The Darkness: the world’s most annoying band? — Toby Flaux

Tiscali Music

The world’s most annoying band? An entertaining rock bank paying tribute to the music of the 1970s and 1980s that they love? A band who truly take themselves seriously and regard themselves as making a contribution to today’s rock scene? I’d be inclined to affirm and concur with the foremost question. Does anyone else feel intensely irritated by Justin Hawkins, strutting his stuff in a plethora of multicoloured spandex suits that ensure he really does strut everything? God, the endless, onanistic guitar playing! I saw The Darkness play at Glastonbury 2003, where they kicked the festival off. Put it this way, there were a hardcore group of kids who jumped around, shouting, as close to the stage as possible, and then everybody else sitting down on the grass, talking, making snide comments, and in some cases laughing. Hawkins then had the audacity to stand up and say ‘we’re going to play a song by Radiohead called ‘Street Spirit (Fade Out)’ and with the rest of his band proceeded to massacre what is a very great song by a very great band. The Darkness are not, and seeing them at the beginning of the summer, before they had really gained universal fame in Britain while the NME was still telling you they were your new favourite band, made me realise how daft they really are. I don’t know, maybe I’m being a little harsh, but I do sincerely hope that they don’t take themselves too seriously, and instead are just playing the sort of music they love listening to and trying to entertain people. Which I suppose is fair enough. So, entertainers rather than serious musicians — that’s settled then (wish he’d stop screaming though).

See the hilarious www.thedarknessrock.com, which says, ‘Men what do rock, baby’ at the top. ‘Nuff said.

Toby Flaux