Simon RushworthThe Darkness have called time on another hugely successful UK headline tour. Here are our takeaways from the Dreams On Toast trek.
Form is temporary, class is permanent
It’s significant that two thirds of the Dreams On Toast set featured songs from The Darkness’s first and last (or ‘most recent’, as we’re hoping there’ll be many more) records. More telling still is that most of the new stuff wouldn’t sound out of place on Permission To Land. Twenty-two years might separate the band’s best-selling albums (Dreams On Toast landed at number two on the UK album charts, one place down from its mighty forerunner) but the thread that runs through more than two decades of crazy bombast is the quality of the songwriting. Just as Love Is Only A Feeling was genius back in the day, so The Longest Kiss is Justin Hawkins at his joyous best. Rock N Roll Party Cowboy is the obvious companion piece to Friday Night and I Hate Myself is Growing On Me for the 2020s. There’s been the odd blip but The Darkness generally don’t deal in mediocrity.
Better late than never
A few years ago The Darkness cancelled Easter but fans forgave them. Cancelling two shows on this tour — one at just a few hours’ notice — was a different matter. And even though both dates were immediately rescheduled it was clear that an atypically reticent Justin was keen to explain himself to the Newcastle City Hall faithful (Manchester was the other show hastily rearranged). Revealing that a serious chest infection had laid him low, he pointed out that nobody wanted to hear The Darkness’s colourful classics delivered with a cough and a croak. For this set to work, peak vocal prowess was required. And if the baying Geordies missed out on a Friday Night with Justin and co. then Tuesday in the Toon still felt like a weekend… only with the shadow of work the next day looming large.
These Dreams
For some time, it’s felt as though The Darkness have been building towards the natural follow-up to Permission To Land. Let’s not talk about the actual follow-up (it didn’t feature at all here) but fast forward to what sounds, to all intents and purposes, like the album that should have dropped some time in 2005. It’s taken 20 years but the bullish Dreams On Toast is a feast of full-flavour Darkness that benefits both from the band’s early boyish charm and a bucket load of music industry experience (both good and bad). It’s clear Justin and co. weren’t ready to write an album like Beans On Toast back in the day but now it’s here — replete with bangers Mortal Dread and Walking Through Fire — it’s time to celebrate a band back to its mind-bending best. Weekend In Rome might well be the most comforting classic rock song we’ve heard all year and what a way to kick off an encore.
Hawkins: no stranger thing in rock
In 1988 the much-missed Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction released one of the standout albums of 1988: Tattooed Beat Messiah was an absolute belter. And maybe, just maybe, that title had someone like Justin Hawkins in mind. A rock and roll prophet, inked up to his eyes and delivering humour-filled sermons on love, life and loss pitched at those requiring an escape, however brief, from merciless reality. On a midweek night in the North East, one of rock’s most compelling frontmen bewitched his devotees with a mix of canny craic, jaw-dropping vocals and effervescent enthusiasm. There’s always been a quasi-religious, almost cult-like, vibe underpinning this compelling band’s live shows and that’s never diminished with time. And in their singer, The Darkness boasts one of the quirkiest, cleverest, coolest individuals on the planet. Enjoy his company while you can.
Images courtesy of Adam Kennedy