Dancing on a Tuesday night: The Darkness at Portsmouth Guildhall
The lathered and leathered-up barbarians arrived on southern shores with a selection of rock anthems from their new album.
Photo: Press
“With the Midlands, you know what you’re gonna get. It’ll be mental. You go further north, same thing. The south coast is uncharted territory. What are they going to be like?”
Hungry is the answer. As several thousand baying fans crowded into the neo-classical sauna of the Portsmouth Guildhall on a Tuesday night, clad in leather jackets and worn-out tour tees, there was an intense hunger in the room. A hunger for what, you ask? Rock. Good old-fashioned, straight-talking, British rock ‘n’ roll. And boy, did The Darkness satisfy.
In the support slot were Irish rockers Ash, who sped through an abridged best of: Shining Light, Girl from Mars and Burn Baby Burn were met with rapturous applause and kicked the evening off with a nuclear bang.
Then, shortly after the clock struck nine, The Darkness, who are on the road promoting their new album Dreams on Toast, swaggered onto the stage, dressed to the nines and accompanied by the downright godly vocals of ABBA’s 1976 track Arrival. Frontman Justin Hawkins wore pinstriped suit trousers in white, a loose silver tie, glossy waistcoat and a luminescent six-string. At the age of half a century, and for a man who’s probably done coke with the dragon instead of chasing it, he looked good.
They all did, and as they thundered into the new album’s opener, Rock and Roll Party Cowboy, it became obvious we were in the company of rock demigods. The anthem was the perfect choice to kickstart the main event, and favourites from the group’s debut Growing on Me and Get Your Hands Off My Woman won over the early-day elitists, too.
Mortal Dread, a particularly hard rock number from the new album followed suit, drawing the crowd in with catchy chorus and fearsome licks from both Hawkins and brother Dan. Motorheart, from the 2021 record of the same name and Barbarian – a downright dirty piece – rang through the guildhall like church bells, coaxing the parish in for Midnight Mass.
Cuts from the new album and latter-day offerings came thick and fast (Walking Through Fire, The Longest Kiss, Heart Explodes) before fan favourite Friday Night and, at last, the group’s signature. The group barrelled from Led Zeppelin’s legendary Immigrant Song into the first chorus of their masterpiece, with Hawkins nailing every line of falsetto coming his way. Few bands can truly say they sound as good as they did 20 years ago, but it’s true. The encore consisted of Weekend in Rome and I Hate Myself, both off the new record.
That’s not to say there weren’t any problems in the rowdy city of merchants and seafarers. Hawkins’ vocals were lost somewhat in a swampy sound mix, heckles were lobbed left, right and centre, and a fight broke out at one point. Throughout, frontman Justin was the professional showman, at once riling and placating the masses with deep cuts and banter.
For followers of the early days, you’ll find the essentials here, but little else. No Black Shuck, One Way Ticket, Hazel Eyes or Is It Just Me?. None of the killer riffs from Last of Our Kind, Open Fire or Mudslide. Not even their iconic Christmas hit, which, until relatively recently, was performed in the height of summer.
But it shows the band offering something a lot of rock bands don’t; they don’t rely on the same trotted-out chart-toppers, resting on their leather laurels. They trust the crowd to know tracks from across their 20-year discography.
It’s evident the lads from Lowestoft still have plenty to give, putting on a rock show fit for Wembley. They belong in a stadium, too; dancing, stomping and leaping their way from one end of the stage to the other. Thankfully for us fans in Portsmouth that night, they’re not quite ready to go back to venues like that yet. But, so what? For those treasured few hours, Red Rocks and the Royal Albert Hall didn’t come close.