Currently on tour with Def Leppard, The Darkness are the newest
Britrock darlings to hit the music scene. Having been described by one
national rock mag as ... 'the most exciting live band you ever did see,
with songs to back it all up'... I just had to find out more.
After my first attempt at getting an interview with the band had to be
aborted due to hoards of fans standing at the back stage door eagerly
waiting to meet their heroes. That and the fact it was too bloody freezing
and we were all dying of cold. I finally track down my man and manage to
lure him off to a secluded corner of the Rock @ The Arena nightclub. The
unlucky victim tonight being none other than lead singer Justin Hawkins.
I start by asking Justin if he would like to introduce himself to
everybody. With this he leans in close and in a deep and sexy voice
replies ...
'Hi, I'm Justin from The Darkness, I'm the singer and lead guitarist. I'm
also the main songwriter'.
'Oh right', I
reply, 'so you're very talented as well as being gorgeous then?'.
(To this the poor lad nearly topples over laughing and tells me to stop
teasing him. Likening the interview to the infamous Paula Yates and
Michael Hutchinson one on the Big Breakfast. Now that the ego's out of the
way we have a good giggle and start to really get down to this interview).
'So tell me, how did the gig go tonight then?'
'Well it was different'.
'How come?'.
' Well it was an all seater, and the rest of the tour has been partially
seated for the partially seated, and the rest of the differently seated
were standing. Tonight everyone sat down. It was also an auditorium that
didn't allow people to drink or smoke and that can be a problem for proper
rock enthusiasts of all ages. It's nothing to do with the generation gap.
The people who were there were trying to have a good time but I think
overall it was a very low key Def Leppard affair'.
'We did our best to warm them up, and although they weren't adverse to it,
they just weren't comfortable that they weren't allowed to drink in the
auditorium. I think we played okay though. We played Sheffield Arena just
two days before, but prior to that gig the biggest audience we'd ever
played to were maybe 100 or 150 or something like that. Suddenly were we
playing in front of like 5,000 people. I still managed to get them all to
sing Happy Birthday to our drummer Ed on his special day and it was a
really special experience for us all'.
'Suddenly we had gone from being a toilet circuit band to going out to
play in front of thousands of people and they were all sitting down. It
was just a very bizarre head spinning, kind of wrong end of the stick,
feet to the floor and try and get a grip on reality experience. We thought
... lets not get complacent and lets just go out there and try to rock the
kids'.
'I'm currently playing on a broken toe. I tried really hard tonight and I
was jumping around and stuff but I've really hurt it. It's inflamed and
right now I can feel it bursting through my shoes. I'm serious it is
really killing me!'.
(Can you hear the violins playing in the background
to this lads tale of pain and suffering?).
'Before we went on stage Ed was all flu laden. I felt his forehead and he
was like a very hot radiator. He was clearly not fit to play. But
generally speaking I don't think we let ourselves down. We went out and
did our thing and we weren't heckled or anything and just gave it our best
shot'.
'Well that's good'.
'Yeh that was probably a very accurate and perhaps over detailed response
to that first question! You did ask though didn't you!'.
'Yes, I certainly did that'.
'So did you have one of your famous catsuits on for the show tonight?'
'Yeh I had the striped one, not the zebra one. The one with the vertical
stripes as used in the video. It's made of jersey as opposed to lycra so
nothing clings as it should. I think the kids like it though. It works
well with pink trousers over it but after that you sometimes get a bit
confused as to where your supposed to look!. That's not my problem because
I can't see what's down there, I'm always standing in a pose with my head
back'. (Throws head back in a dramatic pose).
'Imagine full on body lycra going commando with a piece of mahogany
banging against it'. 'Very Spinal Tap-ish' 'It could get heated and might
work for some people. It has for me on occasions. But the kids are into it
and in the end it all goes a bit Elvis ... oh! don't feel him below the
... yeh you get the picture!'
'What you mean keep your eyes off my
cucumber?' 'Well it's like a buffet in certain aspects but without the
pastry'.
'Plenty of meat and veg then?' 'Yeh exactly'.
'So what made you decide to go in for all that kind of dressing up then?'
'Oh we're getting back to the stage!. Well I've always yearned to be able
to perform onstage in a catsuit. In a way I think it was probably Rod
Stewart or perhaps Freddie, although he's only been a more recent
influence to me. I just loved the idea of dressing in a catsuit. I've been
going to see bands for like 13, 14 years, and I've yet to see anyone come
onstage wearing a lycra catsuit. It just really works for me'.
