The Hedonistic Purveyors of Feel-Good Rock Make a Triumphant Return to G Live for Their ‘Dreams on Toast’ Tour!
Written by Louise Phillips on March 23, 2025
The Hedonistic Purveyors of Feel-Good Rock Make a Triumphant Return to G Live for Their ‘Dreams on Toast’ Tour!
The Darkness are one of those bands synonymous with having a good time! Over their illustrious career of more than 20 years, they have built a reputation as a band that always come up with the goods! And tonight was no exception as on the fourth night of their seventeen date ‘Dreams on Toast’ Tour, which comes to an a close at the vast Wembley Arena on the 29th March, they were on fire!
As they took to the stage to the sounds of the Abba track, ‘Arrival’ They were decadent, delicious and divine from the very first note, no-one does it quite like the Darkness! Their enigmatic frontman Justin Hawkins is the ultimate showman with a stellar band behind him and a magnetic presence which makes him impossible not to like! The spandex is long gone replaced by sharp retro suits that Mick Jagger might have worn as he strutted down Carnaby Street in his 70’s heyday! Now, the spandex may have gone but the ripped body remains! He is a man who defies the normal rules of ageing and can only be described as like Tigger on acid, a man with such dynamism and vigour that somehow flying through the air and doing headstands and scissor legs off the drum riser seemed like the most normal and effortless thing in the word! But it’s not all about the jumps and the gymnastic antics because Hawkins is a man who seems to defy the ravages of time not just physically but vocally too!! His voice was pitch perfect from the onset!
Their first track of the night, ‘Rock and Roll Party Cowboy’ taken from their new album after which the tour is named, was a riotous decadent masterpiece and the crowd went wild! Whilst their opening track went down an absolute storm, Hawkins told the crowd that he feared that they would be kept off the coveted number one spot by Mumford and Sons. Never a man to steer away from controversy or to play it safe on any level! Hawkins referred to their rivals as nazi’s whilst a choice word was illuminated on the video screen behind them to make sure that no one missed his point!!
The whole night was bursting with incredible moments of blissful musical madness and stage antics, one of the best of which had to be when during, ‘Get Your Hands Off My Woman’, Hawkins did a headstand with scissor legs off of the drum riser much to the thrill of the ecstatic crowd. Making it look absolutely effortless, Hawkins then sang the track, his stunning falsetto voice absolutely flawless! And the fun and frivolities just went on and on! There was the moment where Hawkins rode around the crowd on the shoulders of a bouncer, the moment where Hawkins rocked out with their guitar tech, who shared the vocals, clearly living his best life, and the moment where during ‘Walking Through Fire’ Hawkins had the crowd marching left and right as he too and the rest of the band also marched up and down! An absolutely hilarious moment.
At one point when the crowd starting shouting for the Christmas song, Hawkins stopped them, telling them. “it’s not even called that” before playing an ad hoc verse of ‘Mistletoe and Wine’!
Now whilst Hawkins is clearly the figure head of The Darkness, a band is only ever as good as the sum of their parts and The Darkness are a stellar group of incredibly versatile and talented musicians! This versatility was never clearer than when drummer Rufus Taylor took a moment out from his ferocious rhythmic onslaught to take to the mic and sing the beautiful ‘My Only’, his voice was rich and deep and the audience where absolutely captivated!
Support was from Ash, who played a great set of their best-known hits and warmed the audience up nicely! Their opening track, ‘Burn Baby Burn’ went down an absolute storm, but it was the closing track of their set ‘Girl From Mars’ that got the biggest cheers. They were a fitting opener for The Darkness and certainly earned their spot on the stage tonight, begging the question, “could they be another 90’s band on the way back up?”
And the fun didn’t let up the whole night through! At one point, when the band played ‘Believe in a Thing Called Love’ and the audience got their phones out to film it, Hawkins stopped the band and told the audience to put away their phones away and bounce, bounce, bounce, and only too happy to oblige, bounce they did!
The setlist for the night was a carefully blended mix of their older and much-loved material and the tracks off the new album. Each one played with usual theatrics that their fans have come to expect!
It hasn’t been easy for The Darkness since they exploded onto the music scene in 2000. The release of their EP, ‘I Believe in a Thing Called Love’ in 2022 catapulted them into the mainstream and the hearts of their fans. They were the wildcard that did good! But to maintain that kind of momentum was always going to be a tall order and despite their initial meteoric rise to success, they had a rather abrupt break up in 2006. But never a band to be kept down, they reformed in 2011 and worked their flamboyant lycra clad arses off and relentlessly built their devoted fan base, put out some damn fine music and put themselves clearly on the map as a rock band of the highest pedigree that consistently pumps out uplifting buoyant and invigorating rock tunes!
As the saying goes, “you can’t keep a good man down” or a good band for that matter! And The Darkness are so much more than a good band! They are a tight unit of exceptional musicians who clearly love to play together! Proper rock stars with a relentless work ethic that has led to their well-deserved success! The gimmicks are long gone but the catchy as hell music remains!
When The Darkness returned to the stage for their encore, before beginning ‘Weekend in Italy’ Hawkins threw flowers into the crowd in the true flamboyant fashion that their fans have come to expect. Next up, and undoubtedly one of the best songs of the night was the punchy and magnificent, ‘I Hate Myself’ from their new album! It was a rock explosion that any of the heavy rock big boys would be proud of!! With guitar riffs somewhere between Status Quo and Metallica it had rock anthem written all over it!
As The Darkness left the stage and the sounds of the Dirty Dancing track, ‘I’ve Had The Time of My Life’ ran out over the auditorium, it couldn’t have been more apt as the audience had had just that!!
28th March – Dreams on Toast is released on the 28th March
Words and photos by Louise Phillips Music Photography
All photos are owned by Louise Phillips Music Photography and cannot be shared without consent.
Thedarknesslive.com
Photos of The Darkness
Photos of Ash
www.thedarknesslive.com
The Darkness setlist:
Rock and Roll Party Cowboy
Growing on Me
Get Your Hands Off My Woman
Mortal Dread
Motorheart (Tour debut)
Walking Through Fire
The Battle for Gadget Land
Love Is Only a Feeling
The Longest Kiss
Heart Explodes
My Only
Japanese Prisoner of Love
Friday Night
I Believe in a Thing Called Love
Encore:
Weekend in Rome
I Hate Myself
Love on the Rocks With No Ice
