It’s been a long time since The Darkness and I were acquainted, I remember seeing them support Def Leppard just before breaking big themselves, then going on to see them play arena shows with all the over-the-top excesses that brought. They split in 2006, but after the brothers Dan and Justin Hawkins had done their own things for a few years (Stone Gods and Hot Leg, respectively) they reunited in 2011 and have continued ever since, though original drummer Ed Graham has since stepped down; his place is now taken by Rufus Tiger Taylor (son of Queen’s Roger). This date in Liverpool was their first in several years too, and the set would comprise a complete performance of latest album ‘Easter Is Cancelled’ plus a selection of favourites from their back catalogue.
I wanted to get there handy enough to catch support REWS however; the band as I knew it split earlier in the year and I was interested to see how singer/guitarist Shauna Tohill would fare without drummer/vocalist Collette Williams, who announced her departure in April this year. Since then REWS has continued with a revolving cast of players alongside Tohill, including a bassist for the first time, making the new-look band a trio. For this tour bassist Ele Lucas and drummer Scott Hislop completed the line-up, and I was intrigued to see how the dynamic had changed now that two had become three. Sound-wise, it wasn’t THAT much different; a little fuller yes, now that there’s a bassist present but the important element for me of this band’s sound was the vocal blend of Tohill and Williams. It soon became clear Lucas was a perfectly capable deputy in the vocal department, leaving their male drummer to just concentrate on tubthumping. Tohill has always been an energetic performer, often jumping or headbanging away, now she has an accomplice with the equally enthusiastic bassist to her right. The set was mostly comprised of tracks from 2017 debut album ‘Pyro’ but recent single ‘Birdsong’ was also performed. Whenever I’ve seen REWS before Shauna has always spent the set grinning throughout, seemingly pleased just to be let up there with a guitar, and tonight was no exception. The second album will come out next year, and with a tour already booked for March it’s recommended to get to a date and see REWS v2.0 if they come nearby.
The Darkness made their grand entrance minus their frontman, who could be seen but not heard for the first part of opener ‘Rock and Roll Deserves To Die’. When he emerged, it seemed he’d pinched Freddie Mercury’s old Bohemian Rhapsody jumpsuit – a white number very similar to that iconic outfit from 1975. The jacket didn’t last long though, he soon ditched it to reveal his heavily-tattooed torso, to the approval of the crowd! The first half of the show was the current album performed in full, but there was plenty of room for banter and joking about, this is a band and a frontman not afraid to laugh at themselves. The ‘Easter Is Cancelled’ album is somewhat eclectic, I thought it a little bold to perform the whole thing but it does show they have faith in the record. ‘Heavy Metal Lover’ sees them flip from thrash to melodic swaying in the blink of an eye, while ‘Deck Chair’ has guitarist Dan Hawkins switch to bass, while Frankie Poullain takes an acoustic guitar and drummer Rufus Tiger Taylor leaves his kit to play keyboards. ‘We Are The Guitar Men’ closed out that part of the show, with only Justin Hawkins on stage while the other three dashed off for a quick change.
Resplendent in a bright red jumpsuit, Justin and the guys reappeared with ‘One Way Ticket’ (a song which always made me think of The Sweet), all in different attire and Dan now in his trademark Thin Lizzy t-shirt. The fun was ramped up even more in this part of the show; before ‘Growing On Me’ Justin mockingly made fun of a fan who’d been looking at his phone throughout the show up to that point, and got the audience to do the same – challenging them NOT to look at the stage during the song! That didn’t work of course, and they stopped it in the first verse so that we could all put our phones away and enjoy the song! This segment of the show was a selection of their hits, including slowie ‘Love Is Only A Feeling’ which sees Dan Hawkins take the lead guitar spotlight rather than his brother, who plays most of the lead and regards himself as just ‘the icing on the cake’! A rocked-up cover of Radiohead’s ‘Street Spirit’ preceded the last two, crowd favourites ‘Get Your Hands Off My Woman’ and of course ‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love’. For the encore, it had to be their Christmas hit ‘Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End)’ and for this, they got the whole crowd to link hands while they played, Justin using a sparkly red Les Paul just for that song. It was almost like watching Slade in the 1970s (he imagines!) with a fun rock band performing their Christmas hit single!
Watching this show it was easy to see why they exploded in popularity so fast in the early part of the millennium; coming along at a time when it was not ok to rock out and you were supposed to be glum, serious and certainly not supposed to bash out lead guitar solos, they flew in the face of that and brought back good old-fashioned fun to the rock scene. It’s no coincidence that once this band broke, many other classic rock bands suddenly found themselves enjoying a renaissance. The near-capacity turnout in Liverpool this close to Christmas shows that their audience has held up, and long may they continue to bring the good times to the scene.
4 – Deserving
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