the darkness uk tour 2022

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The Darkness; Brooding, magnificent. Like the mighty mother condor sitting upon a rock egg in a nest of curly hair on the side of a powerful mountain.  If you wish to keep abreast of our activities, this is the website for you.

New Album ‘Dreams On Toast’ coming March 2025!

Signed Vinyl, CDs and Cassettes available!

‘Dreams On Toast’ UK Tour Announced for March 2025!

ARTIST PRE-SALE + VIP UPGRADES @ 10AM WEDS 25TH SEPT. GENERAL ON-SALE @ 10AM FRI 27TH SEPT

Pre-order Dreams On Toast from the official store and receive access to the special artist tour ticket pre-sale at 10am on Wednesday, September 25th, along with VIP Upgrades!

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Rufus Tiger Taylor

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Justin Hawkins

New album 'dreams on toast' & uk tour announced.

CLICK TO PRE-ORDER ALBUM NOW & ACCESS TICKET PRE-SALE!

Released March 2025 via Cooking Vinyl.

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The Darkness announce ‘Permission To Land’ 20th anniversary European tour

Global tour dates are also promised

The Darkness have shared details of a European tour to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their debut album ‘Permission To Land’.

• READ MORE:  The Darkness’ Justin Hawkins has finally found his true calling: as a rock tutorial YouTuber

Today (March 22) the rock band have announced 13 European shows ahead of a global tour that’s to be revealed in the coming months.

Tickets for the European dates go on sale this Friday (March 24) here .

Singer and guitarist Justin Hawkins said: “When ‘Permission To Land’ landed, twenty short years ago, we were bathed in shock and awe. As if by magic, Rock wasn’t dead! Fun wasn’t banned! And Spandex was almost acceptable again.

“Well, guess what? Twenty years on, the same rules apply. So please to squeeze yourselves into those inappropriate leggings, back-comb your mullet, splash on a big handful of attitude, and come celebrate with us! We promise everything and we deliver, every time. Bring on the next twenty!”

The Darkness will play their 2003 debut in full, which includes tracks such as ‘Growing On Me’, ‘Love Is Only A Feeling’ and ‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love’.

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The band will also play favourites from their subsequent studio albums. Their last album, ‘Motorheart’, which was their seventh record, was released in 2021.

A special expanded ‘Permission To Land’ deluxe album release is coming later this year via Warner Music, with further details to be revealed soon.

The Darkness ‘Permission To Land’ 20th anniversary European tour 2023:

NOVEMBER 07 – Germany, Berlin, Admiralspalast 08 – Germany, Hamburg, Markthalle 09 – Germany, Cologne Essigfabrik 11 – Germany, Munich, Technikum 13 – Italy, Rome Orion 14 – Italy, Milan, Alcatraz 15 – Italy, Modena, Vox 17 – Switzerland, Prattlen, Z7 18 – Luxembourg Den Atelier 20 – Switzerland, Bern Muhle Hunziken 22 – Belguim, Brussels, AB 23 – France, Paris, La Cigale 24 – Holland, Amsterdam Melkweg Max

Meanwhile, in January, The Darkness’ gig in Liverpool was evacuated after one song due to “an emergency in the building”.

The band were performing at the city’s M&S Bank Arena on January 29 as part of their co-headlining tour with Black Stone Cherry when the evacuation took place. Read more about it here .

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The Darkness announce 17-date UK tour and new album: How to get tickets

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The Darkness have announced a new album and a UK tour, as well as the lead track on the album, ‘The Longest Kiss’.

The artist presale will go live at 10am on Wednesday 25 September and general sale tickets for all dates will go on sale at 10am on Friday 27 September on Ticketmaster .

The tour itself begins on 7 March 2025 with a date at Regents Theatre in Ipswich, followed by Oxford, Swansea, Guildford, Kingston-upon-Hull, Liverpool, Wolverhampton, York, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle, Manchester, Bristol, Portsmouth, Leicester, Cambridge and London. The London date will include special guests Ash.

Ash's Tim Wheeler says: "In 2004 we toured the UK’s arenas with The Darkness as ‘Permission to Land’ catapulted them into the big league. Next March, 21 years later, we will reunite to tear across Britain before an epic crescendo at Wembley Arena. We believe in a thing called Rock!"

The 17-date tour will coincide with the launch of the new album, Dreams on Toast, the band’s eighth. 

Justin Hawkins, Dan Hawkins, Frankie Poullain and Rufus Tiger Taylor last toured the UK in 2021.

The band reached number one last week with ‘I believe in a thing called love’ after Taylor Swift was spotted singing the song with boyfriend Travis Kelce.

Hawkins took to social media to thank the popstar, saying: ““A few weeks ago my daughter and I went to see Taylor Swift at the stadium in Zurich and the hospitality they showed us was extraordinary. They put us in a lovely VIP area, I had Chris Rock on one side, Roger Federer on the other side, I was dad of the year. 

