THE Darkness emerged amid lycra and 1970s rock riffs in 2003 and went on to sell more than a million copies of debut Permission To Land.

A second album followed, although the band split in 2005. They reunited earlier this year to headline Download festival, and are currently working on a third album and touring the UK.

We spoke to frontman Justin Hawkins to find out more.

ARE YOU BUSY REHEARSING?

Yes, pretty busy. We want the shows to go well. We did a show at the 100 Club in London recently, which was pretty chaotic.

It was something deliberately uncomfortable, and we enjoyed it so much.

Even the bits that went wrong. I like mess, really, but the new stuff is great, and so is the old stuff.

YOU WERE ALWAYS KNOWN FOR SUCH FLAMBOYANT STAGE SHOWS IN THE PAST. THE VENUES ON THIS TOUR ARE MUCH SMALLER.

HOW WILL YOU MANAGE?

Well, you don’t want to take flying equipment with you on a tour like this, and we’re keeping the tiger work to a minimum, there won’t be much of that this time. We’re keeping the rigs small so there’s more room for us on stage too. There will be a theme, but I don’t want to talk about it. Mainly because I don’t know what it is yet.

YOU’RE KNOWN FOR YOUR CATSUITS AS WELL. WILL WE BE SEEING THOSE AGAIN?

I am currently trying to talk the other band members into something outrageous, even by my standards. Some of them take more persuading than others. But we all agree that we want to go somewhere with the band, that we want to concentrate on what was fun when we were first together, and part of that was the costumes, and the running around on stage.

YOU’RE WEARING WHAT LOOKS LIKE A FORMULA 1 DRIVER’S SUIT.

I am, that’s what I’m wearing. It has three layers of fire protection, so it keeps me warm, and I have to protect my voice as I have a lot of work to do in the next few weeks.

DO YOU HAVE TO LOOK AFTER YOUR VOICE?

I’m sure I’m supposed to, but I never went into that before. There was the odd exception when I couldn’t manage because I was still so wrecked from the night before.

All the problems I’ve ever had voice-wise have been self-inflicted, and now I’m not pouring vodka into myself anymore it seems to be just fine.

DO YOU PREFER THE SMALLER SHOWS OR THE OLD ARENA SHOWS YOU USED TO DO?

It’s been odd because in the space of a week we’ve played to 8,000 people in an arena in Japan, and done 200 people in the 100 Club. I really don’t mind.

YOU RECENTLY SAID THAT AS WELL AS PERSONAL PROBLEMS, YOU WERE JUST FED UP OF BEING THE DARKNESS LAST TIME AROUND. IS THAT TRUE?

Drugs and alcohol is easy for people to grab hold of as a reason for splitting, and relate, but I’ve always felt that we should have been behaving like artists. But it got to the stage where we were doing the thing we’d loved, but instead of trying to please ourselves, we worried about maintaining what we’d achieved, and it was like a business. That wasn’t just me, it was all of us, but it was just me that left. I walked away from a big-earning project, but there’s more important things in life than money. I don’t know what they are yet, so here we are again in The Darkness.

AND A NEW ALBUM NEXT YEAR?

Yes, we’re nearly there. I think we need two more songs, but we could go and start recording today. I’d like it to come out around March, which is my birthday. A nice present for me.

n The Darkness play Southampton Guildhall on Thursday. Call 023 8063 2601 or visit livenation.co.uk/southampton.