Quote CornerFantastic Birthday Bash shots by @M45T1N: Ginger Wildheart - The Wildhearts Fantastic pix, duuude! Thank you!! - Victoria Liedkte - Singer - Hey Hello + Ginger 555% Project Thanks to @M45T1N there's some lovely pics from last week's@wedgewoodrooms gig - Vikki Stone - Comedienne Nice work Martin, thank you. “@M45T1N: - Stevie Dacanay - Buckcherry Really loving the @velvetinerocks shots dude, great work! - Thomas Hewson - Velvetine Previously |
The Darkness - Portsmouth Pyramids - 6th December 2013 I remember the first time I saw The Darkness back in 2003 as part of the MTV2's 5th Birthday celebrations... and here I am 10 years later wearing the same T-shirt that I bought at that very show, well my friend Doug actually bought it for me as a birthday present back in the day, Remarkably this particular date on the tour fell into my birthday weekend also.
The gig promised to be a nostalgic trip through the bands multi million selling début album Permission To Land, however as the show was broken into two sections I feel it would be right to come to that part a bit later on. As the band entered the stage with a sea of fog ridden light behind them there was an overwhelming feeling coming from the crowd behind me, They launched into Making Out which first appeared as a B-side to the I Believe In A Thing Called Love single, they then continued into an arrangement of songs new and old and even a very interesting cover of Radioheads Street Spirit.
The nostalgia started flooding back, as I remembered how I felt at that first gig back in 2003, that was also the gig that Myself, Doug and Dan all met Justin and Frankie in the bar before their set, and I drunkenly followed Justin around Brixton Academy as he was carried around by the crowd, oh how times have changed.
Three of the four photos above are from the MTV2 Live video for The Darkness's I Believe In A Thing Called Love, Accompanied by a photo of us meeting Frankie at that particular gig, This time however being up front in the camera pit I was so close to catsuit clad Justin Hawkins and the band I could almost smell the sweat on the end of his wang as it was thrust rather close to my head on many occasions.
After this the band broke away for a quick costume change and a recorded introduction depicting the origins of the band and all of their past achievements and also confirming that all of the original band members are now back together which surprised me somewhat as I was under the impression that Frankie had left the band for good.
And then the weirdest thing happened as we all looked up to the top of the building what we all thought to be a giant cheese grater was swinging around in the air, We later found this to be a rather standard issue cowbell which hailed down towards Bassist Frankie who started the proceedings for Black Shuck. The début album Permission To Land had started and continued in its entirety which took me right back to when I had first heard it in 2003 this was the only time I have ever heard the album played live and surprisingly every song was a massive hit with the crowd, with old and new fans alike singing and jumping along to pretty much every word, Sadly I was unable to take any photos at this stage of the night, not even of the crowd despite my request as it would of made such a picture. Literally every song was an amazement to watch the band perform, they were as tight as ever and as always frontman Justin Hawkins hit those ever so high notes for "Get Your Hands Off Of My Woman" "Growing On Me" "I Believe In A Thing Called Love" and who could forget "Love On The Rox With No Ice"
There was a fair amount of crowd interaction for "Friday Night" after "Holding My Own" had ended the band then went off stage to get changed again, this time into Christmas themed jumpers and they even had elven helpers erect a Christmas tree complete with balls, lights and ornaments in the centre of the stage for the finale which was of course "Christmas Time - Dont Let The Bells End" A Fantastic rendition and also a great end to an awesome night. However as this was a part of my Birthday celebrations this wasn't quite the end of my night, I was later found in a fully packed night club on stage singing "I Believe In A Thing Called Love" However there may be more about the rest of my evening appearing on my personal Facebook page in the next few days ;) the page is linked below. Until then why not enjoy the 150+ photos below. |