The Darkheart Boys

29th July 2004
The Bobbin, Lancaster

Reviewed by Reza Mills

Let's clear one thing up here before I start, due to a mix-up in communications between various unnamed sources, the band are incorrectly billed as The DarkHAWK Boys and not The DarkHEART Boys, as they inform me after the gig. Which is just as well as naming your band after a bird of prey just isn't very rock n'roll is it? Mind you it didn't do The Eagles' career much harm.

Arriving at The Bobbin at around 9, I see that the band has already started. Oops! Still I go to the bar and get my brother-in-law and myself some beers and we start watching. Pathetically there were very few people there; I must have counted about a dozen. Although there were friends present whom they knew from Lancaster to offer their support. There were 4 members in the band, (who hail from mighty Penrith in Cumbria) in what was a fairly conventional rock band set-up. There was main vocalist and guitarist Matthew Rose, backing vocals and guitarist Shane Kirk, on bass guitar Rob Stack and finally on drums Ben Parkinson. They each lived up to the rock band stereotype. You had the quiet bassist, the very charismatic lead frontman (with lots of on-stage banter), backed up with an equally captivating second guitarist and a drummer who hits the kit quite hard. They also all looked quite young; especially surprising since lead frontman Andrew is 23!

They start off and it's almost immediate that these lads love their old school rock n'roll. Make no mistake about it folks, this is good old-fashioned, no-nonsense Hard Rock music. Straightforward and unpretentious. The song titles ‘Hey you, get off my girl' 'Madman Messiah' and ‘Under a Spell' leave little to the imagination.

Possible reference points for these guys would be Guns n' Roses, AC/DC and Aerosmith, as well as some thrashier influences such as Metallica, as well as a slight touch of glam rock in the vein of Poison and Motley Crue. Even modern day Queen copycats The Darkness (Another band with Dark in the title) have their sordid influence on the band.

That's not to say that is the only type of music they play, there are also touches of punk present in the style of the Sex Pistols. They do have some jazzy type stuff going on there as well. But by and large the music is in the bluesy hard rock/heavy metal scheme of things. In fact so much so that you would think you were stuck in a time warp, especially in the couple of obligatory ballads that are played.All I was missing was a lighter! The ballads admittedly were slightly cheesy and very 80's, but it did help to vary things up a bit. There was also a cover of The Rolling Stone's ‘Jumping Jack Flash', which helped to keep people's attention and hold their interest with something they might recognize.

In fact it is hard to believe that these old school sounding songs are their own. My brother-in-law Andy and I were both convinced that these songs must be covers. It is difficult to believe that a band so young would have an interest in playing this style of music and not the sort of bog-standard nu-metal tripe that most young bands these days seem to be taking up.

What is also astonishing is how tight the ‘boys' are, considering they only formed early last year! The rhythm section is as solid as a rock and the two guitarists are very flamboyant and energetic darting here and there across the stage in the grand old tradition of Angus Young (AC/DC guitarist for those of you not in the know).

Though the band undoubtedly works very well together as a team, it is apparent that frontman Andrew is the motivating driving force for the group as it is mainly him who both interacts with the audience and who really helps to fire up his co-bandmates. He is also responsible for selling the bands cd on their website and other such promotional tasks.

It is clear that this band is very committed and determined and wants to do this for a living. They are professional in so far as they have actually shown up on time, which is always a good start unlike certain people, mentioning no names of course! They are very serious about their craft and seem pretty undeterred by neither the lack of people present nor the rather luke-warm reactions of the few punters that did bother to show up. It showed a steely grit and stubborn refusal to give up in the face of adversity and they ploughed on through the rest of their set until 10.30.

I was mightily impressed with the positive attitude that they came out with, and it is definitely going to stand them in good stead in their quest to attain greater success. Be sure to visit their website on www.thedarkheartboys.com and to catch them the next time they should visit these parts.

Reza Mills