71. The Darkness

21^st Century Appearances: 2004 Headliner, 2003 Main Stage

The Defining Reading Moment: Justin Hawkins, after leading the crowd through a ludicrous Freddie Mercury falsetto sing-along section, declares: “You’re Much Better At Swearing Than You Are At Singing, There’s Something Very, Very Wrong With You”

In 2003 The Darkness were arguably the biggest band in the country. With Jay-Z pulling out of that year’s festival it allowed the Lowestoft four piece to leapfrog up the main stage bill, reflecting their explosion in popularity that summer.  The band didn’t disappoint, with their debut Permission to Land, proving an excellent source for good time rock anthems.

With monster track  ‘I Believe in a Thing Called Love’ and a Christmas number two under the belt there was no stopping them as they went onto headline the 2004 festival. The headline set saw more fireworks than a thousand bonfire nights and the band still hitting the high notes even with the lack of new material. Not long after this the band disbanded but as of 2011 The Darkness are back! Time will tell if they’ll ever return to their former glories but for 18 months in 2003-04 they were the bigger than Jesus. Adam McCartney