9. The Darkness One Way Ticket To Hell...And Back
Total Cost: £1,000,000 (Approx $1,400,000) Following the success of their debut studio album Permission To Land (which spawned singles like I Believe In A Thing Called Love, Growing On Me and Love Is Only A Feeling, and was certified Platinum in several territories around the world), the band's follow-up One Way Ticket To Hell...And Back was highly anticipated. Unfortunately for The Darkness, the recording process didn't exactly run smoothly. The sheer complexity of the music began to cause problems, coupled with Justin Hawkins' penchant for perfectionism. Some of the record's songs consisted of over one-hundred different guitar parts each, with some of these parts appearing for only a few seconds. The band hired prolific producer Roy Thomas Baker, who managed to reduce almost forty songs to just ten after a year of recording. During this time the band's bassist Frankie Poullain left over musical differences, causing turmoil amongst fans who were very fond of Frankie and increasing pressure in the studio. In the end One Way Ticket To Hell cost over one million pounds to make and failed to live up to the sales of Permisison To Land, making it one of the most expensive rock albums ever made.
Brian Wilson
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Commonly found reading, sitting firmly in a seat at the cinema (bottle of water and a Freddo bar, please) or listening to the Mountain Goats.
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