THE DARKNESS
The Best of The Darkness
The Telegraph Building, Belfast
Tuesday 1st December
Tickets on sale Friday at 10am: www.ticketmaster.ie
Legendary rock band The Darkness return to Belfast this December. Alongside shows in Cork and Limerick the band brings ‘The Best of The Darkness’ to The Telegraph Building on Tuesday 1st December.
Tickets are on sale this Friday at 10am.
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Justin Hawkins–vocals & guitar / Dan Hawkins–guitar / Frankie Poullain–bass / Rufus‘Tiger’Taylor–drums
One of the most extraordinary and best loved bands to come from the UK, with fans all around the world. The Darkness exploded from their Lowestoft roots to global success when they released their debut album Permission To Land to almost overnight success. It topped the UK charts, going 5x Platinum and selling over 1.5 million copies in the UK alone, whilst also becoming a huge success everywhere from the USA to Australia, Germany to Japan.
The album spawned a series of hit singles including‘IBelieve In A Thing Called Love’,
‘Growing On Me’, ‘Get Your Hands Off My Woman’ and ‘Love Is Only A Feeling’. It also clocked up a series of awards including three BRIT Awards, two Kerrang Awards and an Ivor Novello for ‘Songwriters Of The Year’ amongst many others. In 2025 the record was revealed as the most successful British rock album of the 21st century.
The Darkness played a number of landmark shows, including a headline set at the 2004 Reading & Leeds Festivals, as part of a whirlwind career of global touring and international success. The band then followed the success of their debut with the 2005 album One Way Ticket To Hell… And Back, which produced the Top 10 hit ‘One Way Ticket’.
However, the pressures of fame took their toll, and in 2006 The Darkness were no more. Yet, like a veritable phoenix rising from the ashes of despair, the band reformed in 2011 touring Europe and South America the following year with Lady Gaga. They released their comeback album Hot Cakes that year and Last Of Our Kind in 2015.
In 2017 the band ushered in a new era with the release of Pinewood Smile and the critically acclaimed record became their third UK Top 10 album. With its successor Easter Is Cancelled (2019) achieving equally great heights there seemed no stopping the band. However, that album’s title proved semi-prophetic and following its release the world plunged into the Covid-19 pandemic.
Undaunted, they released their seventh studio album Motorheart in 2021 which not only received some of the best reviews of their career but once more catapulted them straight back onto the upper echelons of festival bills such as Download and saw them pack out tour dates around the country with fervent fans hungry for the band’s return to the stage.
2022 saw The Darkness perform incendiary shows around the world whilst, in tandem with their touring, fabulous frontman Justin quickly became the internet’s favourite rock‘n’roll personality with his highly revered JusKn Hawkins Rides Again podcast.
The Darkness then came full circle as their game-changing debut album Permission To Land turned 20 in 2023. They rang in the anniversary year with a performance of the
timeless classic‘IBelieve In A Thing Called Love’ on BBC One’s New Year’s Eve programming and by selling out arena shows including Wembley with Black Stone Cherry. The band continued to be lauded as rock gods throughout the year, performing with GunsN’Roses at BST London Hyde Park, as well as KISS in Norway amongst many other hugely acclaimed shows.
A specially expanded Permission To Land deluxe album was released via Warner Music and their 2023 Permission To Land 20 world tour sold out shows across the globe. In November a critically acclaimed documentary film entitled Welcome To The Darkness premiered in cinemas across the UK to rave reviews.
And now, more than 20 years after The Darkness exploded with the big bang that changed the face of British rock music, their cheeky, spandex-clad anthems continue to capture hearts, and a new generation of fans, as proved with their eighth studio album Dreams On Toast, released in March 2025 via Cooking Vinyl. The album smashed into the UK Official Albums Chart at No.2 in April this year. Dreams On Toast became their most successful album since their iconic debut album Permission To Land.
The rock legends launched their latest hit album to sold out shows across the country, which included their headline return to Wembley Arena, on a tour which continued across Europe, Australia and the USA, where the new songs proved instant fan favourites alongside their multi-platinum, award-winning catalogue.
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