THE DARKNESS
Biography and discography of The Darkness, the British rock band, with a page for each of their eight studio albums from the 2003 debut Permission to Land to Dreams on Toast in 2025, the live album Live at Hammersmith, the anniversary edition Permission to Land... Again and the best-of Crock Of Hits, including running orders, CD details, liner notes, official videos and their concerts in Japan.
Biography
THE DARKNESS
Biography
The Darkness are a rock band begun by the brothers Justin and Dan Hawkins in Lowestoft, a port town in Suffolk in the east of England. Formed in 2000, they went to number one in Britain with their 2003 debut, Permission to Land, and won three BRIT Awards the following year. The bassist Frankie Poullain left in 2005 and Justin in 2006, which brought the band to a halt, but the four original members reunited in 2011. Since 2015 Rufus Taylor, son of Queen's Roger Taylor, has been their drummer, and their eighth album, Dreams on Toast, reached number two in Britain in 2025. They have visited Japan five times, from their first tour in 2003 to 2024.
From Lowestoft to London (to 2002)
Justin and Dan grew up in Lowestoft, Justin two years above Dan at school, as Dan recalled (The Guardian, 2022). Justin went to university in Huddersfield, while Dan moved to London at sixteen and formed the progressive band Empire with Frankie Poullain, a French-born bassist raised in Scotland. Justin later joined on guitar and keyboards, but Empire had another singer and eventually broke up (Classic Rock, 2013). Meanwhile Justin made a living writing music for advertisements, Ikea and Mars among them (The Guardian).
On New Year's Eve 1999, at a party the brothers spent at home, Justin took on Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", and Dan knew he had found the singer he had been looking for. The BBC in 2003 and Classic Rock in 2013 told it as a karaoke contest; Justin himself said in 2023 that it was more of a dance to the song at a party at his aunt's pub (Loudwire). Frankie came back to London from a job as a tour guide in Venezuela, and Ed Graham, a school friend of the brothers, took the drums, completing the four. Justin dates their first gig to August 2000 (Ultimate Classic Rock, 2023).
The band played almost every Saturday around north London, as Warner Music Japan's profile put it, and the industry long took them for a joke (BBC). On 16 November 2001, at a pub in Tooting in south London, Justin wore a catsuit on stage for the first time (Classic Rock). In August 2002, with no record deal, they released the EP I Believe in a Thing Called Love on the independent label Must… Destroy!!, and it went to number one on the UK rock singles chart (Songfacts; Official Charts).
Permission to Land (2003-2004)
They signed with Atlantic in the spring of 2003, and in April sold out the 2,000-capacity Astoria in London (Classic Rock). Released on 7 July, Permission to Land went to number one in September and stayed there four weeks, through a summer of Glastonbury and support slots with the Rolling Stones, Robbie Williams and Metallica (BBC). The BPI certified it four times platinum, and in the Official Charts Company's 2025 count of the biggest rock and metal albums of the century it is the highest-placed British release, at number three. The Christmas single "Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End)", released that December, reached number two.
At the BRIT Awards on 17 February 2004 they won British Group, British Rock Act and British Album (Billboard), and on 27 May all four were named Songwriters of the Year at the Ivor Novello Awards (NME). The album had been shortlisted for the Mercury Prize the year before, and the band won at the Kerrang! Awards in both 2003 and 2004 (BBC). In the summer of 2004 they headlined the Reading Festival, and in December they played Wembley Arena in London.
Changes and the split (2005-2010)
In May 2005, with the second album still being recorded, the band announced that they had parted with Frankie. The band gave musical differences as the reason (Billboard); Frankie said he had been forced out against his wishes (NME). His place went to Richie Edwards, who had spent two years as the band's guitar technician (Blabbermouth). One Way Ticket to Hell... and Back, produced by Queen's Roy Thomas Baker and released that November, stopped at number 11 in Britain, and Ed Graham later called it the million-dollar failure (Classic Rock).