'I had tried it previously but more cheaply and contacted a dance studio
that did rehearsal uniforms and they custom made something for me. But
they'd just stuck together some cheap lycra and my balls were hanging out
everywhere. It just went all wrong. They then gave me a jock strap which
was flesh coloured to wear with it, to try and keep it all in, but it just
didn't cut it. People just didn't know where to look. It was embarrassing
for a lot of people, not for me because I was really feeling good in it'.
'So now I've found a seamster who really does kick arse. I've done a
couple of telly shows in Wales with the catsuits on. In fact I've got four
of them now and the bloke who makes them is just like the talk of the
town. People see them and say .. 'Who made that for you it's fucking
brilliant!' ... you just can't find that kind of stuff any more. He's a
genius, he's really passionate about the music and he really gets where
we're coming from. The best thing is his dimensions are exactly the same
as mine, don't ask me how I know that ... I just do! He builds catsuits
for a man that both resembles him and me. Because he's the same build as
me they work really well'.
'What bands have influenced you enough over the years to inspire you to be
in a band?'
'Def Leppard and Flash Light. You could probably name a thousand bands who
we are influenced by but AC/DC have been such a huge influence on all the
band. Queen also. I have a little girl who's four and she listens to Queen
and says ... 'oh daddy, that voice looks like you!' ... I've told her it's
sounds like not looks like. But apparently, according to a four year old
girl there is a similarity in my voice and Freddie's . I'm totally into
Aerosmith and I've always been into bands like Whitesnake. I also love
Thunder and Van Halen'.
'All the traditional favourites then'.
'Yeh, in a
way'.
'Some of the press in the past have said we are like Nirvana in the 90's,
a band that never really happened. What I say in response to that is ...
yes Nirvana did happen and the reason it happened was that there was a
huge back lash against what had happened in the 80's. The fact remains
though that we get off on tight musicianship and we are very disciplined
people. We work hard and try to play as fucking tight as we do. Yes we do
sound different to those people who can't play their instruments. We might
not be as cool as them, but that's because while they are out there taking
crack and being a bunch of villains we're working on being solid
musicians'.
'Some people think that being able to play a fast guitar solo is wanking,
but it's not it's foreplay. It's a pretext to all the other stuff that
happens. If you want to be in a big band then you've got to cut it and
that takes effort and it takes ability. You only develop ability by
putting in the effort. If you're going to be a total twat then that's your
choice. You're just never going to be in a proper rock band if you're
going to be a complete twat. Everybody knows that the best rock bands are
the nicest bands'.
'Would you say you are a fan orientated band then? After a show will you
come out and meet the fans and have a drink with them, or perhaps go
clubbing?'
'Yeh definitely. We've already got a really strong following and although
we haven't got the proper backing to do a proper fan club or anything we
know who our fans are because I run the mailing list on the website. So
everything goes through me and if anyone has an enquiry, or wants to meet
us, then they do meet us. We don't fucking jet off in helicopters or
anything, if there's something going on to then we do it. We are a good
time band and the main thing is we try and make sure they also have a good
time. If they're having a good time then we're having a good time and
that's our job'.
'When you hit the big time, which the way you're going at the moment is
likely to be pretty quick, do you think you'll loose all that and turn
into arrogant, big headed, rock pigs?'
'Well we're already arrogant but that doesn't make us nasty. There is
going to be a huge backlash soon because everything that the music
industry has worked towards is now worthless. What's happened is that
Indie music which is all blues and look at their shoes type music, all
inverted and self obsessed music with no eye on the bigger picture and no
interest in connecting with large numbers of people has become the
mainstream of the nineties'.
'But now even that's not the mainstream any more because the mainstream is
clean living things with people who win competitions and play karaoke
music. So now we're a band who are coming along and we're hell bent on
having a good time and making sure everyone else has a hell of a good time
too. There is going to be a backlash, we're going to get slagged off large
style'.
'It's really funny because it's happening already, people come on to our
website and slag us off already. Why do that? I mean there's a lot of
bands that I don't like but I don't go on their websites and slag them
off. I actually find it an honour and a privilege that people have to go
onto our website and find stuff out about us just so they can slag us off
just to see what kind of reaction they can get. They want to see if we are
real, of course we are real'.
'I must admit I do really like the single "Get your hands off my Woman".
'Yeh? It's a good one isn't it. That's not the full on rockers soul
though, the next one we're doing, the one they are really going to push if
we are still unsigned, will be the one that gets pushed to get us into the
top 40. I don't think we will make it into the top 40 but you never know.
Maybe the top 70. If we do get into the top 40 then that's a real sign of
the times. If you get into the top 70 then that's still a sign of the
times but it's kind of what we're expecting. But if we go further than
that then we are really hot property. That's when the serious slagging off
really starts'.
