Justin Hawkins says he's “proud” of the six years he spent in his former band, The Darkness.

The singer, who now fronts the group Hot Leg, left the band in 2006 in order to tackle his problems with drugs and alcohol.

Speaking to the BBC about his former band, Hawkins said: “It’s not the sort of thing you can turn around and pretend didn’t happen and I’m actually quite proud of the work that we did – not all of the work we did.

“When I think of what we achieved in a year, we went from opening Glastonbury to headlining Reading and I don’t know if many people can say that really.”

Hot Leg will play their debut show at London's Proud Gallery later (August 6th). The band will also play intimate shows in Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow this week.

(by Jason Gregory)