The Darkness are poised to obliterate the opposition again as they confirm their entry into this year’s Soccer Six mayhem and madness. Sunday September 17th, Mile End Stadium, London. It’s a great day out whether you like football or not – honest! The lads are pretty darn good, actually. Silky skills and a darn fine goalie. Find out more at Soccer Six Rock and get tickets here – it’s not expensive and definitely cheaper than the last one!
Don’t miss this one!
I have family there. Hmmm…
Tickets: http://shop.thedarknesslive.com/products/darknesstival-ticket
Those most excellent rockers The Darkness are offering you live streaming, party potential and a huuuuge prize just for sending in photos. It’s 1.30 am UK time (a few hours away) but if you miss it you have 5 days to see it.
Let’s hit the link and get down with masters of marvellously mucky rock regalers 😀
Whilst your attention is caught, can we interest you in some Darkness VIP tickets? Includes Meet and Greet, Q&A and soundcheck entry at US, Australia and UK gigs. Enter the code ‘optimumimpact’ at checkout for 25% discount. Well worth it. Trust me. Everyone who’s been so far is very very pleased with their purchase!
This statement released in the last few minutes from The Darkness:
“…sad to say our fantastic drummer Emily Dolan Davies is leaving for new projects, and so we part ways with fond farewells. Emily played a huge part in the recording of our new album ‘Last of Our Kind’ and makes a final appearance in the video for our single ‘Open Fire’ which is coming to a screen near you soon … Good luck Emily!”
Indeed, good luck.
And… new drummer search starts/has started/is in progress/nearly over. Delete as applicable, I don’t know which is truest.
Talk about Manic Monday… Today saw the release of The Darkness’ new single ‘Barbarian’. Vikings, legends, battle and gore are all in it, with an animated comic book video drawn by Nick Roche and animated by Phillis. Pause it frame by frame to scan the detail for fan and band references, or just to chuckle at the gloriously serious ridiculousness of it all. It’s The Darkness video at its best. Make sure all your friends see it too, or this week will be a lot duller.
Those of you who ordered a calendar will know that the project met with unsurmountable difficulties out of our control, and has been postponed until the end of this year.
I can announce that despite this, there were some very generous offers from fans to donate the money that had already been paid for orders. Thank you wholeheartedly for being so kind. The total given was £240.50. It was split equally between Teenage Cancer Trust and The Sophie Lancaster Foundation and paid over.
Refunds have also been made and left the bank, so all is in PayPal’s hands if you haven’t had yours yet.
Many thanks again for everyone’s support, donations, and the preorders I’ve already had for the 2016 calendar!
OI
Pre-orders are now being taken for this long anticipated, gorgeous Calendar – created by fans, for fans. Here’s a preview of the awesomeness…
To pay simply click on the links to PayPal in the pricing information below. Pay the amount shown for your location in GBP using the ‘Send to a Friend’ function and the email address emilyalone@gmail.com. Make sure the following details are in the message box:
This will ensure that ALL the money goes towards costs and the charities – Teenage Cancer Trust and The Sophie Lancaster Foundation. Thanks to all those who have contributed, helped, listened and encouraged, and to The Darkness (as always!) because they rock in so many ways. If you’d like more than one, please enquire about the postage costs as the weight bandings are different in each location.
Please email any queries to oitd2015@gmail.com.
Thank you!
United Kingdom – £10 + £3 delivery
Rest of World – £10 + £8 delivery
The excitement starts here!
TOUR ANNOUNCEMENT – THE DARKNESS IRELAND 2015 – ACCESS ALL EIRE:
That’s right – we’re taking off to the green lands of wonderful Ireland, the place where a lot of the material for our forthcoming album was written or completed. We’re doing intimate venues to cater for our hardcore fans so contact your local venue directly to obtain tickets as they will sell very fast. – most tickets will go on sale today / tomorrow.
Fri 6th March – Spirit Store Dundalk
Sat 7th March – Nerve Centre Derry
Sun 8th March – Whelans Dublin
Fri 13th March – Monroes Live Galway
Sat 14th March – Dolans Warehouse Limerick
Sun 15th March – Bridge House Tullamore
The Darkness today announced via Classic Rock that their new drummer, replacing founding member Ed Graham, is to be Emily Dolan Davies.
