Hawkins tackles Bluegrass and Reggae

Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins is planning to shock fans with his first ever solo album - by taking a radical new musical direction.

While fans of the glam rockers are anxiously anticipating the band's second album, Hawkins is already giving them a taster of his solo material - which won't be released until after The Darkness' next LP.

Hawkins says of his work, much of which was written before The Darkness debut album Permission To Land: "Some of it's arranged in more of a Motown style and there's lots of different approaches, toying with some bluegrass and reggae, things like that.

"I'm just climbing right up my own a**e. I haven't had an opportunity to do that for some time now, so it's really fun."