The Darkness are aptly named for a rock band but, on a cold November night, they brought a ray of light to Nick Rayn’s LCR at UEA, Norwich. Given that the group are from Lowestoft, Norwich is effectively their home gig; a multi-generational crowd packed the venue for the latest leg of the Motorheart Tour.
To a sparse curtained backdrop and a row of bright landing lights, the gig opened to their familiar Celtic sounding entrance tape before the band took to the stage to belt out ‘Welcome Tae Glasgae’. The opener is also the opening track for their recently released seventh album, Motorheart and is packed with guitar riffs and typical extravagance included Justin Hawkin’s vocals that bear an uncanny resemblance to Begbie in Trainspotting.
By the second song, ‘One Way Ticket’, Hawkins’ trademark falsetto vocals already had the crowd in the LCR’s pit singing along. The group was firing as the Hawkins brothers traded heavy guitar riffs at the bridge. The momentum continued with another crowd-pleaser ‘Growing on Me’, from their first album, Permission to Land.
As the band paused for breath, Hawkins announced that this week had seen the release of their new album, an “opus” which led him into an amusing singalong with the crowd of ‘Life is Life’ by Opus. Having shared his disappointment that “Fucking Taylor Swift” had kept the record out of the top ten, he jokingly asked those in the crowd who hadn’t bought the album “to leave”. The band roared into ‘Motorheart’. The track is a falsetto driven slice of metal about having sex with robots and delivered only as The Darkness can.
After the heavy guitar and stirring drum outros of ‘Open Fire’, Hawkins demonstrated his versatility by slowing the tempo for their new rock-ballad ‘Sticky Situations’. Beautifully sung, the vocals flowed with genuine emotion enhanced by a powerful guitar solo; one of the set highlights and showing The Darkness aren’t all pastiche.
The ballad led to more audience engagement; as one fan remarked, “we’re having a Q&A”. Hawkins shouted out to his dad who was in the audience, inquiring how his father was doing on his quest to drink 10 pints. The lead singer then took us through an outline of his day from “walking along the golden sands” of Lowestoft seafront to his journey to Norwich via Great Yarmouth, adding “the less said about that, the better!” The audience engagement sometimes felt like pantomime, emphasised by the “oh oh oh” singalong to the next song ‘Give It Up’ . The banter all added to the feeling that here was a band out to entertain and connect with those who had paid to see them and not just race through a setlist.
The kitsch element never strayed too far from the performance as Hawkins introduced “Rufus Tiger Taylor on the drum kit with no shirt on”, ahead of “It’s Love, Jim”. This was another new song; a madcap messy mix of drums and heavy guitar about alien love.
After powering through ‘Black Shock’ and ‘Heart Explodes’, we reached another high point. Firstly, an audience singalong of the line “Dancing on a Friday Night” segued into ‘Friday Night’, from their debut album. Immediately, the tone switched into another track from their multi-platinum debut, as mournful guitars led a swaying audience and a bare-chested cat-suited Hawkins into ‘Love Is Only A Feeling’
With the audience fully warmed up and guitars blazing, the band played two more new songs. Kicking off the sequence, was a powerful guitar riff from Dan Hawkins to start ‘The Power And The Glory Of Love’. The song was a breathtaking cacophony of guitars, heavy bass and drums, highlighting a group at the peak of their game. The final new song, ‘Eastbound’, came after a strutting guitar solo from Justin Hawkins on ‘Solid Gold’. ‘Eastbound’ took the audience on a pub-crawl with the mates; a tour through East coast alehouses. However, the song had to stumble towards the bell for last orders as it was interrupted by a fan. Hawkins playfully teased the fan. Firstly, he accused them of “Not objectifying me enough—look at these golden legs and winning arms”. Then, he fell into a mock dramatic voice and begged them to “stop gawping at my Covid ravaged body, I have eaten too much!”
Hawkins stayed in thespian mode, as he spoke the introduction to ‘Barbarian’ as the band roared through that track and their first ever single ‘Get Your Hands Off My Woman’. With the crowd now hand-clapping and dancing, Hawkins urged people to be careful in the moshpit.
Before the climax, we had time for a final spot of theatre. Hawkins divided the room and each section to sing ‘Mother!’ before announcing the winner. In true pantomime dame style, he opted for a draw.
With that, the audience conductor launched into a slow intricate guitar solo as the audience anticipated their greatest hit. Suddenly, Hawkins stopped and berated himself, “Enough of this self-indulgent rubbish! I am Justin Hawkins and this is The Darkness”. With that the band launched into ‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love’ and the audience went wild. Over a thousand voices joined in unison, complete with radio gaga-esque hand clapping, to celebrate the homecoming of their local heroes. This was what they had all come to see.
The band trooped off with the audience chants ringing in their ears but the final bells hadn’t yet tolled. There was one more scene left as Hawkins led the band back on stage, now transformed by a random selection of Christmas outfits including a drumming Christmas tree. Hawkins strutted the stage in shimmering red, open shirted and topped with a Santa hat as they belted through ‘Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End).
The song faded and Hawkins ended with a few bars of ‘Mistletoe and Wine’.
It may still be November but The Darkness launched pantomime season in a glorious ostentatious fusion of finely tuned musical craft and fun.
Words by Andrew Butcher
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