And I loved being in Hot Leg, but it didn't have the magic The Darkness had. It was only a matter of time.”

Meanwhile, the other Darkness alumni had been breaking the ice too. “It was fairly obvious people wanted to see the classic line-up”, says Justin. “Stuff had happened with Frankie, but he's an interesting guy, good to spend time with. And Ed had his health problems which meant he had to leave The Stone Gods, but he’s OK now.” Psychologically and emotionally, the Hawkins-Hawkins-Poullain-Graham formation felt right. “The early songs were written with Frankie and Ed,” says Dan. “Also, we didn't want to start from where we left off. We wanted to go back to the beginning, which wasn't easy – it meant a battle of egos – but it's conducive to a certain magic.”