Permission To Land...Again

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Alongside the tour, there will also be a very special expanded ‘Permission To Land’ deluxe album release coming later this year via Warner Music, with full details to be revealed soon. The Darkness’ ‘Permission to Land’ 20th anniversary UK & Ireland tour dates: Commenting on the shows, The Darkness’ frontman Justin Hawkins says, “We, The Darkness, are delighted to announce that we’ll be hitting the road in the UK once again. Alongside the world tour, The Darkness will be unleashing an expanded deluxe edition of ‘Permission to Land’ via Warner Music later this year. The Darkness’ ‘Permission to Land’ tour dates:

Footage of the Knebworth and Astoria shows are captured on the DVD, as well as the music videos for their hit singles including ‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love’, ‘Get Your Hands Off My Woman’, ‘Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End)’ and more. There is also a ‘History Of The Darkness’ documentary plus various behind the scenes footage and outtakes from the Permission To Land era…Of the three separate live recordings compiled on Permission To Land… Again, supporting Robbie Williams on his huge summer 2003 shows at Knebworth, a high-intensity Astoria show and a triumphant Wembley headline set, it’s the first that makes the most interesting listening. Here, the band are heard playing to a crowd of 100,000, few of whom one assumes were actually there to see them, and in real time you can hear Justin Hawkins winning over vast swathes of them. Towards the end he asks outright who amongst them has been converted, receiving a great roar in response. “Everybody else, repeat after me,” he declares. “’I. AM. WRONG.’” It's one of those songs where I was thinking it was a bit lighter and a bit poppier than most of the record. And one of the things I wanted to try was a list, because I think pop songs often have lists in. Like, ‘Monday, did this, Tuesday, did that’, or counting numbers, and I was keen to explore those kinds of devices. So I thought about all the stuff that I used to do when I was at school, and I tried to make it into a love song as well. But it’s an unrequited love song. There's a bloke chasing a girl around, doing everything she does, but all of his efforts fall on deaf eyes. That's it: deaf eyes.” It’s a frustrated song about what it feels like when you’re in a relationship with somebody you're not supposed to be in a relationship with. I wrote a couple of songs like that—when you’re not allowed to show any affection to this person and do the things that you would normally territorially do, to sort of ward off unwanted gazes and so on. When it’s an illicit affair, you can't do that. So you’ve got to watch all these people circling, literally waiting for permission to land, which is why the album’s called that. I always thought the melody was a bit Kate Bush-y.”

And when the Darkness did play it straight, the result could be incandescent. The deathless single “I Believe in a Thing Called Love”—which debuted at No. 2 in the UK—pairs a crunchy AOR riff with a half-yodeled chorus straight out of “ Focus.” There are two couplets masquerading as verses; everything’s a race to the giddy nonsense of the refrain. When the trash can ending hits, it’s as if the song is taking its own bow. The nostalgic late- Kinks power-pop of “Friday Night” was an academic exercise—“Lyrically, I realized people liked songs with lists in,” Justin Hawkins recalled in 2013—contrasting the titular dance night with a list of extracurriculars (“I got ping-pong on Wednesday/Needlework on Thursday”) that would exhaust Max Fischer. The final result is touching rather than rote, even when, right before the solo, Hawkins purrs like a tiger. We’ll also play all of your favourite Darkness songs from the rest of our illustrious and tipsy turvy career. It will be the best show you’ll see this year. I should know, I’m the singer and also a YouTube music expert.” When we were writing these songs in 2001, 2002, we had nothing,” Hawkins tells Apple Music. “And we knew that what we were doing was hopelessly unfashionable. But I think the idea was just to make some music that was reminiscent of the stuff that we enjoyed when we were learning our instruments and growing up—and the stuff that our dads showed us. And I think the only objective, really, was to not give up.” The Darkness have announced a 20th anniversary edition of their hit debut album, Permission to Land. The expanded version of the 2003 LP has been dubbed Permission to Land… Again, and will arrive on October 6th via Warner Music.There will also be a very special expanded Permission To Land deluxe album release coming later this year via Warner Music, with further details to be revealed soon.