ROCK band The Darkness put other groups in the shade as they took Best Album and Best Live Act at last night's Kerrang! Awards.The band, from Lowestoft, opened the ceremony with their new single, due out next month, I Believe In A Thing Called Love.

ROCK band The Darkness put other groups in the shade as they took Best Album and Best Live Act at last night's Kerrang! Awards.

The band, from Lowestoft, opened the ceremony with their new single, due out next month, I Believe In A Thing Called Love.

More than 500 Kerrang! readers were at the awards show, at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London.

Fireworks lit the stage as lead singer Justin Hawkins, who in the past has worn a catsuit made from fans' underwear, strutted his stuff in a white see through unbuttoned shirt and tight white trousers.

But Jaz Coleman, of Killing Joe, did not seem too impressed as he booed and made hand gestures.

The group, which recently supported Robbie Williams at Knebworth, took home the Best Album Award for Permission To Land which hit the charts at number two in July and is in its sixth week in the top 10.

Picking up the award, Hawkins said: "I want to thank my producers who went above and beyond the call of duty and the Darklings and everybody who reads Kerrang! because you guys know about music."

The rockers were the only band to win two awards and narrowly missed out on a hat trick as Welsh group Funeral For A Friend tipped them to the title of Best British Newcomer,

Exerts from the awards ceremony will be broadcast on C4 on Saturday August 30 at 12.45am.