There was unexpected drama just one song into last night's The Darkness gig.
Despite the M&S Bank Arena being far from full, the appreciative crowd greeted the effervescent, glam rockers to the stage with cheers and thunderous applause. The band launched straight into Growing On Me - a waterfall of sparks raining down from the rafters, the audience singing and clapping along.
But just seconds after the song finished, the house lights came up - the band looking just as bewildered as the audience, who wondered if it was all part of the show. Then, with smoke still hanging in the air, an announcement came over the PA system - "There is an emergency in the building, please leave by the exit."
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The band put their instruments down, as the audience began to get to its feet, still unsure of what was going on. Microphone off, Justin Hawkins came to the front of the stage, waving fans towards the exits as the announcement was again made to leave the arena.
People calmly and quickly filed outside into the cold night, the arena staff doing a great job of getting everybody out safely. Chatter among the crowd blamed the pyrotechnics - and we were not wrong. After just five minutes outside, we were let back in to retake our seats, the offending lighting rig having been lowered and blasted with a fire extinguisher.
The lights were tested again, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown's 'Fire' playing, as the audience laughed and cheered. It was 8.30pm before The Darkness returned to the stage, a now lycra clad Justin telling the audience: "I need to explain something to you ... we just blew the f***ing roof off. Sincere apologies for the disruption - now normal service shall resume!"
They went straight into Black Shuck, then One Way Ticket as Justin jokingly told fans there was now "no time for f***ing around." Arms waving, the band got the audience clapping along as they launched into Love is Only a feeling, continuing their now stripped down set.
Japanese Prisoner of Love, and Givin' Up were next. Justin took a moment to speak to the crowd, saying: "The worst part of the regrettable incident was, we were on fire ... kicking arse." Then he introduced Get Your Hands Off My Woman, released nearly 20 years to the month.
Bursting with energy, halfway through the song the flamboyant frontman did a handstand in front of the drums, legs waving in the air in time to the beat.
Then they were into the home stretch, playing arguably their biggest hit - I Believe In A Thing Called Love. One verse in, Justin pauses, asking the crowd to put down their phones. "Put your phones away," he yells, "and let's see you bounce, it's Sunday night! Let's do this."
Before breaking into Love On The Rocks With No Ice, Justin again apologised for the earlier drama, taking "personal responsibility" for it. "It was I who installed the pyrotechnics", he joked, "following a YouTube tutorial, and evidently they forgot to tell me - there's a light up there and it has a sensor on it. I was supposed to disable that - my bad, please forgive me."
He continued: "We've tried to do what we consider to be an abridged set, that still keeps a lot of the highlights. This will be our last song - this one is going to go on for f***ing ages."
They made sure they made the most of the time they had left. At one point the singer was carried on the shoulders of a security guard through the crowd, still playing his guitar. "Let's drive this home, you ready?" he shouted, as he clambered back on stage, flames shooting from the stage below.
Set done, the band left the crowd wanting more. But they had to make way for their co-headliners Black Stone Cherry. After a half hour pause to set the stage up for the Kentuckians, Black Stone Cherry emerged and hit the ground running. They launched into Me and Mary Jane, which gets the crowd on its feet, flowing straight into Burnin', and then Again.
Frontman Chris Robertson stops to thank the crowd for coming out, while guitarist Ben Wells shares that the band had questioned how wise it was to book a gig on 'technically a school night'. There were cheers, and then Chris invited the crowd down to Soulcreek with them.
Next came In My Blood, then newly released single Out of Pocket. "This is the part where I might f*** up", jokes Chris, "So if you know our new song - right here, right now sing the s*** out of it with me."
There was Like I Roll, Cheaper To Drink Alone with a blistering drum solo from John Fred Young, and the Things My Father Said, which Chris touchingly dedicated to his late dad. "I've had chills up here all night Liverpool", he told the crowd, "Liverpool you're amazing."
White Trash Millionaire and Blame it on the Boom Boom were played back to back, a small mosh pit forming in front of the stage, before the band ended with Lonely Train.
They weren't off stage for long though, returning with a cover of ELO's Don't Bring Me Down, which had the arena singing along. A truly great night of music.
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