22 September, 2003.

You know, almost twenty years after its release, I’m still not entirely convinced that his wasn’t a novelty record. A glorious piss-take of the whole glam rock scene that got out of hand. Regardless, I was wrong to dismiss it so readily at the time.

According to The Darkness guitarist Dan Hawkins, the writing process was a collaborative effort involving the whole band, a lot of alcohol, some class B intoxicants and a top floor flat in Primrose Hill, London. The intention, apparently, was to come up with the most ’80s sounding song that they could but even at the time, the band believed that it sounded ridiculous. They even debated whether to perform the song live but eventually decided to do so…and discovered that the fans loved it!

On its release the song gave them a global hit, reaching the top ten in eight countries, including number one in Canada and number nine in the US. Here in the UK it spent eleven weeks on the chart and peaked at number two.