In October 2006 Justin left the band to recover from addiction after treatment at the Priory clinic in London (NME), and Atlantic dropped the band. The year before, Justin had reached number six in Britain with "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us" under the name British Whale; in 2007 he tried for the UK's place at the Eurovision Song Contest, and in 2008 he started a new band, Hot Leg. Dan, Richie and Ed formed Stone Gods (Blabbermouth). The brothers did not speak for two years; Dan has said that what brought them back together was Justin offering to take him to his chemotherapy when Dan had testicular cancer at thirty-one (The Guardian, 2022).
The reunion (2011-2014)
On 15 March 2011 the reunion of the four original members was announced, and they returned to the stage at the Download festival that June (BBC). In October they played LOUD PARK 11, their first visit to Japan in five years, and in August 2012 their third album, Hot Cakes, reached number four in Britain. That summer and autumn they opened for Lady Gaga on her European tour (Loudwire). In October 2014 the band announced on X that they were no longer working with the drummer Ed Graham.
With Rufus Taylor (2015 onwards)
Ed's successor was Emily Dolan Davies, who had played with Bryan Ferry and Tricky; she drummed on the fourth album, Last of Our Kind, and left in April 2015. In her place came Rufus Taylor, son of Queen's Roger Taylor, who first played with the band at a release party in London on 24 April (Blabbermouth). Pinewood Smile (2017), the live album Live at Hammersmith (2018), the band's first concept album, Easter Is Cancelled (2019), and Motorheart, made during the pandemic (2021), followed, and every one of them went to number one on the UK Rock & Metal Albums Chart.
At the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert at Wembley Stadium on 3 September 2022, Justin sang "Under Pressure" in the set by Queen and Foo Fighters, and Rufus drummed beside his father on "We Will Rock You" (NME). In 2023 the band released Permission to Land... Again for the debut's twentieth anniversary, and Welcome To The Darkness, a documentary filmed over eight years, was shown in cinemas in the UK and Ireland on 9 November (official site). Justin's YouTube channel, Justin Hawkins Rides Again, started in 2021, had passed half a million subscribers by the end of 2023 (Classic Rock).
Their eighth album, Dreams on Toast, reached number two in Britain in March 2025, the band's highest placing since their debut. In May 2026 they released "Masters Of The Universe", the theme for the film of that name, and in September they announced the best-of Crock Of Hits, dated 27 November, and a UK arena tour for December (official site).
Box sets include One Way Ticket to Hell... and Back (20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) (2025), the four-CD twentieth-anniversary edition of the 2005 album.
The members
In an announcement of April 2025 the band's official site names the four members as Justin Hawkins (vocals, guitar), Dan Hawkins (guitar), Frankie Poullain (bass) and Rufus Taylor (drums). Justin and Dan have been in the band from its formation in 2000 to 2006 and since 2011, Frankie from 2000 to 2005 and since 2011, and Rufus since 2015. Former members are the drummer Ed Graham (2000-2006 and 2011-2014), the bassist Richie Edwards (2005-2006) and the drummer Emily Dolan Davies (2014-2015).
Discography
The eight studio albums, the live album and the twentieth-anniversary edition on the band's official discography, and the best-of announced in 2026, in order of their first release anywhere. Each has its own page with the running order, CD details, liner notes and official videos. Where a date is the Japanese edition's, the album came out in Japan first. Beyond these there are One Way Ticket to Hell... and Back (20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) (2025), the four-CD twentieth-anniversary edition of the 2005 album, Streaming Of A White Christmas, recorded at the band's Christmas livestream of 2020, and a 2026 Record Store Day release of a 2006 concert in Birmingham.
