Tim Hughes talks to Dan Hawkins of the reformed The Darkness ahead of their comeback Oxford show

Liam and Noel, Kane and Abel, the Milibands… no one falls out quitehttp://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/leisure/music/10858260.Out_of_Darkness_into_the_light__Interview_with_The_Darkness/ as badly as brothers.

One of the most tragic in rock history was the epic split between The Darkness pop-rockers Justin and Dan Hawkins, who went from selling millions of records, scooping armfuls of awards and reaching the top of the charts to… well, nothing.

The brothers are frank about their split – a result of frontman Justin’s over-dependence on various substances and his subsequent desire to get clean, coupled with guitarist Dan’s desire to push onwards and upwards.

It was never going to end prettily, but the resulting fall out was particularly ugly, and took the whole band down.

Now, after a period in the relative wilderness, they are back. The Hawkins boys have patched things up, they have a third album and are back on the road.

The Intimate Outreach Tour has seen the band, who only last year were supporting lady Gaga at the world’s biggest arenas, returning to their roots and playing a mix of small towns and intimate venues. And next Thursday they play the O2 Academy Oxford. “It’s nice to get out and do some proper touring in the UK,” Dan tells me. “We had a comeback tour when we first got back together, then loads of stuff in Europe and America before we went off with Gaga, but we never had a chance to do this kind of thing, so it’s great.”

The tour sees Justin, Dan, Frankie Poullain (bass) and Ed Graham (drums) celebrating the 10th anniversary of their number one debut album Permission To Land – featuring such enduring hits as Get Your Hands Off My Woman and I Believe In a Thing Called Love.

Tickets from ticketweb.co.uk

Read our full interview with Dan for our sister paper The Oxford Times, by clicking here...