PopEx ≫ 2003 ≫ Don't Let The Bells End

Fabulous Carling Homecoming for The Darkness last night.

Let's set aside for a moment that any sort of "homecoming" for The Darkness should certainly be at The Barfly in London's very own Camden Town, as it's where they did their first half a dozen or so proper gigs. Last night's show at The Astoria was a triumph. Three costume changes for Justin, an impromptu walkabout in the crowd, spectacular pyrotechnics, a storm of glitter, autumn leaves, and shock of shocks SOME NEW MATERIAL! The long awaited Christmas Single was garnished with a choir of tiny carol singers, but was a touch to cheesy for my non dairy tastes, but its a firm contender for the number one spot.

Wacky set up with with the tickets - everyone gets a laminate to get them into the gig, then some punters are lucky enough to get a wristband to get them in downstairs! Only thing is, everyone knows the cool bit of the Astoria is upstairs, all the celebs are in the Keith Moon Bar, so that's where we want to be. But if you've put your wristband on already, security guys say no. OH NO, HOW WILL WE POSSIBLY GET ROUND SUCH A WELL THOUGHT OUT SCHEME. Apart from taking the wristband off again. It was well worth it to see Sophie Ellis Bextor, Mark Owen and the drummer out of Menswear, I can tell you.

Thanks to Rupe for getting us into the aftershow, without which I'd not have met my new favourite band, The Goldie Lookin' Chain. You knows it.

💬 The Darkness homecoming gig

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The content here originally from my very popular (in the late nineties) site popex.com. Parts were written by other people, so mainly originally created by me. I moved the content here here when the website eventually shut down at the start of the 2000s. Hopefully this ignites memories if you read this.