Even a comatose gnat would be able to guess what the result of Justin Hawkins (soloing as British Whale) covering the kitsch duo, Sparks, would sound like – assuming the gnat was around in the '80s – and it doesn’t deviate one iota from that. His shrill, English voice is as prominent as ever and as Led Zep once said, the song remains the same.
“We’re not Beethoven”, clarifies Young Heart Attack screamer Jennifer Stephens, who surprisingly is a bit more at home with Mötorhead, The Darkness and even The White Stripes.
Those rock'n'rollers The Darkness will be playing the Meteor Awards, which take place on Thursday February 2 - but you can't get your tickets the normal way.
Having sold 7.5 million copies of their debut album, and collaborated with Sting, Justin Timberlake and James Brown on their new record Monkey Business, the Black Eyed Peas are among the premier pop acts of the moment. And they're still only getting started, as they tell Steve Cummins
I can still hear their taunts – “Clark’s talking through his arse again!”... “It’s not the ’70s anymore, Granddad!”... “I had my suspicions but now I know you’re a wanker!”
As it was my mother saying it, that last one was particularly hurtful.
No, she doesn’t hate Tim Wheeler but yes, she does look up her own chart position first. A solo Charlotte Hatherly on Bowie, Star Wars and life with and without Ash.
The Feeling are being hailed as the pioneers of the new soft rock movement. Twelve Stops And Home isn’t exactly the REO Speedwagon tribute you might expect, but it does come free of any rough edges.
Despite the big guitars, big chorus and witty one-liners, this is a long way from the cheeky chappy, thumbs-up image of The Darkness that we’ve come to expect.
Never mind figgy puddings and partridges in pear trees, there’s some serious seasonal business to be done as the annual HP-7 summit gathers in the crucible of cultural discourse that is The Central Hotel’s Library Bar.
Genital warts, cherry popping, male pattern baldness, archery and kate moss… it's access and, indeed, excess all areas as hotpress readers subject darkness mainman Justin Hawkins to a thorough probing.
