Rhino Factoids: The Darkness Make Their Live Debut

15 years ago today, The Darkness – yes, the band that once ordered you to get your hands off of their woman, mother***er – performed their first concert.

Hailing from Suffolk, England, The Darkness rose from the ashes of a band called Empire, which Justin Hawkins once summed up with the words, “Great drummer, great guitarist, great bassist, terrible keyboard player.” Both Justin and his brother Dan were in Empire, but – believe it or not – Dan was the singer in that particular outfit, and it’s been said that Justin’s shift into the role of frontman came after he attended a New Year’s Eve bash in 2000 and blew everyone away during a karaoke competition with his performance of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

Yes, Justin Hawkins has a gift for flamboyance. Big surprise, right?

The Darkness’s live debut came at a benefit gig in Camden, one held to raise money for the family of of a member of the band Q-Sling who had committed suicide earlier that month. Also a member of Q-Sling: Ed Graham, drummer for The Darkness. The band’s rise to success may have seemed somewhat sudden, but it was actually rather gradual: their first professional gig didn’t take place for another six months, it wasn’t until March 2001 before they found themselves with a residency at a club called The Monarch, and the band’s first album, Permission to Land, which was funded by Justin’s gig as an advertising jingle writer, didn’t hit record store shelves until March 2003. With that said, though, they did manage to get a bit of American buzz going in 2002 when they performed a showcase set at South by Southwest.

The Darkness’s profile may not be as high now as it once was, but they’re still kicking around. In fact, they just released a new single – “Barbarian” – and they’ve got a full album set for release in early summer. For the time being, though, why not reflect on their accomplishments up to this point with the playlist we’ve created? It covers their career from the aforementioned debut all the way up to “Barbarian,” and although it’s brash, outrageous, and unabashedly derivative at times, boy, it sure is fun.