The Darkness

Justin Hawkins grew up in the Suffolk town of Lowestoft, at a young age he locked himself away and learnt guitar. He was pretty good, but his kid brother Dan was even better ("I'm white hot," says Justin, "but he's s**t hot."). Spotting their own potential they started a covers band with Dan on lead vocals.

In 1997, Justin departed to University in Huddersfield. Dan, meanwhile, moved to London in search of a band to join. That's when he met Frankie Poullain, an exiled Scot who came from a family of adventurers (he claims his dad was a pirate in the West Indies, his brother a soldier of fortune).

They shared a flat in Shepherd's Bush, where itinerant musos would pass...

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