"I was naked in the vocal booth. At first, I did it as an experiment to see if it would help, then it became a tradition": The story of the spandex-clad classic that launched its creators into the stratosphere

The Darkness in 2003, studio portrait.

It’s 2001, and The Darkness are a band out of time. Vintage-rock disciples adrift in the era of nu metal, the band’s misfit status is embodied by frontman Justin Hawkins: a former jingle writer with a glass-shattering falsetto and a taste for man-made fabrics. Completing the line-up are Justin’s younger brother Dan Hawkins (a sometime session guitarist), drummer Ed Graham (a hometown friend from the Hawkins brothers’ native Lowestoft) and 30-something Scottish bassist Frankie Poullain (who dresses like a pirate).

“We were desperately poor,” Justin reflects. “No hope whatsoever of achieving anything at all. But as long as we stayed alive – and I mean that literally – we were happy. We had nothing to lose, and so the reasons for doing music were pure and simple enjoyment. I think that’s why we felt so free to record something as different as I Believe In A Thing Called Love.”