NO-ONE needed extra proof of their current, concrete position at the top of rock's tree.

But The Darkness delivered it anyway, in probably the Leeds Festival's ritziest, glitziest ever headline performance.

The rise and rise of ex-Huddersfield Technical College student Justin Hawkins and his band has been truly jaw-dropping.

It was this time last year that they first really started to capture the imagination of the nation, bagging a teatime slot at the Bramham Park event.

This time, they were Saturday's main attraction with a pomp-packed 90-minute show - complete with the sort of glitter and fireworks not seen since the Millennium.

Justin, whose schedule of costume changes rivalled that of an average Madonna concert, still has the air of someone who can't quite believe it's all happening.

When he chit-chats between songs he's the ordinary nerdy guy who taped every episode of Red Dwarf, and spent his 80s youth obsessing about the metal section of The Chart Show.

But he can persuade thousands of highly-discerning musos to gamely hold their cigarette lighters in the air for a power ballad.

And obediently clap their hands above their heads to a silly song about lice.

Or mimic his girly falsetto on command.

Just how, or why, is irrelevant.

In Justin's mind it's Live Aid in 1985, and he is indeed Freddie Mercury.

Only the "repeat after me" bit continues, on and off, through the whole show.

Crunch time now for The Darkness will come with their second album. Can it possibly live up to their debut, Permission To Land?

The signs are promising as the band showcased a whole raft of new stuff.

There are one or two moodly, mock- mystical moments but in general it's chunky out-on-the-highway rock that would sound just right in a trucker's cab.

"We won't be getting proper jobs any time soon!" says Justin, triumphantly. And he's probably right.