| Released | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 7 July 2003 | Permission to Land | Must… Destroy!! / Atlantic |
| 28 November 2005 | One Way Ticket to Hell... and Back | Atlantic |
| 15 August 2012 | Hot Cakes | Hostess Entertainment (Japan) / PIAS / Wind-up |
| 27 May 2015 | Last of Our Kind | Hostess Entertainment (Japan) / Canary Dwarf |
| 6 October 2017 | Pinewood Smile | Cooking Vinyl |
| 15 June 2018 | Live at Hammersmith (live album) | Cooking Vinyl |
| 4 October 2019 | Easter Is Cancelled | Cooking Vinyl |
| 19 November 2021 | Motorheart | Cooking Vinyl |
| 6 October 2023 | Permission to Land... Again (20th Anniversary Edition) (twentieth-anniversary edition) | Atlantic |
| 28 March 2025 | Dreams on Toast | Cooking Vinyl |
| 27 November 2026 | Crock Of Hits (best-of) | Warner Music |
Concerts in Japan
The band have visited Japan five times. On their first visit, in November 2003, Creativeman brought them for three shows in Osaka, Tokyo and Nagoya. In May 2004 they performed at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan 2004, and on the same trip appeared live on Fuji TV's Waratte Iitomo! (Warner Music Japan). They were booked for SUMMER SONIC 04 that August, but pulled out a week before when Justin fell ill. In April 2006 they toured Osaka, Nagoya and Tokyo, and after the reunion they played LOUD PARK 11 in October 2011. On 23 January 2024 they played a one-night show for the debut's twentieth anniversary at Spotify O-EAST in Shibuya, their first headline show in Japan in eighteen years (H.I.P.).
| Date | Venue | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 25 November 2003 | Shinsaibashi CLUB QUATTRO (Osaka) | First Japanese tour |
| 26 November 2003 | Zepp Tokyo (Tokyo) | First Japanese tour |
| 27 November 2003 | Nagoya CLUB QUATTRO (Aichi) | First Japanese tour |
| 23 May 2004 | Tokyo Bay NK Hall (Chiba) | MTV VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN 2004 |
| 20 April 2006 | IMP Hall (Osaka) | THE DARKNESS JAPAN TOUR 2006 |
| 21 April 2006 | DIAMOND HALL (Nagoya) | THE DARKNESS JAPAN TOUR 2006 |
| 22 April 2006 | Shinkiba STUDIO COAST (Tokyo) | THE DARKNESS JAPAN TOUR 2006 |
| 15 October 2011 | Saitama Super Arena (Saitama) | LOUD PARK 11 |
| 23 January 2024 | Spotify O-EAST (Shibuya, Tokyo) | The Darkness PERMISSION TO LAND 20 TOUR in Japan |
About the sources
This page is based on the band's official site, thedarknesslive.com (the discography and each release's page, the news and the studio diary); the band's official X account; the album pages and news of Warner Music Japan, Hostess Entertainment and Big Nothing / Ultra-Vybe; the concert announcements of Creativeman, H.I.P., LOUD PARK and MTV Japan, including those the Internet Archive kept; Tower Records' and Oricon's product data; the BBC, NME, Billboard, The Guardian, Blabbermouth.net, Loudwire, Louder (Classic Rock and Prog), Songfacts, BARKS, Gekirock and rockin'on; the Official Charts Company; the BPI's certification database; MusicBrainz; and Wikidata. The English and Japanese Wikipedia were used only as a starting point, and every fact taken from them was checked against one of these sources. The Japanese editions' dates and catalogue numbers are on each album's page.
Trivia
On the band's first visit to Japan in November 2003, Justin bought a microphone-shaped costume at Tokyu Hands and wore it on the bullet train to Nagoya. Warner Music Japan told the story during the band's next visit, the following year.
Performing at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan on 23 May 2004, Justin wore a costume made from vintage kimono. Warner Music Japan said it echoed Freddie Mercury's kimono on Queen's first visit to Japan, and that it was Justin's first show since an operation on his oesophagus two weeks earlier. During the same trip the band appeared live on Fuji TV's Waratte Iitomo! on 21 May.