“It was a really heart-warming moment for me, and my little girl can’t wait to tell her friends at school. So thanks Taylor, thanks Travis, thanks everybody who enjoys tennis, that’s a really lovely start to the day. Nice one guys.”

Tickets for the tour will be on sale here.

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The Darkness  

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The Darkness are a rock band from Lowestoft, Suffolk, England who formed in 2000. Their debut album “Permission To Land” was released in 2003, making them one of the biggest bands in Britain until they split in 2006, they reformed in 2011, however, and are performing to this day.

Some people might try to tell you that in 2003 the entire country was listening to The Strokes, Dizzee Rascal, The White Stripes or something other “cool” act. You can tell them to their face that they’re either highly mistaken or filthy liars. 2003 was the year that the Jack Black classic rock comedy School Of Rock was released and, by some possibly divine act of harmony, it was also the year that absolutely everyone in the country fell in love with The Darkness. With the film and the band’s debut album working in tandem with each other, 2003 was the year of the riff, and a good year it was too.

The band began four years before all that, beginning in 1999 when struggling guitarist Dan Hawkins met bass player Frankie Poullain. The duo promptly moved in together and started looking for other instrumentalists to form a band with. They found a drummer in Dan’s old school friend Ed Graham, but a singer wouldn’t be found until millennium eve, when Dan watched, stunned, as some clown at a karaoke contest completely aced Bohemian Rhapsody. He nailed every tricky octave leap and star-jumped like a maniac when the riff kicked in, all without missing a note. Said clown was Dan’s older brother, Justin Hawkins, who was immediately recruited as the bands singer and rhythm guitarist.

By 2000, the band was set, and they started performing live everywhere that would have them. Their astonishing live sets in pubs and small clubs around the country gained them a devoted following and buckets of hype. This hype was mainly centred on how Justin Hawkins performed like the bastard child of Freddie Mercury and Angus Young captivating an entire stadium, whilst the band was actually playing grotty pubs in Kentish Town. The following they built up was so large that in 2002 they became the first unsigned band to ever headline London’s legendary Astoria club in Charing Cross.

Clearly, they were not going to be unsigned for long, and by 2003 the band had signed to Atlantic Records. Now, at this point they had a large amount of hype behind them, but nobody was prepared for quite how huge they were poised to get. The album was released in July and within a year had sold 1.5 million copies, their big single “I Believe In A Thing Called Love” was released in September and peaked at number 2 as did their Christmas single “Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End) and things only got more insane come 2004.

2004 saw them support Metallica on tour, win three BRIT Awards for Best British Album, Best British Group and Best Rock Group, and then capped off their debut album campaign by headlining the Reading and Leeds festivals. To put that in context, that puts them in the same category as the likes of Guns ‘N’ Roses, The Cure and Foo Fighters. Put simply, they were a big deal. The downside of all this is that it was all downhill from here on out. The cracks were showing as Justin Hawkins’ party lifestyle started to get as much press as the band’s music, but it seemed under control. For now.

The bands commercial pull had deteriorated as well due to over-exposure. The backlash had begun in earnest and releasing an album in 2005, the year after they’d been absolutely everywhere, was a bad move. Although it eventually went platinum, the bands second album “One Way Ticket To Hell… And Back”, missed the top ten entirely, where their debut had gone straight in at number two. The resulting tour saw a tired, out of it band performing to dwindling audiences and constant tabloid attention concerning Justin, who in 2006 admitted to spending £150’000 on cocaine in three years after the success of “…Thing Called Love”.

Everything had to stop, Justin was sent to rehab for his own health, and while he was in he decided to leave the band to stay away from old habits. Without their totem and frontman, the band called it a day soon afterwards. The band members went quietly into other projects for the next five years, but in 2011, the band reunited to play second on the bill at that year’s Download Festival. Since then, the band have been on top form, with their third album “Hot Cakes” hurtling into the top five of the album charts, and some of the best live shows of their entire career. Clearly they’re a band on their second wind, and it would be a crying shame to miss out. Highly recommended.

Live reviews

I consider myself enormously fortunate to have got the inside scoop on The Darkness all the way back in 2001 and spent the next two years watching them hone their stagecraft at grotty pubs and clubs the length and breadth of North London. The music and the outfits got tighter and before my very eyes they became the four man rock machine that bestrode the narrow world of British heavy rock like a colossus between 2003-2005.

Just because they're no longer playing the ten thousand seater arenas that they were in their "imperial phase" doesn't mean there's been any diminishing of the level of showmanship you can expect from The Darkness. Frontman Justin Hawkins is a 21st century 'Diamond' Dave Lee Roth, a fizzing ball of energy who uses every inch of the stage. Let that not take away from the fact that he and brother Dan are also amazing guitar players, as you'll get to see for yourself if the "impromptu" walkabout through the crowd on a roadie's shoulders brings him near to you.

