Touching you-ooooooooh

I absolutely LOVE The Darkness. Frankly I'm more of a jazz/funk/'70s R&B person than a rock person these days, but these guys have the right attitude. Justin Hawkins, the lead singer/guitarist who sounds like Robert Smith of the Cure with his nuts in a vise, is one of the few modern musicians with a sense of humor. Hey, I didn't just like the original Van Halen for the guitar, although I did love it; I liked David Lee Roth's attitude too. Rock should be a little menacing, sure, but above all fun and irreverent, and ever since Grunge showed up it's been one self-loathing set of adolescent malcontents after another (don't even get me started on Linkin Park and the like, or death metal - ugh).

So when I read this story on Drudge this morning, I laughed my arse off. Bob Geldof is doing another Band Aid recording of "Do they know it's Christmas after all" featuring mostly new performers (most of whom I don't know), including Joss Stone who thinks Geldof's last name is Gandalf (she's 17, what do you expect) and Hawkins of The Darkness, who was asked to perform the line "and tonight thank God it's them instead of you," which Bono performed so memorably in the original but didn't do so well this time. Upon finding Hawkins' version better, the producers are considering using it instead of Bono's. Bono is said to be unhappy.

But last night an angry Bono was said to be on his way to the UK to re-record the line, after his management insisted his version had to be included, even if it was only the performance from 1984.

'Bono's people say he definitely has to do that line,' said one insider. 'Justin's version was brilliant, but they are adamant.'

Hawkins said last night: 'I did it and I did it better than him. So, his management kicked up a stink. It obviously means a lot to him. It's a valuable line for him, he needs it, so I think he's going to fly back and try again to beat me.

'If not, they're going to use the original one he did when he was my age.'

Hilarious. They guy's got balls like Eminem, but he's more interesting. I will always love Justin Hawkins for saying about The Darkness' first visit to Los Angeles, when asked if he knew if any American musicians would see their show, that he thought Eddie Van Halen was coming, and after he saw Hawkins play he'd have to "hand over his tiara."

And I will always regret that the first time in maybe eight years I actually bought tickets to a concert (my wife and a number of friends work in the music business, so I see a lot of free shows), it was for The Darkness, and I missed it because I had to have surgery that night. Still have the tickets on my fridge.