The band were due to play SUMMER SONIC 04 in Tokyo on 7 August and Osaka on 8 August 2004, but Justin's reflux oesophagitis and gastritis worsened, and Warner Music Japan announced on 4 August that they had pulled out.
On 23 January 2024 the band played a one-night show at Spotify O-EAST in Shibuya for the twentieth anniversary of Permission to Land. As Gekirock reported, it was their first visit to Japan since LOUD PARK in 2011 and their first headline show there since 2006; the promoter H.I.P. billed it as their first headline show in eighteen years. The reserved balcony seats sold out.
"Barbarian", the opening song of Last of Our Kind, tells of the Great Heathen Army of the Viking Ivar the Boneless invading East Anglia in the ninth century and Edmund the Martyr being killed. It takes its story from the history of the band's own East Anglia, and its video opens on a tombstone recording that Edmund was cut down by a Dane.
The verses of "The Longest Kiss" on Dreams on Toast come from a song Justin has been working on for decades for an unfinished musical, The Collapse Of The Lowestoft Fishing Industry. The lyric came to him one morning in Nairn in Scotland, and he wrote the chorus with Dan after a long session in the pub.
The Darkness grew out of Empire, a progressive band Dan Hawkins put together in London after moving there at sixteen. He started it with Frankie Poullain, a bassist born in France and raised in Scotland, and his older brother Justin later joined on guitar and keyboards. Empire had a different singer, so Justin did not sing in it. When it broke up, Dan took session work, Frankie went off to be a tour guide in Venezuela, and Justin wrote music for films and advertisements.
Justin became the frontman on New Year's Eve 1999. At a party the brothers spent at home he took on Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", and Dan realised he had found the singer he had been looking for. The BBC in 2003 and Classic Rock in 2013 described a karaoke contest; Justin, interviewed in 2023, remembered it instead as a dance he did to the song at a party at his aunt's pub.
News
THE DARKNESS Welcome FEEDER As Special Guests For Their December UK Arena Tour
The band announced it on their official website.
THE DARKNESS Announce Best-Of ‘Crock Of Hits’ For November 27 Plus An Intimate London Show
The compilation arrives via Warner Music, and the band will play the 300-capacity Moth Club in East London on September 17 — their next London date is at the 20,000-capacity O2 Arena.
Current Members
Current line-up as published by the band's official site, verified on 2026-10-06.
Albums
The Darkness's first self-chosen best-of, dated 27 November 2026: songs from all eight studio albums, closing with the new "Masters Of The Universe".
The Darkness's eighth album, released in March 2025. It reached number two in the UK, the band's highest chart placing since their debut.
The Darkness's seventh album, released in November 2021: made across distances during the pandemic, and called good-time rock'n'roll by Justin Hawkins.
The Darkness's sixth album, released in October 2019: their first concept album, a parable of the slow death and glorious rebirth of rock and roll.
The Darkness live at the Eventim Hammersmith Apollo in London on 10 December 2017, released in June 2018: nineteen songs drawn from their first five albums.
The Darkness's fifth album, released in October 2017: the first on which Rufus Tiger Taylor, son of Queen's Roger Taylor, drums throughout.
The Darkness's fourth album, from May 2015: produced by Dan Hawkins at his own studio, and opening with "Barbarian", a tale of a Viking invasion.
The Darkness's third album, released in August 2012: their first since 2005, made by the four original members after their 2011 reunion.
The Darkness's second album, released in November 2005 and produced by Queen's Roy Thomas Baker, with pan pipes, bagpipes and an orchestra layered in.
The Darkness's debut album, released in the United Kingdom on 7 July 2003. It topped the UK chart and has sold over 1.4 million copies there alone.
BOX
Box sets and multi-disc anniversary and expanded editions, listed separately from the albums.
One Way Ticket to Hell... and Back at twenty on four CDs: B-sides and remixes, an unreleased 2006 Birmingham show, and demos once thought lost.
The twentieth-anniversary edition of the 2003 debut, from October 2023: the album plus six demos on one disc, singles and B-sides on the other.