Yeah I am making my own music industry conspiracy theory, having been drawn in by that BRITAIN'S GOT TALENT and the RONAN PARKE CONNECTION post that has been doing the rounds (though that might all be bobbins1.
The Darkness wikipedia page seems to be saying they were first spotted by anyone in 2002, surely they were bigged up on popex before that, and so most likely popbitch too? I first saw them in 2001, and though I didn't add them to popex after that first gig, it must have been that year.
Paul Clarke's blog - I live in A small town. Wed to Clare + father to two, I'm a full-stack web engineer, and I do mostly js / Node, some ruby, python, php ect ect. I like pubbing, running, eating, home automation + other diy jiggery-pokery, history, genealogy, Television, squirrels, pirates, lego, + TIME TRAVEL.