Back in the early noughties, when The Darkness hit big with their debut album Permission To Land, frontman Justin Hawkins had the perfect riposte to a critic who dubbed them “the gay AC/DC”. “I prefer to think of us as the straight Queen,” Hawkins said.
Two decades on, as Hawkins talks to about the music that has shaped his life, the name of Queen comes up time and again. Not because The Darkness’ drummer is Rufus Taylor, son of Roger Taylor, but because Queen are a profound influence on a man whose
