The Darkness have announced a surprise intimate show at London’s Moth Club. Find all the details below.
The show comes ahead of the band’s big UK arena tour in support of their 2025 album ‘Dreams On Toast’. Those shows kick off in December – you can see a full list of dates here and find any remaining tickets here.
Justin Hawkins and co. will perform at the iconic London venue on September 17, with the show dubbed “Crock Of Hits”. Announcing it on Instagram this morning (September 5), the band wrote: “The first rule of Moth Club is, don’t fly into the lightbulb. Just kidding – nocturnal Lepidoptera rejoice!
“We’re coming to play at the Moth Club. That thing about burning yourself to a crisp is more of a guideline than a rule, so come celebrate The Darkness on this special night and listen upon our works ye mighty and rejoice!” they continued.
““Crock of Hits“ will startle you. Hold you as you tremble. And gently force you to succumb to its aural splendour. A “best of” curated by us, so you can be certain it’s the bestest of the bestiest. Suck it up, people…”
Presale will begin at 10am on Tuesday (September 8), followed by general sale on Thursday (September 10). You can find tickets here.
The gig comes amid Moth Club’s ongoing battle to survive. The legendary independent venue’s future was at risk over two separate planning applications for flats on Morning Road next to the venue, which were submitted to Hackney Council.
The venue asked local residents to voice their opposition to the developments to the council, and as of December 2025, the council had received over 27,000 emails of objection.
Music Venue Trust have said that if MOTH Club were to be lost, it would pose an “existential threat” to all grassroots venues.
In other news, The Darkness’s tour is set to follow their huge support slot at Iron Maiden‘s Knebworth Park gig on July 11.
Speaking to NME about the upcoming dates late last year, Justin’s brother and bandmate, Dan Hawkins, said: “Even close friends of mine who come to every London show sigh if the tour is in spring or early autumn or whatever, because they consider coming to see The Darkness play in December as part of their Christmas build-up.
“Those are my best friends saying that, and not necessarily the biggest Darkness fans.”
He continued: “We’re just part of people’s festive period, and we’ve got quite a few Christmas songs. As you’ve seen today, we can break into pretty much any one… and do a pretty bad job!”
He also touched on courting a new generation of fans, which he said they had been “building and building” on since reuniting in 2011.
“We had quite a tough challenge convincing people that we were going to be around for a while,” he told us. “We’re operating on pretty much a cult fanbase. The transient pop fans that came and screamed at the early gigs and then left when they realised we were actually a rock band went quite early doors, then we split up.
“When we got back together, we had to really develop a hardcore fanbase again. We had it initially to the point where we could sell out The Astoria as an unsigned band, then we kind of just fucking blew it all and had to start again. It’s taken us a while to release quality stuff, and get better and better as far as being a rock band that isn’t just peddling the same old shit every time.
“As you’ve just heard, our fans aren’t shouting for the hits – they want the album tracks, and not the ones we were playing 20 years ago. We’re a different beast now.”
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