Product Description

This is one man's guide to begging for sex, smuggling drugs and pretending to be rock 'n' roll...The one time pirate bass warrior of cock rockers, The Darkness; offers an illustrated alternative self-help book based on the philosophy of disaster: 'How To Be A Bass Player With No Sense Of Rhythm', 'How To Be A Tour Guide With No Sense Of Direction', 'How To Get Into The Closet', 'How To Go From Chateau To Shit-hole', and so on. Just take up what you are worst at, hold on tight, and enjoy the ride!In this off-beat, hilarious, hare-brained manual on fame, fortune and the universe, Frankie offers a unique slant on the bigger questions in life in an attempt to help readers (and himself) arrive at a greater understanding of the world through the excesses of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. Thanks to a revolutionary process called the 'Mind Sweeper', devised by his Polish cleaner, he is able to make sense of his life before, during and after 'that band' he played in...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #119453 in Books
• Published on: 2008-11-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 196 pages

Customer Reviews

A fantastic read. Everyone should have a copy.
Everyone should read Frankie's book. I read it from cover to cover and was left with a warm glow of contentment as well as enlightenment by the end. What a lovely, intelligent, honest, fun person Frankie is.

Frankie Poullain - Dancing in the Darkness
Dancing in the Darkness

'Dancing in the Darkness' is an engrossing autobiography that often finds itself at odds with the established shibboleths of writing such a work. Frankie Poullain, aided by his Polish Cleaner-cum-therapist, sets out to write a self-help book drawing from his experiences and mistakes.

What you get is a refreshingly honest, warm, self-depticating, quirky and humorous jaunt through Poullain's unconventional first 41 years, predictably with mouth-aghast tales of rock'n'roll excess, and less so the truths and philosophies conveyed, often apologetically, that elevate it above most accounts of its kind. The chapter 'How To Lose Sight of Yourself' in particular is moving in its wisdom.

As well as possessing insight, sharpened by the awkwardness the author undoubtedly feels, he is able to spectate when others are consumed, hitch along for the ride rather than be the driver (unless popping to the shop for an Indian takeaway). Frankie is perfectly placed to analyse the trappings and pitfalls of being in a multi-platinum shifting International rock outfit, always as an outsider; the force behind the book somehow manages to be centrafugal and centrapetal at the same time.

Poullain has a keen sense of the absurd, complimented by the many illustrations that accompany the text, and he himself is only too aware of the absurdity of a bookish and sentitive type like himself ending up in a band like the Darkness. The book is therefore deliberately littered with contradictions and oxymorons.

The meteoric rise and equally seismic collapse of Britain's biggest band circa 2003 was always going to be a good story, but in Poullain's hands it becomes a quite different beast to maybe the one you expected. If there's a criticism,'Dancing in the Darkness' is too short, though it does mean there's less time to spend worrying if there's going to be a happy ending or not.

Out Of The Darkness And Into The Light
As I write this review in the gloom and cold of a November day in England, I am still able to remember what it was like in a time not long past where there was oh so fleeting joy, excitement and a reason to think there was a hope for the future. The reason for this positivity, the light that came to wipe away the greyness and misery was THE DARKNESS.

I remember it well. Stood there in the third row, left shoulder literally cooking in the sun that shone over Knebworth that summers day in 2003 (I still have a big patch of freckles to show for it too!), refusing to give up my prime spot to find my friends who were in possession of the much-needed sunblock, simply because I HAD to see this truly amazing band who I'd seen a video of only the day before. On that day as Justin, Dan, Ed and the glorious tache-bearing legend that was, and still is, Frankie Poullain, showed the throng exactly what The Darkness had to offer this otherwise miserable world you were just left with a euphoric feeling that this was the future, that anything was possible and that it would be that way forever now that they had arrived.

Of course such things are but folly to think and a mere 18 months later on a December night at Wembley Arena I could just sense that something was amiss and that it was all about to come crashing down around us...and I wasn't wrong. Frankie soon departed and the band took the title of their second album a little too literally...taking a one way ticket to 'hell' (they just forgot the 'and back' bit as they decided to disband).

The world became dark and gloomy once more....

'Dancing In The Darkness' by the aforementioned tache-bearing legend that was, and still is, Frankie Poullain not only gives you the pre-Darkness history of the bass-playing man of mystery - and what a fascinating history that is, let me tell you! - but also an insight into what it was like to be at the heart of the rock phenomena that was The Darkness!

As if that weren't enough it's also a book that makes you really stop and think...it is, after all, intended as a self-help guide. As you work your way through each chapter, unravelling each little nugget of wisdom it has to offer, you can just start to sense that light, that euphoric feeling that came with the arrival of The Darkness coming out of each page and that's when you realise it never left...we just forgot that little bits of it had been passed into each and every one of us and it's down to us to get that light out there.

All that plus fine illustrations from the Polish Cleaner to boot!

This book is a MUST for any Darkness fans, Rock Music fans, Polish Cleaner fans, Bass-Playing fans, Moustache Fans....in fact any fan of anything EVER!

This book would make the best gift for someone for the holiday season
but just remember, this book is for life and not just for Xmas!'