Ananova:

The Darkness have slammed Radiohead - their main rivals at this year's Brit Awards - by calling them boring.

Guitarist Dan Hawkins told Netzeitung that Radiohead couldn't hold up to the stage antics of his brother Justin.

He said: "Most of these modern bands are so unbearably serious they leave me cold. Radiohead are totally boring.

"The world needs a showman like Justin who puts on his monkey outfit and entertains people. I haven't bought anything by these modern bands in a while. They're all wet rags."

Hawkins added: "Bands like Radiohead are great for our business, of course, because there's been a total Radiohead-isation of the British music scene. Coldplay, Turin Brakes, Starsailor - all of these groups have put together their selection from the Radiohead menu."

Hawkins says he learned to play the Darkness's special brand of retro-rock by practising to the old masters: "I always played along and practised to my favourite bands. Again and again and again. For years. Always. I didn't have a girlfriend for a long time, you know."

Dan Hawkins also revealed that his parents took out a mortgage on the family house to help finance their first album, but the condition was "no sex".

He added: "We're good boys, really. That's the big difference between us and the bands from the seventies. The condition for getting a loan from our parents was: "No drugs, no orgies, no casual sex." Well, once we've paid off our debts we'll have some catching up to do."

According to Hawkins, he and his brother's band is just what the music world needs right now: "The world needs people like us. And we're ready."

And he dismissed early criticism from NME magazine, saying: "NME criticised us when we weren't successful. Now we're the biggest band in England and these s***s are making fools of themselves by trying to kiss our behinds."