The Darkness May Work With Neil Diamond
Friday January 16, 2004 @ 01:00 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff
The Darkness
Like your mom would say, every cloud has a silver lining. Sure, that may sound like a bag of crap, but The Darkness will gladly tell you it’s true. While in Toronto to promote their debut album Permission To Land, singer Justin Hawkins revealed a little premature gem to ChartAttack which proves even the shittiest situation still results in a positive. Thanks to a casual mention in some British rag, it looks as though The Darkness might be collaborating with none other than Neil “Sweet Caroline” Diamond in the near future.
Strangely enough, the casual mention comes out of some of The Darkness’ worst press to date. Speaking candidly with said U.K. magazine, Hawkins came under fire for his band’s often-misunderstood blend of “AC/DC-meets-Freddie Mercury” (as everyone calls it now) and rather unique fashion sense. If you haven’t seen them, let’s put it this way: ’70s Elton John-meets-’80s David Lee Roth. He’s up for both Best and Worst Dressed singer in Kerrang’s 2003 polls. During this allegedly adversarial interview, Hawkins briefly mentioned admiring Diamond’s abilities as a songwriter and performer.
“We thought the press was horrible and we weren’t going to do anything with [that magazine] again,” shrugs Hawkins, from his plush Toronto hotel room. “We thought they had fucked us over, but at one point in the interview, they asked if I liked Neil Diamond. I was like, ‘Yeah, he’s a great songwriter.’ Neil Diamond read it and now he wants to co-write [a song] with us.”
Apparently this was news even to drummer Ed Graham. Content to sit quietly through most of the interview, Graham instantly perked up, full of questions.
Graham: “Have you called him?”
Hawkins: “I spoke to him yesterday.”
Graham: “The man himself? Great!”
While any semblance of a serious plan is still to be drawn up, both Hawkins and Graham were quite ecstatic about the news, heaping accolades on Diamond.
“He’s like that with his fans… very cool,” smiled Hawkins. “It’s something positive and it all came from that magazine asking if I liked Neil Diamond. Hopefully it will come together.”
—Keith Carman