Thursday 11/12/03, The Darkness @ Academy 1, Liverpool

With the nights warm up act kicking off their set during a trip to the bar, it's not until I get back to my place that I realise that rather than a tribute act to the Darkness, it is in fact a rather serious rock-metal act Young Heart Attack - something reinforced by their love of home state Texas. An announcement that causes this reviewer to become more than a little creeped out - as any chance of irony in the band's image disappears in a puff of guitar riffs.

With the main support, Ten Benson, you couldn't give a **** about irony as thoughts of chainsaws are replaced with scantily clad ladies and somewhat less pleasant black string vests. Like some kind of truck stop nightmare (minus the cottaging) the band make no apology for their appearances -no doubt more suited to the trashy toilet circuit they're more accustomed to playing. Suggest to them that metal is making a come back and they'll probably leave you lying on the floor, for these guys metal never went away.

Having spent much of the afternoon barricaded into their tour coach hiding from ever more demanding ever-younger gig goer it's a wonder that The Darkness would want to come on stage. And who can blame them? Less than a year ago the Darkness played the Academy 3 - a bar used as dressing rooms and storage when the main hall is in use. On that night around twenty-five people attended, myself not included, for like everyone else who lives outside of the influence of XFM, it was not until May with the launch of 'Get Your Hands Off My Woman' that I came to appreciate the fine art of ball-clenching choruses, incendiary guitar solos and such cheese as 'I Believe In A Thing Called Love'. After all, any band that can launch the word "****" into the charts (twice!) deserves fame and fortune.  

But why would any band want to play to such an audience? Like the roadie complaining at the start of the night, where were we when they were penniless, struggling from bar to bar playing to only a handful of people. 

Perhaps it the very same reason that such band could ever exist, indeed be loved so much, that they would bother to put on one of the performances of the year in Liverpool. It's simple; the band manages to rock so much they've divided the entire country Marmite style. They're fun but no novelty; the determination behind every thrash, strum and pick is only matched by Tony Blair's policy on Iraq.

Running through 'Permission to Land' like a Greatest Hits set, it seems they could end the band at any moment and be happy having launched the first timeless album of the century, not to mention royalties from 'Don't Let The Bells End'. Even if this weren't to be the case, they could at least stake a claim as being the first to score three one hit wonders.

Under a snowstorm of confetti and glitter the ease at which Justin Hawkins struts across the stage is a wonder to behold; like the daydream of 14-54 year old men everywhere it's more than likely that those not under the spell are a tiny bit jealous.

Photos by Sakura Henderson