The Darkness used to need “two ice cubes directly into the eyes” to get on stage.
The ‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love’ rockers – who recently released their eighth album ‘Dreams On Toast’ – have calmed down from their early days partying on the road, but guitarist Dan Hawkins has recalled early tactics they used to get through hangovers on tour.
As quoted by the Daily Star newspaper’s Wired column, he recalled: “We had a wardrobe assistant and one of his jobs was to deploy two ice cubes directly into the eyes, closed I might say, about half an hour before the gig, to try and jumpstart out being able to actually play the gig because we were so f****** hungover.”
Dan insisted that ice cubes were a better hangover cure than the hair of the dog.
He pondered: “Maybe it’s the fight or flight thing. It sort of makes your brain send emergency signals.
“It was just a cycle of that.
“You basically play where you are are just about able to stumble on stage from the night before, do the gig and then you come off like and the whole thing would start again.”
The band initially came to an end after Dan’s brother Justin’s battles with drugs and alcohol, before reuniting in 2010 and returning to the live stage the following year at Download.
Now clean, the ‘I Hate Myself’ group are on the rise with a resurgance of popularity, with new album ‘Dreams On Toast’ chasing the UK album chart’s top spot.
The Darkness – completed by Frankie Poullain and Rufus Taylor – also recently headlined London’s Wembley Arena for the first time.
Dan said: “The objective, right from the word go, was to headline Wembley Arena. We knew that is where we should be really.
“There’s a few arenas on this run and that’s something we’ve worked very hard towards since we got back together in 2010.”
And Dan has backed The Darkness to continue their revival thanks to their clean lifestyle.
He added: “I think we’re actually quite young so if we keep fit and healthy, which we all do religiously, there’s no reason why we can’t just keep building and be the ones carrying the torch for classic rock in 10, 15 years time.”