'Well as long as when you hit the big time you don't walk
past us and totally ignore us'.
'Ah no, you know that's never gonna
happen!'.
'Earlier you mentioned that you are one of the main song writers in the
band?' 'Dan and me are the two main song writers in the band, I write some of the music
and all of the lyrics and Dan writes the majority of the music. But Frank and Ed
have got writing credits across the board'.
'On a song by song basis I'm more head of the pie, just call me the crust
master. If someone has something that's good then it happens and we are
all credited for that. I do insist on writing all my own lyrics though
because I don't think I could do it if it was someone else writing them
and they were bad'.
'Ok, now I'm going to say something to you and I don't want you to think
I'm being funny with you. Your voice is quite deep when you talk but when
you sing it's quite high. That surprised me a bit'.
'That's because I'm talking all butch right now. I'm talking all manly for
you. I'm talking in jeans not singing in a lycra catsuit'.
'mmm, I see'.
'It's not a balls constraining thing. No, it's just one of those things'.
'I have to do battle with two very loud guitars, that's me and my brother,
and if I sing in the mid range then it hurts to sing in that range, so I
have to work my powerful voice. A bit like what David Coverdale and Bruce
Dickinson and that operate in. I have a gift that I'm honoured to have
received from Satan! (bursts into a fit of laughter). It was nice of him
to bestow that on me and so I have to use it'.
'It is quite unusual but it does sound like you are totally in control of
it. Your voice doesn't sound stressed in any way. There's not that many
male singers who sing very high pitched, they either can't hit the notes
or else can't keep it up long enough'.
'Well we've been doing this for
years now and I've always sung in that range, it's the only way I can.
It's just nature's way, it's nothing to do with the size of my balls. I
swear it's not'.
(At this point Justin decides to bring out his tackle and show me that his
balls are indeed normal - big hairy round things).
'See I told you they
were normal!. I can confirm that their is nothing freakish about my
genitalia. No one doubted Coverdale or Dickinson so why should they doubt
me? It's all because it's not 1983 and it's 2003 that people notice it at
all'.
(Quickly changing the subject and rapidly persuading Justin to keep his
tackle in his trousers) 'The band will be doing a headline tour shortly,
following on from the success's on the Def Leppard tour'.
'Yeh, we're
really excited about that. We've got Ten Benson on tour with us as well.
They're a fucking brilliant band. I've got their first album at home and
I've been monitoring their demise ever since. (laughs) No really they're
brilliant and they've changed their whole line up. Now they're full on ZZ
Tops with all the string vests and trucking chic and they are a really
great band. It's a great double header too'.
'They have a bigger following than we have it's just that we've got the
press. It's because we're on the crest of a wave at the moment. For some
reason they've agreed to act as our supporting but really we should be
supporting them. But honestly they are such a fucking great band, the tour
is going to be an amazing experience for us. They're such great guys and
they're Welsh'.
'I'm just so chuffed that they have agreed to do it because I thought they
would just tell us to fuck off and that they were bigger than us. But they
didn't and it's going to be great. You know whenever the dream ends the
dreams ends and it's been such a lovely experience. It's great to be in a
band that means more than being really cool, being men, and having lycra
on your artillery. It can be very rewarding. It's great to be in a band
that have gone from playing tiny venues to venues like the one we've
played tonight. It's great having a broken toe and still being able to
operate on it on some of the bigger stages'.
'What is your overall aim then? Do you want to get rich quick and then die
the death, or have a long 20 year career making a modest amount of money?''Well what can I tell you, we are an arena sized
band right now and we're living on £10 a day each. Obviously the money we
get paid at the moment has to pay for everything else. At the moment we're
not signed so we have to pay for it all. We have been described as the
biggest unsigned band in Britain and I think that's probably true,
considering all the press and everything we get. We haven't actually put
pen to paper and signed a contract or anything. Obviously the odd baseball
bat or the odd breast, but no actual recording contracts yet. So we
haven't got that kinda of backing yet'.
'How did you manage to hook up with Def Leppard then?'
'Well it's because of the single we put out ourselves using our own money.
Joe Elliott got hold of a copy and he appreciates good quality music. He
is a man of impeccable taste and also has a big heart and he likes the
underdog. He's prepared to get behind British bands and help them do the
business. That's us, British people doing the business'.
(At this Justin stops for breath and decides it's time for a drink. As far
as rock stars go I have to admit Justin may not be shy at coming forward,
but he's certainly a very genuine and likeable guy. If you like good time,
classic party rock then check these guys out. They RAWK big time).
