Justin Hawkins

Infobox musical artist
Background =solo_singer
Name =Justin Hawkins


Img_capt =Hawkins in Ankkarock 2004
Born =birth date and age|df=yes|1975|3|17
Died =
Birth_name =Justin David Hawkins
Genre =Hard rock
Glam rock
Glam metal
Heavy metal
Instrument =Vocals, Guitar, Piano, Keyboards, Sitar, Synthesizer, Mini-moog, Hammond organ
Associated_acts =The Darkness (2000 - 2006)
Hot Leg (2008 - present)
Label =Atlantic Records
Must Destroy
Notable_instruments =
Years_active =2000 - present
URL = [http://www.myspace.com/barbecuerock Myspace.com/barbecuerock]

Justin David Hawkins (born 17 March 1975 in Chertsey, Surrey, England) is an English musician and singer-songwriter, best known for being the former lead singer and rhythm guitarist of The Darkness, noted for his heavy use of falsetto, his charismatic persona, and his flamboyant stage personality.

Hawkins is influenced by classic hard rock and glam metal bands of the 1970s and 1980s and cites Van Halen, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Def Leppard, Whitesnake, Aerosmith and AC/DC as amongst his influences.

Background

Hawkins grew up in Lowestoft, he studied at Kirkley High School (notably the venue for the second series of Channel 4's Rock School programme; although any reference to The Darkness was conspicuously erased in that series in spite of their having donated thousands of pounds' worth of musical equipment to the schoolFact|date=July 2008), he left part-way through his 'A' Levels to study Music Technology at Huddersfield Technical College while living in Sowerby Bridge near Halifax, West Yorkshire. His brother Dan Hawkins is the lead guitarist of the Stone Gods. He also has a younger sister called Suzi and his parents are called Harry and Sandy.

Music career

Hawkins fully developed his love of rock music while playing with the now defunct heavy metal band "The Commander" (Justin "Turbo" Hawkins, Rico Musson, Shaggy Forley, David "Growy" Owens, Jim Lee & Richard "Beaky" Bedford). They are affectionately credited on The Darkness' debut album "Permission to Land" — (your wish is my Commander).

He is known for wearing catsuits, and his flamboyance and exaggeration, with David Lee Roth-esque acrobatics. He considered himself a lead guitarist until Dan saw him performing an interpretative mime to Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" in The Swan public house, in Beccles, on 31 DecemberFact|date=February 2007, 1999 whereupon they realized his potential as a frontman (though he still played most of the lead guitar in the band).

In 2005, Justin set up a solo project, called British Whale. His debut single, "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us", a cover of the 1974 hit by Sparks, was released on 15 August and reached #6 on the UK Singles Chart. In 2006 Hawkins released a second single, available only to download, an unofficial World Cup anthem called "England".

In October 2006, Hawkins left The Darkness [cite news |title=Justin Hawkins quits The Darkness |url=http://www.nme.com/news/the-darkness/24662 |work=NME.com |publisher=New Musical Express |date=2006-10-11 |accessdate=2006-10-11 ] to be replaced on lead vocals by bassist Richie Edwards. [ [http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/bassist%20takes%20over%20as%20darkness%20frontman_1017220 Bassist Takes Over As Darkness Frontman] ] .

Hawkins sung backing vocals on Def Leppard's cover of The Sweet's song "Hell Raiser" for their 2006 covers album "Yeah!". [cite web |url=http://www.deflepparduk.com/sweet.html |title=DefLeppardUK.com |accessdate=2007-04-12]

In early 2007, he became one of six acts competing to represent the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest competition in Helsinki in a duet with singer Beverlei Brown. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6404193.stm Justin Hawkins enters race to become UK Eurovision entry] ] He entered "Making Your Mind Up" with Beverlei Brown singing a song entitled "They Don’t Make 'Em Like They Used To" [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/eurovision/2007/mymu/hawkinsandbrown.shtml Hawkins & Brown] - BBC Radio 2, Make Your Mind Up] but did not win the competition.

On 16 March 2007, he appeared on the Comic Relief evening during the half-hour Top Gear of the Pops programme. This saw him performing Billy Ocean's "Red Light Spells Danger" with the three Top Gear presenters.

Later that month, on 29 March, Justin created a new MySpace profile featuring songs which will be included on his upcoming solo album entitled "Panther". The songs are titled "You Can't Hurt Me Anymore", "I've Met Jesus" and "Whichever". On 12 May, Justin added a further song to his profile; "Gay In The 80's", to appear on the same album. Later, on 13 July, he removed all the aforementioned songs, and mentioned "You'll just have to wait."

Hawkins also announced that he had been participating in the recording of two Magnet Watch albums entitled "Nude Horizon" and "Party Party Time Time". On 8 November 2007 3:00am Hawkins posted a MySpace blog containing directions to [http://www.dothegreenthing.com Do the Green Thing] , an organisation for which he has composed a new song "Do It In The Dark", to accompany a short film which encourages people to switch off and save energy. The song has not been released as a single, but is available as a free download.

There is a wax model of Hawkins at Madame Tussaud's in London. [cite web |url=http://www.tussauds.com/media_centre/press_release.asp?id=23 |title=Do you rock - or not? |accessdate=2007-04-12]

It has been announced that Hawkins is supplying the singing and guitar playing for "Kurtz", the lead singer of the "bad guy band" Mantyz in the BBC's new animated series; Freefonix which debuted 4 January 2008. [ [http://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/Isle-of-Man-cartoon-series.3634756.jp Isle of Man cartoon series goes on air - Isle of Man Today] ]

In the film "Telstar", a film about Joe Meek's life and career that will be released in mid-2008, he will play the role of Screaming Lord Sutch. [imdb name|1510097|Justin Hawkins]

He is set to return with rock band Hot Leg in August 2008. [ [http://www.myspace.com/teamhotleg http://www.myspace.com/teamhotleg] ]

Personal life

In August 2006 it was reported (and later confirmed by The Darkness' management) that Hawkins had been admitted to The Priory, a rehabilitation clinic. [cite news |title=Darkness singer in rehab clinic |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/suffolk/5265092.stm |work=BBC |publisher=BBC |date=2006-08-18 |accessdate=2006-12-19 ] On 11 October 2006 Hawkins revealed spending £150,000 in three years on cocaine after cracking the charts in 2003 with their single "I Believe in a Thing Called Love". [cite news |title=Drugs force Darkness singer out |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6043810.stm |work=BBC |publisher=BBC |date=2006-08-18 |accessdate=2006-12-19 ] When he realised he was no longer in control of himself due to drugs and alcohol, he joined a one month addiction-treatment in The Priory. Hawkins has now been clean and sober for over a year.Fact|date=June 2008

ee also

* Glam Rock
* The Darkness
* Dan Hawkins

Notes

External links

* [http://www.britishwhale.com/ Official Website of "British Whale"]
* [http://myspace.com/britishwhale British Whale] at Myspace
* [http://myspace.com/barbecuerock New Project Myspace]
* [http://www.ascap.com/playback/2007/spring/faces_places/london/justin_hawkins_mp3/stream.html "They Don’t Make 'Em Like They Used To" MP3 - Justin Hawkins and Beverlei Brown's entry into "Making Your Mind Up"]