In 2003, glam-rockers The Darkness took the world by storm with their smash hit single ‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love’ and the award-winning, chart-topping, multi-platinum debut album Permission to Land. Then, at the height of their fame in 2006, the band split up and fell off the music radar.
Nine years later, director and renowned celebrity portrait photographer Simon Emmett, followed The Darkness on their long, rocky and hilarious comeback trail. From a small pub gig in the middle of nowhere with the ambition of performing at packed arena shows once again, Welcome to The Darkness shows the stark reality of a ‘cult band’ struggling to recapture former glory. With unprecedented access, unseen archive footage, and intimate interviews filmed over eight years, Welcome to The Darkness is a tongue-in-cheek reflection on fame, failure, friendship and forgiveness.
With the documentary releasing on various VOD platforms in Australia and New Zealand on January 24, Nick L’Barrow had a chance to chat with the documentary’s director Simon Emmett about forming a strong relationship with the band throughout filming, and capturing their humour and authenticity on camera.
Nick: I want to kick off by asking about the opening scene of the documentary. It’s so fantastic listening to Justin talk about where he thinks the journey of the band will go on, and then so ominously, that light bulb blows up! It’s just one of those perfect movie moment. Did you know when that happened, that it was going to be the opening of the film?
Simon Emmett: Well, I’d love to take the credit for that particular bit! I mean, obviously, I was there! But the editor, a guy called Andy Ash, who really – there were several incarnations of the film as we went along, and Andy was the final editor who kind of helped create this version [of the film].
And actually, this was one of those moments, I think where Andy had kind of a moment of inspiration. We were working together every day, and we were so immersed in it. Then one day, I went in there and he said, “Have a look at this? What do you think?”. It was completely unexpected. That was just it. It had to be in there.
I kind of knew that the beginning was going to be Justin saying something along those lines. That was how I wanted to open it. But leaving the bulb exploding in, I’ve got to give Andy [Ash] the credit for that. But it works, you know! It works.
Nick: It absolutely works! And I’m sure that even for a 90-minute documentary, you will have so much footage that you would have captured during this process. Are you always kind of looking out for “movie moments” like that opening scene? And how do you balance putting those into the film’s overall story?
Simon Emmett: I think the things is to try and combine the two. Because, you know, the story is obviously key. But if you leave out a lot of the “moments”, they [the band] won’t feel like they’re real. They add a lot of personality to the band, you know? You get to know them more through those quirkier things. I mean, things like Frankie flapping his arms, and Justin having an interview while he’s running. These are kinds of things that add, I think, personality. There’s an authenticity to the talent that other guys wouldn’t do it.
So, I think that you are always looking for those moments. You’re looking to combine the two things. But I think it’s always story first, otherwise you’ve just got a selection of funny clips. But it’s hard to find that balance with them [The Darkness]. There’s a lot of funny moment. And there’s a lot of funny moments in the can that didn’t get used!
Nick: Are we going to see any of those funny moments? Maybe on the Blu-Ray in the future?
Simon Emmett: I think the Blu-Ray’s go an hour worth of some very funny stuff! But even when you film for that long, you know, there’s still a lot more there.
Nick: One of the keywords you said in your previous answer was “authenticity”. I just felt like every member of The Darkness came across so authentic and honest on screen. And these guys are absolutely performers at heart, but there was this genuine authenticity to the documentary. Was that a quality of the band that you found quite early on in the process of filming? Or was that something that you found evolved more as the documentary went along?
Simon Emmett: I think from the start you could tell that they were, from the beginning, they were very kind of genuine guys. They were very easy-going, very collaborative. I think the more, you know, deeper stuff came a little bit later on, a few years in. I think you build up trust, personal relationships with them, and I think you get to a point where there’s a mutual understanding that no one’s out to get them. And then they kind of opened up a little more.
I think that was something that wouldn’t have happened if it was more of a traditional, six-month-filming documentary. I don’t think we’d ever have got to those kinds of moments.
