HEAVY MUSIC HISTORY: Permission To Land – The Darkness

Cast your mind back to… February of this year. No, we’ve not arbitrarily changed the parameters of Heavy Music History but think back to our review of BLACK STONE CHERRY’s show at London’s OVO Arena. The one with THE DARKNESS co-headlining. With us now? Excellent. Within that review came the command to “intensify” the bounce within one iconic song from THE DARKNESS. The track which, to many, started it all. Yes, I Believe In A Thing Called Love is still a banger but its encapsulating album is why we’re here today. Gather the bunting as we celebrate 20 years of Permission To Land.

Released on July 7 2003, many would think THE DARKNESS came like a bolt out of the blue. Though this wasn’t the case. The band formed in 2000 in the Suffolk seaside town of Lowestoft. The three years in between consisted of crafting material and playing live shows wherever the band could get booked. To the point they had managed to book a gig at the London Astoria before they had even signed a record deal. We made the same impressed facial expression.

You would think record labels would be clamouring over each other to sign this hot new band. It wasn’t to be. The reception couldn’t have been more lukewarm. THE DARKNESS were simply not seen as cool in the early 2000s. In the era of nu-metal and alternative rock, it may not have been the right time for a somewhat glam metal revival. Though influences such as QUEEN and AC/DC are timeless for many. All was not lost as Sony Music UK and Atlantic Records approached the band in time. Opting to go with the latter, THE DARKNESS set to work on Permission To Land.

A strange incident would occur during the recording process. THE DARKNESS had been hired to open for DISTURBED at their show in Brixton Academy on December 1 2002. According to Justin Hawkins (vocals), many fans of DISTURBED would launch projectiles at the band for the stark contrast between the two bands’ material. DISTURBED’s David Draiman would later criticise the band for how they handled the situation which Hawkins detailed in a video on his YouTube channel, Justin Hawkins Rides Again, in 2022. Recounting the experience, Hawkins would say; “Somebody threw a piece of chewing gum, which had presumably been in their mouth, and it landed directly in my mouth as I was singing.”. Draiman would react adversely to this. Mud would be slung between the two parties over the years with Draiman stating to Metal Edge in their May 2004 issue; “To be perfectly honest with you, I think that THE DARKNESS is a joke, and that’s, unfortunately, exactly what the world wants”. Upon seeing Hawkins’ depiction of the situation, Draiman would take to Twitter on July 14 and state: “There’s a lot of things I regret saying in the past, and this is one of them. It’s been 20 years. I think we’re both old enough to have a pint at some point and laugh about it.”

Pint in hand, shall we get back to the reason we’re here? Permission To Land’s material would draw inspiration from the band’s hometown of Lowestoft. Hugely popular Black Shuck is based on the legend of a dog which haunts Blythburgh’s church which Stuck In A Rut would reference a network of roads in the area. So this wasn’t a band looking to leave their roots behind. Yet no one could have predicted THE DARKNESS’ stupendous rise to mainstream popularity. I Believe In A Thing Called Love would be released in September 2003 and became nigh on impossible to escape. While Get Your Hands Off Of My Woman and Growing On Me would experience decent radio rotation, I Believe In A Thing Called Love would be on significantly heavier rotation with radio, music channels, sporting events… it was everywhere. Chart topping though? Not quite. Though number two is incredibly reputable and it would become the UK’s second highest selling single of the year. A disgraced Welsh band we won’t name would take the top spot with Last Train Home.

What of the album itself? How did that perform? It too would take second position in its respective chart and go on to sell approximately 1.5 million copies in the UK alone. At time of writing, Permission To Land is four times Platinum status on our island. The band would win the 2004 BRIT Award for Best Album and Best Rock Album at the 2003 Kerrang! Awards. Later, Metal Hammer would rank the album 63rd in their 100 Greatest Albums Of The 21st Century which was published in issue 286 in the summer of 2016. At the time, their success earned them a slot on METALLICA’s Summer Sanitarium Tour in Europe as well as performing with the likes of MUSE.

Critically, it performed incredibly well also. Aside from Stylus Magazine branding it “a dismal failure”. AllMusic would say Permission To Land was “surprisingly good” despite it not being “as metal as its singles suggest”. Further reserved positivity would come from Q Magazine who would state in their August 2003 issue, THE DARKNESS “might have a shelf life shorter than a pint of milk but, with a good tune underpinning each over-egged slice of rock pudding, are all the more thrilling for it”. Meanwhile Tim Wild of NME would conclude; “It’s bovine, utterly backward-looking and will probably be nothing more than an amusing footnote in musical history, but so what?”

Well… this is awkward isn’t it? THE DARKNESS have become so much more than an amusing footnote though their growing success will be the subject of future Heavy Music History content. In terms of the album, a 20th anniversary edition which includes a plethora of bonus material is due to drop on October 6 of this year. As is the issue of the long awaited vinyl drop after the original pressing would go out of print in 2003. If this wasn’t enough, the band are due to go on tour to celebrate Permission To Land towards the end of the year to phenomenal demand.

Permission To Land came in like a breath of fresh air during a time where dour music ruled the radio waves. It allowed people to embrace that not everything is so serious. We are allowed to experience unbridled joy within our music and THE DARKNESS were at the forefront of this movement. To this day, THE DARKNESS is much more than a flash in the pan or a joke band. They may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but they are some people’s shot of Tequila Rose and are happily consumed by the bottle.

Permission To Land was originally released on July 7 2003 via Atlantic Records.

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