If ever a band were born to banish the lockdown blues, it’s The Darkness. Back in 2003, with debut album Permission To Land, Lowestoft’s finest export arrived in the charts like they’d been fired from a glitter cannon: ’70s rock disciples trading in undeniable songs and flash-bastard musicianship, whose tours were a travelling circus of man-made fibres and airborne white tigers.
If we needed The Darkness then, we need them even more now. In November, frontman Justin Hawkins, guitarist Dan Hawkins, bassist Frankie Poullain and drummer Rufus Tiger Taylor lead the nation out of lockdown with a 22-date UK tour that plunders new album Motorheart, cherrypicks the best of their catalogue – and invites Steve Harris’s British Lion along for the ride.
As the band ready themselves for the road, we asked them about tourbus rules, onstage mishaps – and why they still believe in a thing called live.
Watch the exclusive video interview here.
Motorheart is released October 15th via Cooking Vinyl
Motorheart UK Tour Dates 2021
Nov 17: Brighton Dome, Brighton
Nov 19: Winter Gardens, Margate
Nov 20: O2 Academy, Bournemouth
Nov 21: Cliffs Pavillion, Southend
Nov 23: UEA, Norwich
Nov 24: Corn Exchange, Cambridge
Nov 26: The Hexagon, Reading
Nov 27: The Great Hall, Cardiff
Nov 29: The Great Hall, Exeter
Nov 30: G Live, Guilford
Dec 02: O2 Academy, Liverpool
Dec 03: Academy, Manchester
Dec 04: Bonus Arena, Hull
Dec 06: The Victoria, Stoke-on-Trent
Dec 07: O2 Academy, Bristol
Dec 09: Barrowlands, Glasgow
Dec 10: O2 Academy, Newcastle
Dec 11: O2 Academy, Leeds
Dec 13: Rock City, Nottingham
Dec 14: O2 Academy, Birmingham
Dec 16: O2 Shepherds Bush Empire, London
Dec 17: O2 Shepherds Bush Empire, London