The Darkness (with Gun), Glasgow O2 ABC

The Darkness (Photo credit: Iain Purdie)

[Full set of Gun pictures / Full set of The Darkness pictures]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Gun live before and I didn’t know they were opening for The Darkness until we arrived and some of the songs sounded familiar. A shame we missed the first half of their set, but sometimes work has to take precedence and the ABC has an early curfew, so…

At least we managed to hear “Word Up“, their most famous single (although admittedly a cover!) rocked out by a cracking bunch of lads playing to a hometown crowd. They deservedly got a good response and left the stage to leave us stood there waiting for The Darkness.

For Ages.

OK, so I was expecting them on around half past eight. Fifteen minutes after that, the lights went down and “The Boys Are Back In Town” blared out. And kept blaring out. For about two-thirds of its length. Before finally being replaced by an introductory bagpipe-based intro.

Which went on. And on. And on…

Guys – ditch the sodding intro music and play another two songs next time! I suppose we shouldn’t complain so far seeing as Glasgow was the only city to get a headlining performance, the rest of the country having to make do with a support slot in exchange for a £50 Lady Gaga ticket.

Once the Brothers Hawkins, Ed and Frankie finally hit the stage, though, rock and roll hell broke loose for ninety lovely minutes. While the new album is definitely not as good as the first two, the songs from it weren’t bad and didn’t leave the crowd twiddling their thumbs waiting for another older song. Thankfully, all of the classics were present and correct.

There was one guy in front of us who really liked the band, spending the last half of their set going mental. Much to our amusement and the annoyance of those around him he kept knocking into!

While The Darkness will never reach their stadium-filling heights again, they’re great value for a live act. Entertaining, silly, loud, and fun. And, dare I say it, if ever there were a natural successor to Freddy Mercury then it’s Justin Hawkins. Spandex, goofy teeth, high-kicking, energetic, funny and a great vocal range. He should have been on that Queen tour, not some American kid from a dodgy TV show.

As I think I said in my review of their show last year, great to see them back and keeping good, old-fashioned rock and roll alive one show at a time.

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