It's great to be back playing at our home town.

Eastern Daily Press: Lowestoft band The Darkness in concert in their home town.Lowestoft band The Darkness in concert in their home town. (Image: ©archant2013)

That was the message from Lowestoft glam rock band The Darkness as they performed at a new venue in their home town which is set to attract further top acts.

The Darkness played in front of more than 800 fans at the Aquarium at Claremont Pier on Wednesday night for the first of two sold out shows.

Wednesday's and last nights gigs are the last of the band's UK tour, which also took in the University of East Anglia this week.

And as Justin Hawkins, his brother Dan, Ed Graham and Frankie Poullain took to the stage they achieved the honour of the first group to perform at the £250,000 Aquarium.

Before the two gigs the Darkness released a statement which said: 'It's great to be back .This is a real moment for us. We always wanted to play in Lowestoft and to be playing at the pier is something we never thought would happen. 'We think its brilliant that someone has finally made such an investment into live music in Lowestoft, and the fish and chips aren't too bad either

'After these two Lowestoft shows we will be breaking for Christmas after two and half years of touring and next year we will be making a new album. We will be writing and arranging once again at Cafe Studios (in Lowestoft's Whapload Road) and hope to road test some of the new material in Lowestoft.

'Thanks for all the support of our amazing East Anglian fans over the years - to sell more than 3500 tickets for our East Anglian shows in a matter of days is something we don't take for granted.'

The Aquarium and pier is owned David Scott who will be bringing other top acts to the pier next year, such as Jamaican music legend Lee 'Scratch' Perry, Top Loader and Big Country.

Mr Scott said: 'The whole of Lowestoft is excited The Darkness are coming home here. The tickets sold out in 20 minutes.

'It is fantastic to have them here as our opening band, and there will be many more bands to come.'

Harry Zimm, music promotor for the Aquarium, said: 'It is amazing to have The Darkness here and I know they are very excited to be here.'

This year mark's the 10th anniversary of The Darkness hitting the big time with the releases of their debut album, Permission to Land, which included the hit single I Believe in a Thing Called Love and sold more than 1.3m copies.

Earlier this month the band released the single The Horn which was backed with a new recording of their Christmas single Christmas Time, (Don't Let The Bells End) which features the Seagull Theatre Train Children's Choir.