Nick: That humility is really felt early on when the band play in the Irish pub, but give a really arena tour worthy performance! Can you take me back to filming in that pub, and what your thoughts of what the documentary was going to be at that point? And then following on from that, what was the point during filming where you knew you had something special here?
Simon Emmett: I think I knew I had something quite funny very early on. I think I knew I had something quite special when we did a particular set of interviews in a recording studio called Vada. And you see in the film both Justin and Dan have some of the more intimate, deeper, kind of more challenging subjects tackled in those interviews. Which wasn’t engineered! It was very much a natural thing that happened through a conversation. But that was the moment when I knew the combination of the two can be quite special. That they’d reached a point where they were able to open up and trust.
In fairness to them, before Ireland they were already playing at big venues at the point. But the real reason for Ireland was that they had written that particular album there. And I think they were kind of trying stuff on that pub tour. Fair play to them! What other bands would do that; you know? That shows how great they are in that respect. And I think they were kind getting to know Emily. It was a process for everyone to gel. And the pub gig was brilliant! It’s pub rock in stadiums, or stadium rock in pubs. I think that’s exactly what it was – they played the pub as if they were playing any stadium in the world. It’s very inspiring.
Nick: While we’re discussing their music, I can imagine how hard it was choosing the needle drops in the documentary from seven different albums to pick from! What was the process in using certain The Darkness songs for the moments that they are featured in the film?
Simon Emmett: I mean, again, Andy [Ash] was a big part of that particular thing. And he was a fan! What was quite interesting with and me, creating and moulding this film together, that we were almost having our own battles with it. Andy, being a fan, wanted more and more. He was fighting for more and more music. And I was fighting for more reality, and more character-building material.
I mean, the thing with the music is that there’s a lot that could have been used. I’ve seen a couple of comments online that say, “I wish there was more music in this”. I think it was about finding that point where, if you do too much music, it becomes a record-label film. Where it feels like it takes away from the story. For me, it was a character study always. And of course, you have to show what they do and what they’re brilliant at.
In terms of the choice of songs, we did sort of quite carefully pick them. Obviously, a couple of them pick themselves, yes. But as far as the rest of them were concerned, it was kind of what worked at particular moments. There certainly wasn’t an agenda, and the band weren’t pushing anything. They were very much like, wanting us to create what we wanted to create without them trying to influence it.
I think what ended up there musically was just what worked. I wouldn’t have put anything in that I didn’t think was fantastic! But you could’ve gone on and on. It could’ve been a lot more than that!
Nick: I wanted to start wrapping up by saying that I think your portrait photography has a real rockstar quality to it. You just make all your subjects look so cool. I’m curious to know whether there was anything from your photography career that was transferable to making this documentary about rockstars?
Simon Emmett: Probably the fact that when you’re taking portraits, what often happens is that, especially with that kind of talent, you won’t have very long. You’re under time constraints. And there’s a lot of, kind of, adapting to circumstances that need to happen. People see an end picture, and don’t really understand what might have gone on, the complexities of what might have gone on before it.
But I think there is kind of a relationship between the photographer and the talent in order to create the moment, in order to have the picture. It might be a short-lived relationship, but it’s there, nonetheless. And I think what I found with filmmaking is that the documentaries are kind of a huge extension of that. It’s going into an open-ended version of that, where you’re working with talent, but you don’t have a time constraint, you don’t have that limitation. You’re able to develop it and it kind of evolves.
So, I think it was the vast experiences of doing the portraits where I have underestimated how much that helped in just actually being able to structure yourself around these people, and to have a kind of method of working. I think even though they might seem pole apart, I think they’re quite closely linked.
Thank you so much to Simon Emmett for his time, and to Walkden Entertainment for organising the interview. Welcome to The Darkness will be available on various VOD platforms from January 24 in Australian and New Zealand.
