The Darkness have promised to bedazzle and amaze once more when they release their eighth studio album, Dreams On Toast, via Cooking Vinyl in March 2025 alongside an impressive-looking UK Headline Tour. The band have shared their new single, The Longest Kiss.
“You know that thing when God’s breath tickles your soul and tells you to create,” Justin Hawkins asked. “Yeah, makes me giggle too. But you can’t resist. God might not be the power she once was, but say what you like about her, she knows damn well that what the world needs now is rock. Sweet rock. And who are we, mere mortals of extraordinary ability, to argue with the divine?
“So we knuckled down and thought really hard about the best of the best, the elite songs, the life-changing music of the ages. Then we popped out a dozen bangers before lunch.
“And these bangers we present to you here, wallowing in an aromatic aural ragu, served atop the charred remains of our envious contemporaries… ladies and gentlemen, I give you Dreams On Toast.”
“Misty Orchards, “Justin says. “That’s not my porn name, that’s the kind of scenery that I love. I awakened to such a vista in the delightful Scottish highland town of Nairn on the morning that inspiration for The Longest Kiss lyric struck.
“I was bleary-eyed and locked in an unending embrace with my (mid)life partner. Weird that I can still sing, but that’s a testament to the resilience of humans, especially lead singers.”
“The music itself is a piano-led composition,” Justin says, “the chorus of which my brother and I came up with after he had taken a long time to empty his bladder during some impressive pub endurance. The verses were transposed from a song I’ve been working on for decades as part of a musical about the collapse of the Lowestoft fishing industry, called The Collapse Of The Lowestoft Fishing Industry.
“The musical isn’t finished yet. But The Longest Kiss is. The results are astounding. We’re all very proud of this. Please, to enjoy.”
Their Dreams On Toast UK headline tour will see The Darkness play 17 shows across the country, finishing at London’s OVO Wembley Arena on 29 March.
Support comes from Northern Irish indie-rock heroes Ash, who first supported The Darkness on their legendary Permission To Land Tour over 20 years ago.
“In 2004, we toured the UK’s arenas with The Darkness as Permission To Land catapulted them into the big league,” Ash lead singer Tim Wheeler told us. “Next March, 21 years later, we will reunite to tear across Britain before an epic crescendo at Wembley Arena. We believe in a thing called rock.”
Tickets go on general sale from 10 AM on 27 September from here. Pre-orders of Dreams On Toast made from here will receive pre-sale access to tour tickets.
