I’m always open to new experiences and thus last night I ended up in The Point to see The Darkness at the behest of my 7 year old. I’m not a snob at all, they have written probably THE great pop-rock anthem of recent years in I Believe In A Thing Called Love (a song you can play at any gig pretty much anywhere and fill the floor) it’s just that the rest of their stuff all started to seem a bit samey and I never really got a handle on them…

I went with an open mind though and, to be fair to them, they do put on a great live gig. Anything that starts with warm-up videos from KISS to Aerosmith to A-ha’s Take On Me (which the crowd wholeheartedly sang along to) is a decent start and then the “live” video footage of the band arriving by helicopter pretty much continued the tone.

The band arrived onstage with Justin singing the first song riding a giant pair of breasts (complete with flashing nipples) on a flying wire above the crowd.

Seriously.

As a result my inner 13 year old is now supremely in awe of him forever.

The stage setup is so Spinal Tap as to have come around full circle and be cool again – giant light rigs in the shape of tridents on either side, giant animal horns circling the drummer, guitars with illuminated frets and an enormous steam shooting church organ that’s only used for the encore. All we were short of was a deflating inflatible devil and there being no encore for Springton.

Still can’t get over the fun police and the almost corporatisation of gigs these days – there are people with million candlelight flashlights on the balconies ready to blind the first poor beggar who decides to let his girlfriend sit on his shoulders. same if you spontaneously stand up in the seats if you’re having a good time. First sign of independent thought and you’re out mate…

And yes, before you comment I know it’s all health and safety blah, blah, blah but it’s all a bit un-rock and roll isn’t it?

Rest of the gig was pretty good; they really are very tight live, the fans lapped it all up and, even if there were vast tracts of songs I didn’t know, the stuff I did made up for it. They put on a great show without their tongues heading into their cheeks even once and maybe that’s the trick…

You see I think I get it now – The Darkness aren’t pretending to be a stadium rock band from the 1980s, they are a stadium rock band from the 1980s and carry it off with such gusto we get transported back in time to enjoy what they do without any guilty feelings the next day…

R