The Darkness.

lol maybe you're right...

Justin's good but who could seriously be as good as Mick...

The man's a legend... and he has a knighthood :P

The Darkness are releasing a 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of their debut album, 4xCD and 1xDVD;

https://pitchfork.com/news/the-darkn...-land-reissue/

I loved Permission to Land back in the day and just the whole vibe of that era. Rock music was largely made up of nu-metal and early-emo at the time (nothing wrong with that btw) but as a fan of classic/hard-rock guitar music, The Darkness were a beacon on hope for me back then. Trying and succeeding in bringing back stadium rock along with riffs, solos and comedy, and it was just a cool fun time.

2003 was the year apparently where rock outsold pop and The Darkness were a huge part of that. Some other great music came out of that year as well of course.

The 2nd album One Way Ticket to Hell... and Back was not so great and the band (well, Justin Hawkins) were a bit of a mess at that point to say the least and the members drifted away one by one, but they reunited in 2011 and have released 5 albums since then and seem to be in a much better place now.

On a side-note, Justin has a really good YouTube Channel which you really should check out of your a fan of him and the band;

https://www.youtube.com/@JustinHawkinsRidesAgain

I know lots of people here didn't care for them but many did, including me.

i prefer one way ticket but permission is still a great album. The song that made notice them was Growing on Me....it was so rare to hear a guitar solo back in 03.

Seen them live countless times. Great live band.

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Same with “Growing on Me”, that was the first song I heard and video that I saw. I remember seeing a brief mention of them on CD:UK where Cat Deeley introduced them as a band that are going to bring stadium rock back to the mainstream (or something to that effect) whilst playing a clip of that music video.

“Growing on Me” was released around the same time as the album but of course the following single “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” was was did it for them.

The 2nd album had some good songs on there but lacked the consistency of the debut for me, and I found the album overall to be rather bloated-sounding and a little over the top (even if that was the point). Plus as I said previously, the band were a mess at that point. Justin had problems with booze and coke and the intensity from the press certainly effected the band as a whole. Frankie, the original bass player, had left by that point and Justin himself left the band within a year of the 2nd albums release so things ended up pretty stagnant sadly.

It’s unfortunate because at the time it all seemed like a zeitgeist-like fad by that point as it seemed like people were fed up with them by that point as well. Both Justin and the remaining The Darkness members later on formed new bands (Hot Leg and Stone Gods) of which neither took off.

Thankfully the original lineup reformed in 2011 and although original drummer Ed left after Hot Cakes, the band have been doing really well since and are probably the band they always wanted to be at this point. They’ve not lost their charm/personality either which is something that always drew me to them.

the only songs I dont like on One Way....is English Country Garden and the last song Blind Man.
Songs like One Way, Bald, Girlfriend, Knockers, is it just me and Dinner Lady arms are killer tracks.

Hot Cakes was another great album and Last of our Kind is decent but im not a fan of the last 2 albums - they are just lacking something for me. I bought them both on signed vinyl but got good offers for them so sold them on.

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They're probably my favourites from OWTtH&B to be fair. Hot Cakes didn't really do much for me but Last of Our Kind I thought was a much better album. "Open Fire" is one of their best songs IMO, even if it sounds like "She Sells Sanctuary",

I went to watch them in Manchester last night.

I saw them a couple of years ago and absolutely loved the show.

Last night was one of the best shows I've been too. Justin Hawkins vocals sounded exactly like the album (Permission to land) - He didn't miss a note, gave 100% on every song and as a front man, he's up there, in my opinion.

As soon as the opening chords to Black Shuck kicked in, he told every one to just enjoy the show and not have their phones out and it was nice to barely see any phones out at a gig.

He's nearly 50 and sounds just like did 20 years ago. Brilliant.

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Seen them countless times over the years. Always put on a great show.

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