British heavy rock band Stone Gods, formed from the ashes of the Darkness, recently played an excellent show with Airbourne at the Carling Academy, Newcastle.

Bad Robot’s Jamie Thomas spoke to Toby MacFarlane (bass), Dan Hawkins (guitar), Robin Goodridge (drums) and Richie Edwards (vocals, guitar) just before they went onstage.

Jamie: Toby, people will know you from your time in JJ72, but more recently you’ve been working with Graham Coxon. He’s a creative guy, but always comes across as very quiet. What’s he really like in person?

Toby: At this stage I don’t know, it all depends on how people’s diaries line up. It would be nice though.

Dan: We’ve stolen Toby from him, but we might give him back!

Jamie: Moving on to you, Robin, you’ve recently been drumming for Spear of Destiny, now you’ve joined Stone Gods does that bring your time with them to an end?

Robin: Again like Toby said, it depends on diaries. Spear have some dates booked for next year, but they have a bit of a revolving door policy when it comes to their line-up, it seems to change all the time! I think I’m actually their longest-serving drummer, because I was in the band for about three years.

Jamie: You’re best known for your time in Bush. Can you see a Bush reunion happening in the future?

Jamie: As everyone knows, Stone Gods came about after The Darkness split. Do you guys get sick of journalists asking you about The Darkness?

Dan: No, not at all. I’m very proud of my past. We achieved some great things with The Darkness, had a lot of fun, and for me it was a great start to my career. If some people don’t like talking about their old bands, maybe it’s because they were in shit bands! The Darkness was my band, and I’m proud of what we did.

Jamie: I recently spoke to Justin (Hawkins) and he was very positive about what you guys are doing with Stone Gods. Have you had a chance to listen to Justin’s new band ‘Hot Leg’?

Toby: Are they really called Hot Leg?

Dan: I have to say I haven’t really heard them yet. Do they have an album out?

Jamie: I’m told they’re hoping to release it early next year.

Richie: I’ve heard some of their tracks. I thought it was good stuff. It’s healthy that people are moving on with their new bands.

Dan: Obviously what people are doing now reflects what they’re really into. I think that’s one of the things that brought down The Darkness, in the end. We had different priorities in terms of the kind of music we wanted to make. Hopefully Justin’s now getting the chance to do what he wants to do.

Jamie: You’ve recently been championed by the rock press, with the likes of Classic Rock and Kerrang! giving you a lot of support. How does that feel?

Robin: It’s ok being on the periphery, as long as you’re enjoying your music, but it’s really good to feel you’re actually appearing on the radar straight away. And we’ll prove them right.

Jamie: Your debut album is an interesting mix of styles. A song like “Burn the Witch” is very different to, say, “Magdalene Street”. Did you deliberately set out to make an album with a wide range, or did it just happen that way?

Richie: There was no real agenda. We all got together, wrote a whole load of songs - I think 28 in the end - and then whittled it down to the 14 or so we thought were good enough for the record. When you’ve got four people working on an album, you’re going to get lots of influences coming together, and we’ve ended up with a pretty diverse record.

Jamie: And how are you enjoying being on tour with Airbourne, do they party as hard as their image suggests?

All: It’s fucking awesome.

Dan: You can print that - “fucking awesome”. The tour is going very, very well. They’re a great band and we’re having a really good time.

Robin: And once this tour is over, we’ll be looking forward to hitting the festivals next year.

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