Stone Gods Interview: The Darkness

Richie Edwards on The Darkness' Breakup and Origin of Stone Gods

Feb 27, 2008

In an exclusive Stone Gods interview, frontman Richie Edwards talks about the demise of his former outfit - UK rock gods The Darkness - and the formation of Stone Gods.

In 2003 The Darkness took the British music scene by storm, their debut album Permission to Land hitting the number one slot and going on to achieve quintuple-platinum status. By 2006 it was over, as front man Justin Hawkins' drug problems fractured the band, but guitarist Dan Hawkins, drummer Ed Graham and bassist Richie Edwards decided to carry on in the guise of a new outfit called Stone Gods.

Out of the Darkness

Suite101: For anyone who's been living under a rock, can you give us a potted version of what went wrong with The Darkness?

Richie: “Well basically, Justin went through some personal issues that were quite well documented in the tabloids at the time. He went into rehab and came out basically unable to carry on with the band. I think if he'd carried on with the band his road to recovery wouldn't have existed really. I got a phone call from him saying he couldn't do it any more and then about half an hour later I got a call from Dan saying: 'Do you fancy doing a bit of singing? Let's get a new band together'. So we were only really out of the band for literally a matter of half an hour before we decided to start a new one. Without Justin there was absolutely no way that The Darkness could continue. He was such an integral part that it wasn't really an option to carry on with somebody else. To a lot of people who were aware of the band without being real fans or anything, he was The Darkness."

Suite101: It was widely reported at the time that you were going to carry on as The Darkness – that was never on the cards?

Richie: “I got asked this by someone else last week but it was never gonna happen. As far as we were concerned, The Darkness finished when Justin left the band. We absolutely had to draw a line under that and start again.”

Richie: “It wasn't something I'd ever really considered until Dan suggested it and I just thought: 'Yeah, why not? Let's give it a go.' I never really thought about what I was taking on – it evolved quite organically really between the writing and recording and onto the live stuff. I actually really, really enjoy it.”

Stone Gods Are Go

Suite101: How did you find bassist Toby Mac Farlaine – were you already friends with him?

Richie: “Yeah, Toby's been friends with Dan and Ed for years. I met him a few times during the Darkness time and when we were trying to sort out the new band he was first choice. We didn't even know if he'd want to do it because he'd been a part of (former Blur guitarist) Graham Coxon's band for quite some time and he was actually out on tour when we called him. We were half expecting him to turn us down but he came up to listen to some of the demos we'd done and just asked, 'Where do I sign?' We'd already started writing before he came onboard but he brought a whole new dimension to the songwriting. He's got very much a punk rock attitude and he brought a whole different side to the writing process.”

The copyright of the article Stone Gods Interview: The Darkness in Rock Music is owned by Paul Travers. Permission to republish Stone Gods Interview: The Darkness in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.