Emily has a long drumming career already in the bag, starting to gig at the age of 11. She began professionally in 2008, and seems not to have left the road for very long since then. Her varied CV shows that she has played a huge range of styles with a similarly diverse set of artists – Bono, Brian Ferry, Flood, Tony Kaye, Damien Hirst, Tricky, Emilia Mitiku, Cher Lloyd, Janet Devlin, Becky Hill and Tom Bailey.
The last few years have been incredibly busy touring and recording – let’s hope that it stays that way with The Darkness!
Welcome in, Emily. We look forward to hearing and seeing you soon.
For more Emily Dolan Davies information, videos and audio, see these links:
@Emilydrums
https://www.facebook.com/emilydrums
This deserves more exposure!
* SING ON OUR NEW ALBUM, STAR IN THE VIDEO AND CREATE HISTORY *
Here at The Darkness HQ we want you on board for one of our favourite forthcoming album tracks, and you’ll be in the video too – all you need is a camera phone.
Simply click this link http://thedarkness.co.uk/merchandise/ – go to SING ON OUR NEW ALBUM – Click FREE – and follow the sign up process – we’ll respond with instructions on how you can play a part in the epic creation of one of our singles. This is open to every last one of our fans and is sure to be huge.
The cut off time for signing up is SUNDAY 7th DECEMBER so click on the link now to be a part of rock history.
Once upon a Christmas 2004, a 2005 calendar featuring The Darkness was released. Ten years ago. Coincidentally, Optimum Impact was formed ten years ago too, and I think we were on our third issue by then. I decided that to mark these occasions it was only fair to ‘give’ everyone an OI birthday present…
There will be a 2015 calendar featuring The Darkness once again. All profits will go to charity – half to the Sophie Lancaster Foundation and half to the Teenage Cancer Trust. Hopefully you’ll want one?
As to the contents… I can’t just put my own live photos in, and I’d really like you to be a part of it. If you want to contribute, please could you choose no more than 4 of your best live action images and email them to optimum.impact.rocks@gmail.com as soon as possible so that choosing the final 12 can be done. Watermark them, too, so you get credit! That way, this calendar can truly be created by fans for fans as a thing to keep. The front cover will be a work of splendour but I cannot reveal it because I haven’t seen it yet! More to follow on that. STOP PRESS! Analia, of The Darkness Argentina fame, has agreed to create the front cover. OI is honoured!
If you could comment on here, tweet, or like the Facebook post that appears, I’ll get an idea of numbers. Costs will be £10 plus p&p, and details on how to pay will follow. Help me make this fabulous, plus make lots of money for two brilliant causes.
Please note that this calendar IS unofficial. The Darkness and the charities are not involved in the conception or organisation. It’s just me and all of you…
In a tweet just a few minutes ago, The Darkness confirmed that drummer and founder member Ed is no longer working with them.
Sadly, we’re no longer working with Ed Graham. For various reasons, we have all decided to move on. We love Ed and we wish him happiness.
This is not an easy post to write after so many years of Ed-ness. Good luck and much love, Ed. Fare ye well.
Record Store Day 2014 saw the release (amongst very many desirable others) of a limited edition picture disc of Permission To Land by The Darkness.
This couldn’t go past without my queuing relentlessly at two London stores and having lookouts round the rest of the country.
I managed to buy two, so that one of you could have one as well.
Give me a good reason why you should be Holding Your Own copy, and you might well get it in time for a refreshing Friday Night’s dancing.
Reply to the usual email/twitter/facebook/here places.
Ladies and Gentlemen, please settle back for the Black Shuck Shimmy. Congratulations and a ‘Cor, well bloody marvellously done’ to Jayne Henderson.
Thanks for all the interest in the competition, everyone!
STOP PRESS
I didn’t know our winner Jayne was going to say the following, but top marks!
With a little help from Ed Henderson, I have won a pair of tickets to The Darkness Lowestoft show on 19th December for the final night of the UK tour.
As much as I love The Darkness (and you know I DO), I want to raise some cash for my womb cancer charity.
