The Darkness – Nottingham Rock City – 19th December 2023

Gimme a D! Gimme an ARKNESS! What does it spell?! The Darkness land in Nottingham in celebratory mood.

In 2003 Permission To Land stormed to the top of the UK Albums chart, where it remained for four weeks. The smash hit singles I Believe In A Thing Called Love and Love Is Only A Feeling turned The Darkness into international superstars; seemingly overnight…

At the height of their fame in 2006, shortly after the release of One Way Ticket To Hell… And Back, the band split and fell off the music radar… seemingly forgotten. Since 2011 the band has been on the comeback trail and trying to recapture former glories. Now, 20 years on from their platinum-selling debut The Darkness, with the addition of music royalty in the form of Rufus Taylor on drums, look and sound better than ever.

In support of the main act of the night is Bad Nerves. They’re a five-piece band from Essex, full of punk angst. They power through a 30-minute set crammed with fast and furious two-minute songs. Their songs and musicianship are a bit messy, but that’s pop-punk, and they lack nothing in terms of volume, or passion. They’re confident and have style to burn.

The Darkness are musical genius. Their sound and style is all old school rock ‘n’ roll borrowing from the likes of Queen, Van Halen and Thin Lizzy and of course, they dress the part as well. Justin Hawkins in a red spandex jumpsuit with matching guitar, his brother Dan less colourful but no less cool. Bassist Frankie Poullain, with his big hair and sharp suit, looks like he should be playing for The Zutons.

As this is a 20^th anniversary show, the crowd know The Darkness will be playing the entirety of the Permission To Land album, plus B-sides. Black Shuck, a song about a demon dog that roams Norfolk is first on the set list quickly followed by Get Your Hands Off My Woman and Growing On Me. The Darkness have lost none of their passion for this material, and neither have the fans. When they get to Love Is Only A Feeling the crowd claps and sways along in time to the music and enjoy a singalong, led by Poullain.

The Darkness have no business playing at Rock City, they should be playing sold-out arenas. That’s how good they are. But you know what? The Darkness belongs at Rock City, the venue that Justin Hawkins credits as being “the best in the country.” If you’ve got two sold out nights playing to a combined total of 5,000 screaming fans at Rock City why would you want to play in a soulless arena? This is the best gig I’ve ever seen at Rock City and the most engaged that I’ve ever seen a crowd.

Justin Hawkins is in a band with his brother and his two best mates doing rock and roll. He’s got the whole of Rock City eating out of his hand… and every inch of you… you know he’s going to work it. The Darkness create joyful songs with humorous lyrics, on a solid bedrock of 70s-styled hard rock. They may appear at times to be jokers. But they’re deadly serious, talented musicians, that have worked hard to achieve success. And they deserve it all.

Friday Night really gets the crowd going and it’s something of a surprise that this song means so much to people. Christmas Time (Don’t Let the Bells End) gives everything a festive feel, before The Darkness perform I Believe In A Thing Called Love which Hawkins describes as their “most famous song” to complete the main set.

A two song encore sees the band swapping instruments to play I Love You 5 Times. An evening of high energy, full commitment rock ‘n’ roll, ends with Love on the Rocks With No Ice; one of the finest cuts on Permission To Land.

The Darkness are on an upward trajectory that shows no signs of stopping. This tour has been hugely successful selling out venues across the country every night. It will surely lead to the sold-out arenas that the band so clearly crave. I wouldn’t bet against them.

Check out Love On The Rocks With No Ice live at The Astoria in 2003 below – taken from the recent reissue of Permission To Land:

You can also check out The Darkness’ trailer for Welcome To The Darkness, their new documentary here, and follow Justin Hawkins’ fantastic podcast, Justin Hawkins Rides Again, here.

The Darkness: Website/ Facebook / Twitter / YouTube

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