Perhaps The Darkness – the quadruple platinum, outrageously infectious rock band – made their riff-roaring, double-entendre-laden debut, Permission to Land, 20 years too late. There was a significant backlash on its release: due to the outlandish lyrics and falsetto vocals, many critics were quick to assume the band were a glam rock parody.
Yet here the four-piece unapologetically are, 23 years on, having secured three BRIT and two Kerrang! awards, and with eight albums under their rockstar, or catsuit, belts.
GW sat down with Darkness guitarist and producer, Dan Hawkins, at a weekend-long classic rock workshop, hosted by WaterBear – the College of Music.
What was your first guitar?
My dad had a couple knock-off Les Pauls; they’re the reason why [brother and Darkness frontman/rhythm guitarist] Justin and I are musicians. When I think about an electric guitar, the shape and weight of a Les Paul comes to mind. The only reason I got one was because Justin got one; he’d made some money doing an IKEA advert.
We went to a shop in West London. I said: “That one looks cool, I’ll have that.” Justin said: “Yeah, I’ll have that black one.”
Thin Lizzy – mostly a Les Paul band – are one of your favorites. Did they inspire your guitar playing?
People are always surprised when I say Eric Bell is my favorite Lizzy guitarist, because it completely goes against my look, choice of guitar, and tone. I consider Whiskey in the Jar the best guitar-ing in the world.
I challenge you to put a band’s entire catalog on shuffle, and have it take you through an entire weekend – apart from The Beatles. There’s so many different rhythms and approaches.
There’s a Les Paul Custom here today that Jimmy Page briefly had his hands on.
When Led Zeppelin reformed for their final gig at the O2, Page asked Gibson to make an exact replica of his stolen Les Paul Custom ’57 3-pickup. They sent it to him and he said, “This sounds absolutely perfect – but it’s too heavy for my age!”
It’s the heaviest Les Paul you can get because of the wood, the amount of metalwork, and the extra pickup in the middle. It’s an absolute back breaker.
I happened to phone [Gibson’s] Pat Foley the day it ended up back in his office. The Darkness were recording One Way Ticket To Hell…And Back and I said, “I need a Custom Black Beauty 3-pickup.” Foley sent it to me. It was fate!
One of the pickups has been swapped, hasn’t it?
Its pickup was a Burstbucker, but my other guitars were really high output 498s. It wasn’t loud enough. So my guitar tech – who’d just come off an AC/DC tour – swapped it with one of Angus Young’s pickups. It sounded amazing. I didn’t ask what it was; all I know is it came from one of his SGs.
How many guitars are in your collection?
Every 10 years I have a massive clearout. I have seven Les Paul Standards for my touring guitars, four in Europe and three in America. I play Les Paul Standards from the 2000s. The pickups are too loud – to hear your guitar’s tone you have to drop it back a bit. I worked that out three years ago, so all my albums are just fucking blaring and really distorted!
It took The Darkness 11 years to get proper recognition. When did you first feel out of your depth?
I can’t read music. I used to pretend to flip the sheets during sessions. How the hell I blagged that, I don’t know!
Most of my career, really! Being a musician is weird – it’s an insular thing. I was a session guitarist for a bit, which is unbelievable because I can’t read music; I play by ear. I used to pretend to flip the music sheets during sessions. How the hell I blagged that, I don’t know!
What’s the toughest choice you’ve made as a musician?
There is an answer I want to give, but legally I can’t. Sometimes you have to make really tough choices about who is and who isn’t in your band. We had to stop for Justin to get better, and I understand that. He came out of rehab and suddenly started doing solo stuff; that’s what the rift was.
It’s a miracle my band made it through unscathed. In that capacity, it can affect you really really badly – talk about a recipe for disaster, mental health-wise. I feel I’ve made some good decisions over the years. I’m currently in a really good place.
![The Darkness - Get Your Hands Off My Woman (Official Music Video) [HD] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/hI9eVW4cTR8/maxresdefault.jpg)
What does your stage setup look like?
A really big pedalboard, made by Mike Hill, who’s sadly passed. I play with a 100ft cable, which is unusual, straight through to a Marshall 100 watt Super Lead. I’ve got a couple of distortion pedals – mainly old Tube Screamers.
I don’t know why I bother having pedals; the outputs of my Les Paul Standards are so loud they distort the sound of the amp. I’m just piling shit on shit, really… but I’ve got something to stand on!
How has streaming affected your band?
There was a moment when it changed. Our second album didn’t do as well, but it still sold around 100,000 CDs. That was considered a bit of a disaster at the time. These days I’d be like: ‘Oh my god, can you imagine!’ Each record sold used to generate £16, now it generates nothing.
An upside to streaming, and people’s obsession with living their life through a lens, is that the appreciation of live music and human interaction has gone through the fucking roof. You see that in ticket sales and how much people are prepared to pay.
The youngsters know what they want – they want to go to a gig and push each other around. They want records and physical things, and to beat the shit out of each other at gigs. They don’t want AI.
What’s your most memorable encounter with another guitarist?
I’ve been back-to-back with Brian May playing Tie Your Mother Down at Hammersmith Apollo. I thought, ‘What’s Brian doing?’ then I realized he was doing the rock triangle. I’d never done it before. I was like, ‘Oh my God, if I move he’ll fall over!’
It was before he was a Sir. It would have probably been best if I killed him before he was a Sir. If he survived, he would have had me beheaded in the Tower of London. I think those are the sort of privileges you get!
You recently supported Iron Maiden at Knebworth. What’s it like playing to their crowd?
When we started our career we played with everyone: The Rolling Stones, Deep Purple, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Metallica, Alice Cooper, Def Leppard – it’s all we did for two years.
I’ve played gigs – and I’m talking about Metallica here – where the first 5,000 people are either throwing bottles of piss at you, or they’re facing the other way with fingers in their ears. But it wasn’t like that with Maiden. It just went off and it was fucking amazing.
- The Darkness will tour the UK in December.