The string of hits enjoyed by the band in 2003 – Get Your Hands Off My Woman, Growing On Me and I Believe In A Thing Called Love, all from the million-selling Permission To Land – are still broadly representative of the band’s signature sound. Expect powerful, muscular rock riffs leavened with lyrics that are often deceptively funny or unexpectedly touching, all delivered in what is unquestionably one of the most distinctive voices in rock.

Of the 64 shows I've seen them play to date, a few stand head and shoulders above the rest in memory: the first time ever, at the Water Rats nearly 13 years ago, because it was the start of something big for me personally. The first "catsuit show", a few months later in the backroom of a ghastly pub in Tooting, where me and fellow superfan Sexy Dave helped Justin Hawkins out of his jeans. A show at the Wolverhampton Civic Hall in 2003 gave me a tremendous buzz – to see them in such a big venue felt like a fitting reward after having worked so hard. The three sold out shows at Wembley Arena in 2004 for the same reason. The Darkness split up in October 2006, many feared never to return. Happily, after a five year hiatus the band’s original line up – with the Hawkins brothers’ schoolfriend Ed Graham on drums and token Scot Frankie Poullain on bass – were reunited in 2011 and quickly discovered that the UK’s appetite for their unique brand of power rock was undimmed. They released Hot Cakes in 2012 and are currently recording their fourth album.

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The Darkness are easily one of the most eccentric British rock bands, led by the bizarrely brilliant Justin Hawkins. Having enjoyed huge success with their debut album 'Permission to Land' which topped UK charts back in 2004, the following albums did not match the commerciality yet this allowed the band more artistic freedom to form a live show that they really enjoyed performing as opposed to just a selection of songs before the inevitable 'I Believe in a Thing Called Love'.

Glam rock is still at the centre of the operation and the multi-coloured haze lighting beckons the band onstage and the crowd erupts in excitement. Justin immediately and confidently takes the mic and screams in the first bar of 'Makin' Out'. First of all playing a selection of material from 'One Way Ticket to Hell... and Back' and 'Hot Cakes' before exiting the stage to a bemused and confused crowd.

They shortly reappear for a second act of sorts which sees the band acknowledge the crippling success of the debut as they run through the album in its entirety. And a great album it is, with the obvious singles shining in the venue yet extended versions of 'Stuck in a Rut' really showcase the band's ability as a rock outfit.

Not a band to take lightly or dismiss as a joke act,the DARKNESS came to Leicester and ROCKED the 02 academy with some great songs, riffs and jokes, even Justin doing his acrobatic handstand during one of their songs! From bassist Frankie Poullain dropping the Cowbell used for the beginning of " One way ticket to hell and back", to Justin playing a synthesizer version of" I believe in a thing called love", there was something to delight all of the rocking crowd last night, all rounded off with Justin playing a red glitter guitar for a rousing rendition of " Christmas time ( don't let the bells end)" There was no DARKNESS last night, only four stars that shone very brightly indeed!!! Well rocked!!

After over 12 years after first seeing The Darkness at the Manchester Acadamy,I was lucky enough to get to a gig and meet and greet a few weeks back at HMV in London,and it was a blast.10 times i have seen the lads and they are without doubt one of the best live bands i have ever seen..just catch them live and enjoy!!!,they took so much time to talk and sign and the gig infront of 300 was fantastic,so much energy for so few people.

Amazing! I've seen The Darkness three or four times before, but this was special! Dingwalls is tiny and to see a kick-ass band like The Darkness in a room with just 500 other people was incredible. They pulled out loads of great tracks from the new album, plus all the classics you'd expect. The whole band were on top form - especially Dan - and the new drummer is immense! What a night!

Wow!! What a show the energy, set list and sound were fantastic. The Darkness put a show on like no other and as always we’re quite magnificent. Also did the Meet and Greet and it was lovely to watch some of the sound check followed by a Question and Answer and a tour around the Stage and Instruments. The lads were really nice and chatty telling stories ❤️❤️

I've been a fan of the darkness from the beginning and have loved all of their singles and albums.Last night was truly memorable as they gave a stage rocking performance and made the crowd very happy for nearly 2 hours.This is how you rock!Go and see them if you can.Long live the darkness!

The guys put on a great show.

Energetic, electric, loads of fun from beginning to end.

It is so encouraging and refreshing to see them doing something they truly love.

Good crowd engagement.

Wish they came around more often.

They turned it up to 11.

See this band! Justin Hawkins is one of the best frontmen in Rock music currently period. Seriously awesome tracks and awesome live performances, as good as those hard rock bands that came before them and theyre still better than ever

Absolutely amazing!!! This gig was so good from start to finish, even the support band was awesome! The band put on a spectacular performance and the crowd was great too! Overall a fantastic experience and i want to go see them again!

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