I am therefore auctioning them off to the highest bidder. Minimum bid face value of 50 quid the pair, last bid accepted midnight on Friday, 6th December so the lovely Optimum Impact can send them out to the successful bidder in time. Comment on this post with your bid. The highest bidder will be sent a link to my charity page to send their donation online.
Simple!
Thanking You!
Classic Rock had a live CD of the Thetford Forest attached to last month’s magazine – for subscribers only. On eBay, they were going for silly money.
Thanks to the generosity of Darklings (thanks Chris) and teachers (thanks egyptiangirl) I now have two copies to call my own. I only need one, so I’m letting one go far away to a new home. Classic Rock isn’t likely to have reached many of you overseas, so I’m making this a strictly non-UK giveaway. It looks like it’s going to appear on iTunes, but the actual CD is now a collector’s item so come and get it! The magazine isn’t included, and the CD hasn’t been played.
Let me know what one other song you would have put on this CD, and why. Track listing is:
Every Inch Of You / Black Shuck / Get Your Hands Off My Woman / Everybody Have A Good Time / Planning Permission / With A Woman / One Way Ticket / Growing On Me / I Believe In A Thing Called Love
You have a week to contemplate!
I know, another anniversary in a year of them. What NOW? I hear you almost wonder.
Today, 11th of November 2013, is the 10th anniversary of the Carling Homecoming at The Astoria. The first airing of ‘Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End). BUT – it is not that which I wish to commemorate.
All you have to do (you have to work a little for this) is to do your own interpretation of a Darkness song, preferably from PTL. Dance, poetry lyric recitals, mime, opera renditions, a piece of glorious art… maybe even a canine singalong to Black Shuck. Photos, Vines, videos, audios all welcome. Post them here, on our Facebook or on twitter. Entries by 1st December, please!
Celebrate with us – we’ll be there!
Love and eternal Darkness
OI xxxx
Best news all year. Some bands are just best in places where the sweat drips off the walls even before the crowd are let in. TD’s announcement:
Its looking like we have many many more of these ahead, certainly towards the end of the year we will. if that hint didn’t land heavy enough, lets make it plain : come Winter time, we will be getting into a bus and setting up equipment in some rooms up and down the British Isles. a majority of these rooms will probably have a bar towards the back / side, and we will then stand at one and and play music songs for those who care to listen.
BE WARNED… after the massive rooms and outdoor spaces of the Gaga tour, and the large-ish rooms that we did in the Springtime here in the UK, we’ve really been enjoying the sweaty rock’n’roll vibe of the smaller USA shows recently… so we’re looking to recreate that for this tour. Rooms will be a little smaller, and a little more off-the-beaten-track than you would maybe expect. Let’s look at it as an Outreach experiment. Spread the word.
we will have news on Tuesday or Wednesday this week coming.
TD x
Tuesday and Wednesday are now taken care of.
From the band’s Facebook page.
Hi Australia and New Zealand.
We’re sorry. We wanted you guys to be the first to know this, but the promoter jumped the gun and then we couldn’t get access to Facebook in time.
There’s really not a lot we can add to the below. We hate cancelling shows and letting people down, but this is beyond our control.
Hope we see you soon.
J, D, F & Ed X“It is with great regret that we are having to cancel The Darkness’ planned April dates in Australia / New Zealand. As some of you maybe aware, Ed has had some prior history with hip problems, which resulted in extensive surgery a few years ago, and caused him to miss some US dates in 2012. Unfortunately, over the course of the past few weeks’ touring, Ed has been feeling that all is not right in that department, and has been advised to undergo some rest & tests before potentially taking a backwards step and making matters worse.
He will continue with the last few European shows and will then take some time out immediately to ensure him back to 100% fitness. This very sadly results in the immediate cancellation of the Antipodean tour. We will of course look to reschedule dates into our scheduling and itinerary as soon as possible but have nothing solid to be able to make work currently hence this being a cancellation rather than a postponement. All ticket holders can get refunds from the point of purchase.
The Darkness also feel that to visit countries which do not get enough shows by them as it is, and not have the full, proper and original band line-up, is simply not the right thing to do. To that end there won’t be any possibility for stand in’s or alternative Ed’s for these shows and we won’t be touring with any ersatz model! We hope to have details of re-scheduled shows very soon. The Darkness sends its most heartfelt apologies to everyone involved”.