The Darkness kick off their Australian tour this week, returning Down Under following the cancellation of their 2013 tour. Their return from hiatus with 2012’s Hot Cakes album saw the band refreshed; they had original bassist Frankie Poullain back in the fold on the recording for the first time since their acclaimed debut and overall it was deemed a definite return to form by the British glam-rockers. The band’s new album Last of Our Kind has continued the trait and as we look down the barrel of what are sure to be some glitzy, sweaty, chaotic tour dates, The Darkness’ frontman Justin Hawkins takes us through the past few months of preparation the band has been undergoing.
“In a way, this tour is more focused,” he admits. “We’re going where we know we’re welcome! The last one was for the first album we’d done since the hiatus, so we were going to all the places, to see what the interest was like. We had spent a lot of time in Scandinavia on previous albums and it’s become quite clear now that whilst we do have fans in Scandinavia, we don’t have quite enough to make it viable to tour [there] for this album. We’re spending more time in Spain than we would in Scandinavia, a bit of South America and we might look at doing some South East Asia as well. That’s all to come for next year, really. The obvious ones are the UK, Australia and North America, all those places that have been good to us over the years.”
Of course, with The Darkness’ breakout record being 2003’s Permission to Land, to be able to form set lists reflective of their now four album strong collection has been a challenge Hawkins has been relishing. Although Last of Our Kind has only been out and circulating since May, the lead vocalist admits that they’ve been working solidly on new material for their next album already. For a band who has experienced their own fair share of obstacles over the years, professionally and off the road as well, the enthusiasm The Darkness have towards their music and the direction the band is heading in is undeniable.
“It’s getting to the point now when I’m looking at set lists, it’s not always easy to remember which songs are on which album!” he laughs. “They all come together nicely and it’s actually really fun to try and make the set because one thing about having another load of songs to choose from, is that it makes it easier to create a unique experience.”
This tour will also be the first time The Darkness will be in Australia with new drummer, Rufus Taylor. With an impressive musical pedigree behind him (Taylor has been cutting his teeth on the live front drumming for Queen + Adam Lambert, his father being Roger Taylor), Taylor’s influence on The Darkness’ band dynamic hasn’t gone unnoticed, as Hawkins notes. On how the recent live shows by The Darkness have gone up another level off the back of Last of Our Kind, he describes how he’s feeling these new shows.
“It’s so important [the live experience] to us and hopefully our fans appreciate it.” he says. “Sometimes when you’ve got loads of new songs, it means that you can also put in songs in the set that you haven’t played profusely, you know? I mean, there is stuff from the second album that we’re doing now, that we haven’t done for years. Obviously, we play a lot from the first album, but having the new stuff makes it [easier] to access stuff from the second and third album. It’s good! I’m really enjoying the set at the moment. Having a new drummer has also unlocked some things – it’s a good band, really. We’ve even got a song in the set that isn’t from any of the albums, we haven’t released it yet. We’ve got about 20 new songs and a lot of stuff for the new album, we’ve already started performing some of it live and we haven’t recorded it yet!”
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The Darkness kick off their Australian tour in Adelaide this Friday night. Supported by APES, you can catch the band at the following venues:
November 6th | HQ, Adelaide | THE DARKNESS
November 7th | Metropolis, Fremantle | THE DARKNESS
November 8th | The Tivoli, Brisbane | THE DARKNESS
November 11th | The Forum, Melbourne | THE DARKNESS
November 13th | Enmore Theatre, Sydney | THE DARKNESS
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