‘The crab within the music video was a reference to whenever you’ve taken numerous cocaine and your eyes are on stalks. We’ve all the time had an affinity with sea creatures – we’re from Lowestoft’
Dan Hawkins, guitarist
I can’t bear in mind who stated it however we had been having a dialog alongside the traces of: “Why don’t we simply write the stupidest tune ever?” It was most likely Justin, my brother, who got here up with the primary riff: he and Frankie had been sparring with that ridiculous refrain line very early on. I got here up with the bridge and the again finish of the refrain and tried to place it into some form of semblance of a tune. We took that association right into a dingy rehearsal room a couple of days later. I anticipated us all to really feel embarrassed taking part in it. However everybody was singing alongside to the refrain the second time it got here round. We checked out one another and thought: “That is it. It’s staying.” I used to be like: “Oh fuck. It’s staying.”
The association is super-tight. It’s nearly signposted – you understand the place it’s going the second it begins. You already know what it’s all about. Numerous the perfect songs are like that. I spent a very long time within the studio getting the proper tempo, ensuring the drums had been completely spot-on. The crab that options within the music video meant one thing to the band. It was a reference to whenever you’ve taken numerous cocaine and your eyes are principally on stalks. It has appeared on quite a few events all through our profession. We’ve all the time had an affinity with sea creatures, probably as a result of we’re from Lowestoft in Suffolk.
We arrived in Canada to begin a tour of the Americas, months after our album Permission to Land had been launched. It had gone again to No 1. We by no means thought-about ourselves a singles band, which was why that tune was an issue for me within the first place. For me, the Darkness was about albums and being an unimaginable rock band. I wasn’t bothered about being fashionable.
To report it, I most likely performed it 200 occasions. And since then, I’d say the overall is pushing 4,000. Each tour we did, we’d soundcheck with it as effectively. Thrice a day, 5 occasions per week. What’s shocking is how massive it's internationally. We performed that tune to 400,000 folks at a free pageant in Poland and each single one in all them was going loopy and singing it again to us. We performed to a full stadium supporting Girl Gaga in 2011 in São Paolo and it was the identical. It’s like that wherever we go. All the pieces in regards to the tune pushes positivity. It simply feels nice to play.
Justin Hawkins, lead singer, guitarist
We didn’t labour over it. We didn’t toil and search for the final word riff. I used to be simply following my fingers, actually. I feel we had been sitting at what we used to name the Desk of Reality: it was a spherical picket desk within the flat the place Frankie [bass-player] and Dan [guitarist] lived. Issues which might be cartoonish and ridiculous – that’s my raison d’être. The ridiculous issues that the Darkness do are tempered by Dan’s precise good style. For me to be turned on, it’s received to have one thing in it that makes him go: “You'll be able to’t try this.”
I used to be nearly on a pathological quest to place “love” in each single tune. Bands had been afraid to truly discuss love. However the big songs, those that actually get you within the coronary heart, they’re truly speaking about it and so they’re utilizing the phrase “love”. I’m all the time in love, that’s the fact. It’s one of many first and most abiding addictions of my life.
I bear in mind once we rehearsed the tune, our supervisor got here down and simply stated: “That’s a success, that's.” This was information to us. We recorded it in 2001 – the lead vocal was recorded on 11 September, the day of the 9/11 assaults. We performed it with Robbie Williams at Knebworth a couple of summers later. It actually was like: “Shit! Now we’re well-known.”
My purpose has all the time been to get each pair of palms within the air. And sometimes that was the case. We’ve seen loads of palms in loads of totally different airspace. Each time we play it, the place kicks off and I really feel aid as a result of I can play it on autopilot. Even now, folks sing it at me on the street. I’ll by no means have something however abiding affection for that tune.
The Darkness tour the UK from 28 January to 4 February.
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