The Darkness have pulled out of a special concert due to take place in New York in Sep celebrating fifty years of Rock and Roll. The band's management say recording of the second album is taking longer than expected, and they will need the whole of Sep to work on it before embarking on a UK tour in the Autumn.
Organisers of the event - which also has the Strokes, James Brown, the Doors, Bo Diddley, Lenny Kravitz and Velvet Revolver on the bill - told reporters on Friday: "We will miss the Darkness in New York, but our line-up remains impressive and just got stronger with Alice Cooper, Ben Folds and Melissa Auf Der Mar being recently added."
Elsewhere in Darkness news, frontman Justin Hawkins has told the Sun he had his penis pierced as punishment for cheating on his girlfriend. He told the paper: "Whenever I have a down I always put a piercing in to mark it. I was miserable when I had my nipple done. And I was even more miserable when I had my cock done. Me and Sue split up. I didn't like myself much. I thought, what's the most painful place to have a piercing?" Word is the piercing has since been removed.