The Darkness, Edinburgh review: 'pop rocket fuel'

The Darkness, Usher Hall, Edinburgh ★★★

“Yesterday was my 25th birthday,” declared Darkness singer Justin Hawkins dubiously. “We had a gig at York Barbican, it's where they ‘do’ snooker. It was a somewhat disappointing birthday, so I've decided to roll it over to today.”

Cue an impromptu chorus of Happy Birthday from the crowd, although it isn’t like an excuse for a party is ever needed with the Darkness. The band’s MO – especially in the mid-2000s, when they were one of the biggest bands in the UK – was to distil the most celebratory, hedonistic and ludicrously glam-macho elements of the 1980s hair metal scene into one powerful shot glass of pop rocket fuel.

The Darkness | Simon Emmett

Things haven’t changed much, although given that Hawkins was underestimating his age by 50 percent, the execution remains creditably energised and exciting. As raucous early fan favourite Get Your Hands Off My Woman was being battered out, he executed an impressively perfect handstand on the drum riser and “clapped” along by kicking his heels together.

He also adapted the song’s final word, a bellowed “motherf***er!” into an extended, unexpected croon of the Smiths’ I Know It’s Over. Very quickly, his black denim T-shirt and jacket were ripped off to reveal a wiry, heavily-tattooed torso, the ripped-ness of which Iggy Pop would be proud of.

Played by original members Hawkins, his brother Dan on guitar and Edinburgh man Frankie Poullain on bass, with Rufus Tiger Taylor (son of Queen’s Roger) on drums, the versions of hits Growing On Me, Love is Only a Feeling and the mighty I Believe in a Thing Called Love were suitably slick and exciting.

Many of the newer songs don’t quite have the same mass appeal, but the band have traded up for range. From the imminent new album Dreams On Toast, set opener Rock and Roll Party Cowboy was a satisfying barroom rocker, I Hate Myself was a heavy glam twist to finish and Weekend in Rome a weird Hollywood croon with Taylor reading spoken word passages.

Hawkins – at one point paraded through the hall on his tech’s shoulders – stated his desire for the new album to reach number one ahead of Mumford & Sons. It’s hard not to wish these hard-working old stagers every success.

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