No Rock And Roll Fun

ROCK TODAY: We're almost starting to warm to Conor McNicholas, the NME editor; he popped up on Today a few minutes ago talking about the rebirth of rock (yes, The Darkness has landed on Radio 4's flagship) and who couldn't but be charmed by his exclamations of "fun", like an aunt in a PG Wodehouse novel. His take on the Darkness is that they're exhibiting a "nostalgia for a history they've never had" - which possibly underestimates Justin's age by a good five years, to be honest, but makes a kind of sense.

The other guest was Paul Morley, who suggested they were 'End of the Pier Metal', comprising little bits of every metal act ever. "They're essentially conservative; yearning for an unrecoverable past - it's like when people go and sing along to the Sound of Music or the Rocky Horror Show" he claimed, suggesting their big test was going to be if they have the machismo to crack America. So their longevity is going to come down to whether the Americans see the cat suit or hear the rock.

Almost as soon as the piece finished, this pinged into our inbox:

I thought you'd be pleased to know that, on Wed's today programme, they did a feature on the return of rawk. I'm sure it'll be on the listen again page, if you want to hear. Anyway, they used a clip of the Darkness, 'Get your Hands Off My Woman' and, they presumably thought they were being very clever, sampling a bit without any swearing..

..except they used the bit where the singer yelps 'you cuuuuuuunt'.

Top stuff. No one even seemed to notice..