Whatever Happened To The Lycra Lads?

Lycra-clad classic rockers The Darkness have always been a band of survivors. Over the last 12 years the four-piece have faced various stints in rehab, engaged in some fairly public bust-ups (which led to their split at the end of 2006) and even enraged some of their more conservative fair-weather fans by featuring a gi-normous pair of flying breasts in their show (dubbed the “Boob Chariot”) during their ill-fated stadium tour for their second record One Way Ticket To Hell…And Back. While a fraction of these trials and tribulations would break most bands, The Darkness seem to be cut from a different cloth though and their just released reunion record Hot Cakes goes a long way in proving that they truly are the cockroaches of rock ‘n’ roll. When we recently caught up with frontman Justin Hawkins to talk about their comeback, the singer tells us that he never doubted they’d re-group some day.

“I always knew I’d get back together,” he confesses. “I said it at the time of our break-up as well. It fell on deaf ears a little bit (or possibly reluctant or resistant ears). For me, getting back in a room with the rest of The Darkness was like wearing a sausage skin, really. It was a bit uncomfortable at first. Once you get settled in it feels great.”
Recorded in guitarist Dan Hawkins’ home in Norfolk, Hot Cakes is the sound of a band hell-bent on reminding the world why they loved them in the first place. Featuring countless hooks all delivered by Justin’s unmistakable falsetto, it sounds like the boys haven’t missed a beat despite their five years apart.
“In general, this album is a bit dirtier than our other two and that’s the way we like it,” laughs the singer. “Two of the songs are from olden days (‘Nothin’s Gonna Stop Us’ and ‘Every Inch Of You’ are about ten years old). They’re all new after that. One of my favourites is ‘She’s Just A Girl, Eddie,’ which was the last track we wrote for the record. It’s a song that was intended to try to help our drummer Ed recover from a broken heart. He ended up whinging to us for months and months on end about his love-life and I ended up saying to him ‘For fuck’s sake Ed, you’re in the fucking Darkness. You can have loads of women if you want them.’ In a nutshell, it’s got a ‘plenty more fish in the sea’ vibe.”
The record also sees them finally record their Maiden-esque version of Radiohead’s ‘Street Spirit (Fade Out)’. Justin reveals that the reaction to the live favourite (which Hot Press first saw them perform at the Download Festival on a sunny afternoon back in ’03) doesn’t really bother him.
“It might piss some hardcore Radiohead fans off. It might cause happiness in other ones too,” he ponders. “You never know how people will react to songs when you record them. We didn’t actually intend to put it on the album. We just wanted to record it and use it as a bonus track. It sounded mega good, so we stuck it on.”
Speaking of extreme fan reactions, at the time of our chat Justin was in an airport in England waiting to join Lady Gaga’s European leg of her tour. While he admits he’s excited about the support slot, he confesses he isn’t quite sure what he’s let himself in for.
“I don’t know what to expect, but I’m hoping it’ll be a great laugh,” he smiles. “It’s weird because we’re playing shorter sets than we’re used to. The hardest thing was deciding what songs to drop. The temptation is to do a lot of new stuff. I don’t know. We’ve got to go into it imagining no-one knows who we are. We’ll just have to go with our strongest suit.”
As we leave the singer to hop onboard a plane that’ll transport him to a world of meat dresses and mentalists, Justin tells us that Irish fans should expect some headline dates from The Darkness sooner rather than later. Let’s hope he leaves the Boob Chariot behind this time though, eh?
“Yes, we’re definitely coming back to Ireland,” he says finally. “We can’t say too much about it though as we’re tied to the Gaga tour for the foreseeable future and we’re sort of riding on her coattails for the time being, but it’ll happen soon, trust me.”