THE DARKNESS have streamed their track Hammer And Tongs from fourth album Last Of Our Kind.

The follow-up to 2012’s Hot Cakes was recorded with drummer Emily Dolan Davies – who left the band just as promotional activities began. She’s been replaced by Rufus Taylor, son of Queen sticksman Roger.

Frontman Justin Hawkins tells British Classic Rock magazine: “We’re all disappointed, including her. We think she’s great and a really nice person, and we really liked what she’d done on the album.

“But everything was leading up to agreeing personal terms, as they say in sport, and I think she wants to do a lot of other things besides The Darkness. Nothing serious and not much of an argument. We couldn’t accede to her requests and she couldn’t accede to ours. She’s got a whole network of friends and things she wants to do that are very different to ours, really.”

He adds: “I think it’s quite a different experience to being a session player, when things are actually organised and, dare I say it, professional. God knows we’ve been through worse.”