Exactly as expected, The Darkness put on one hell of a show, complete with outrageous costumery, unnecessary guitar solos, the campest dancing this side of a Freddie Mercury impersonator contest and a moody bass player with a moustache. It’s Spinal Tap come alive. It’s what Wyld Stallyns wished they could have been. Somebody get these guys in a stadium, with pyros and inflatable effigies and video screens, right now, damnit.

Shame the support were a bit of a let down. The first band, The Webb Brothers, had shamelessly stolen their image from AC/DC, appearing, as they did, onstage in school uniform. That was as far as it went, though, because stylistically they veered from Beach Boy’s-esque harmony-led surf rock through Verve-style indie right out the other side to, er, early Pink Floyd. They weren’t bad, as such. But I wouldn’t go out of my way to see them again.

The next band, 3 Inches Of Blood, were, well, a bit unexpected. They were Canadian. They were an 80s-style thrash metal outfit. They had song titles like “Premonition of Pain” and “Curse of the Lighthouse Keeper”. Whenever they spoke onstage, they used a growly, “spooky” voice, and said things like the creepy old man out of Scooby Doo would say. And they had the most astonishingly gay looking drummer you have ever seen. I still can’t decide if they were taking the piss or not. They didn’t go down especially well.

But anyway, we were there for The Darkness, and they were ace. Their cover of Fade Out (Street Spirit) deserves some kind of award for “Most Unexpected Display of Rocktastic Genius” or something.

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