Loewstoft rockers The Darkness won’t keep rocking into their 80s like The Rolling Stone as Mick Jagger is fitter than they will ever be. Reformed wildmen recall how they used to employ someone just to help get them over their hangovers.
GUITAR heroes The Darkness won’t be following the Rolling Stones and rocking into their 80s.
The Permission To Land legends, who wowed Download Festival recently, partied way too hard in their youth and don’t have the stamina to match ageless Mick Jagger’s energy levels.
Asked where will Darkness be at 80 frontman Justin Hawkins replied cheekily: “One of our members is already approaching that age (bassist Frankie Poullain, 57)!
Hi brother Dan Hawkins went on: “We opened for the ‘Stones in London twenty years ago. At noon, in the blazing sun. We played for half an hour, and I thought Ed (Graham), our old drummer, was going to burn up it was so hot. Then the ‘Stones came on. Mick started running around and dancing like a chicken for two and a half hours. I thought, ‘Holy sh*t, how does he do it?’ If the touring life suits him, why stop? For him, it’s like doing aerobics for a few hours a day. I’m not sure we’d be in the same shape at 80!”
The reformed wild men used to employ someone just to help get them over their hangovers.
These days the band – back with new LP Dreams On Toast – are clean living but there was a time when debauchery came at a cost. Guitarist Dan Hawkins recalled: “Back in the day, withIt was just complete and utter carnage. We had a wardrobe assistant and one of his jobs was to deploy two ice cubes directly into the eyes, closed I might say, about half an hour before the gig to try and jumpstart our being able to actually play the gig because we were so f**king hungover.”
Ice cubes are better than hair of the dog reckons Dan: “Maybe it’s the fight or flight thing. It sort of makes your brain send emergency signals. It was just a cycle of that. You basically play where you are just about able to stumble on stage from the night before, do the gig and then you come off like and the whole thing would start again.”
Booze and drugs eventually forced singer Justin and nrother Dan to put the band to bed for a while, and when they returned a decade ago had to start from scratch again playing free gigs
.But going teetotal has coincided with an uptick in popularity and earlier this year they completed arena tour dates including headlining Wembley Arena for the first time.
“The objective, right from the word go, was to headline Wembley Arena,” said Dan. “We knew that is where we should be really. There’s a few arenas on this run and that’s something we’ve worked very hard towards since we got back together in 2010. I think we’re actually quite young so if we keep fit and healthy, which we all do religiously, there’s no reason why we can’t just keep building and be the ones carrying the torch for classic rock in 10, 15 years time.”
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
