“Always trust a punk. Never trust a hippy.”
These are words to live by for Frankie Poullain, the Kinross-born bassist of glam rock outfit The Darkness.
He first saw a punk at the tender age of 11, when he was still going by the name of Frannie Patterson and growing up in Milnathort.
“I’ve got fond memories of playing football there,” recalls Frankie, reclining behind his phone screen with his signature wild hair wisping out of frame, and his signature thick-rimmed shades still on even indoors.
“I remember seeing my first punk there. Punks in the park with mohawks!
“When you’re an 11-year-old kid, you think it’s scary and that they’re violent people,” he muses. “But of course they weren’t.
“If anything they were sensitive misfits with a lot of imagination.”
It’s clear the 57-year-old rocker has carried that influence with him over the decades.
For him, rock ‘n’ roll in 2024 is less about sex, drugs and debauchery and more about “irreverence, being playful and not giving a s***”.
“Cliché is what’s killing rock ‘n’ roll,” he pronounces with a flick of the wrist. “Cliché and false mannerisms.
“You have to be yourself, and express your idiosyncrasies.”
Noughties odd couple? The Darkness and Busted
But this summer, Frankie will be trading a park full of punks for a sea of pop-punk fans as The Darkness join Busted on stage as ‘special guests’ at Summer Sessions in Stirling’s City Park.
And though both bands were huge in the early Noughties, he acknowledges the line-up is an unusual combo.
“But you assume the promoters know what they’re doing,” says Frankie good-naturedly. “We got on well with those guys back in the day. Was one of them called William?”
A glint of something in the eyes. Mischief? Sheepishness? The glasses make it hard to tell. One thing is certain – no one in Busted was ever called William.
“It was a long time ago,” he chuckles. “All I remember is that they were having fun, they liked us, and they were sweet guys.”
Special lady in the crowd at Stirling show
The Stirling show will be a special one for Frankie, as he’ll have his own special guest in the crowd – his mother, Catherine, from whom he takes his French surname Poullain.
“My mum’s going to be there at Stirling, so I’m looking forward to seeing her,” says Frankie. “She’s a big fan and a cheerleader and she’s still going strong in her early 80s. She’s a special woman.”
Frankie grew up as the step-brother of Scottish comic Phil Kay, after his mother Catherine married Phil’s dad.
And from the sounds of things, there’s no shortage of funny bones in the family.
“The guys love having mum in the dressing room because she usually kicks their ass and tells it how it is. She’s French, so she’s got that kind of honesty,” he laughs.
But it wasn’t always a barrel of laughs in The Darkness’ dressing room.
After the skyrocketing success of their debut record Permission To Land, Frankie famously left the band in 2005.
Shortly after, lead singer Justin Hawkins departed in 2006 to battle addiction issues.
“We were kind of winging it back then,” admits Frankie. “Especially headlining festivals with an album that only lasted 35 minutes!
“That first album, as enjoyable and successful as it was, was equally damaging and unrealistic. Too much too soon, you know?”
Frankie Poullain – the ‘weird uncle’ of The Darkness
Then in 2011, the original line-up reunited. Drummer Rufus Taylor (son of Queen drummer Roger Taylor) joined in 2015, and Frankie has been happily playing the “weird uncle” in the band’s “now functional family” since.
So does he regret leaving in the first place?
“Probably at the time I did, but looking back no,” he says.
“I don’t think the reformation would’ve happened in the way it did if I hadn’t taken that time out, and if Justin hadn’t taken that time out.
“Now, we’re the band we should’ve been then. It’s taken us 20 years to become a classic rock band.
“It used to be a dysfunctional family, now it’s as functional as a family gets.”
The secret to their successful chemistry, he reveals, is “understanding each other better as people and realising it’s about not taking ourselves seriously”.
“Whenever one of us in the band discusses what we’re going to play at various gigs, everyone else just starts to make chicken noises and toss imaginary chicken feed on the floor,” laughs Frankie.
“Because we’re like schoolboys. And the way we see it, it’s almost a weakness to try and plan anything. We like to keep things off the cuff and not plan everything to the Nth degree, because then it’s not rock and roll.
“So we keep it spontaneous until the last minute,” he teases, “and then we just get scared at the last minute!”
Indie label is right fit for glam rockers
But one thing The Darkness do take very seriously is their music. They always have.
“No one did hard rock better than AC/DC,” Frankie declares.
“That’s pretty much perfection, in the same way that The Office (UK) or Fawlty Towers is perfection in comedy, that’s perfection in hard rock.”
After being dropped by Atlantic Records when Justin left the band in 2006, The Darkness are currently on the roster of indie label Cooking Vinyl, along with The Waterboys, The Fratellis, Suzanne Vega, Nina Nesbitt and more.
And his years of experience in the music industry have taught Frankie that creative control is central to the band’s success.
“The best part is to have control over what you do,” he says.
“That’s frustrating, when you go on a major label and are misrepresented. I prefer where we are now, where it’s about organic growth and we’re in control of everything.”
New Darkness album will be ‘very intimate’
But with a new album deadline looming, Frankie says the rockers are “up against it” in the studio.
“World’s smallest violin, I know,” he drawls. “In between all the summer festivals, we’ll have to be getting back to the studio.
“But we’ve just had the time of our lives, writing it and coming up with ideas.”
He reveals the upcoming record is “shaping up to be something different” with a “very intimate” side of The Darkness set to be revealed as they follow the recent revival of country music in their own style.
“There’ll still be some big rockers on it but it’s a different side to us for sure,” he says. “It’s going to be very personal. A lot of acoustic stuff, and country.”
It sounds like quite the departure from the spandex-wrapped explosion of power chords the band’s known for.
But Frankie exudes the confidence you’d expect from a man with the top four buttons of his shirt undone.
“People are sick of that super-compressed sounding music that everyone’s making now,” he observes.
“It’s why I’m not bothered about all the AI stuff that everyone’s talking about because humans are always going to need the connection of another human.
“People want to hear people’s hearts opening. That’s what art is.”
The Darkness join Busted for Stirling Summer Sessions at City Park on June 28 2024. Tickets available from Ticketmaster UK.
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