Photo by Simon Emmett
(SAYREVILLE, NJ) -- This year finds Britain's beloved rock band The Darkness celebrating two decades since they released Permission To Land, the multi-platinum, chart-topping debut album. To celebrate, the band is releasing a special 20th anniversary collection called Permission To Land...Again, due out October 6th on Warner Music and they will be embarking on the global Permission To Land 20 tour. The tour comes to the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville on Saturday, October 21, 2023 at 7:30pm.
Permission To Land…Again will be available in various formats (5LP, 4CD+DVD, 2CD, Digital) and will include the original album plus special content like rare B-sides, unreleased demos, live recordings of their iconic shows at London’s Astoria (2003), Knebworth (2004) and Wembley Arena (2004) and more. Permission To Land was originally released in 2003 and stormed to the top of the UK Albums chart, where it remained for four weeks and spent 53 weeks in the Top 100. It earned The Darkness three BRIT Awards - including Best British Album, Best British Group and Best British Rock Act.
Tickets for the Starland Ballroom show are available for purchase online. The show is open to all ages. Doors open at 6:30pm. Starland Ballroom is located at 570 Jernee Mill Road in Sayreville, New Jersey.
Frontman Justin Hawkins shares, “When Permission to Land landed, twenty short years ago, we were bathed in shock and awe. As if by magic, Rock wasn’t dead! Fun wasn’t banned! And Spandex was almost acceptable again…Well, guess what? Twenty years on, the same rules apply. So please to squeeze yourselves into those inappropriate leggings, back-comb your mullet, splash on a big handful of attitude, and come celebrate with us! We promise everything and we deliver, every time. Bring on the next twenty! The Darkness. The best. For you. Forever.”
Following the release of Permission To Land, the band picked up a series of awards including three BRIT Awards, two Kerrang Awards and an Ivor Novello for ‘Songwriters Of The Year’ amongst many others. They played a number of landmark shows, including a headline set at the 2004 Reading & Leeds Festivals, as part of a whirlwind career of global touring and international success. The band then followed the success of their debut with the 2005 album One Way Ticket To Hell… And Back, which produced the Top 10 hit ‘One Way Ticket’.
However the pressures of fame took their toll and in 2006 lead singer Justin Hawkins left the band, checking into rehab and The Darkness were no more. Yet, like a veritable phoenix rising from the ashes of despair, the band reformed in 2011 touring Europe and South America the following year with Lady Gaga. They released their comeback album Hot Cakes that year and Last Of Our Kind in 2015.
In 2017 the band ushered in a new era with the release of Pinewood Smile and the critically acclaimed record became their third UK Top 10 album. With its successor Easter Is Cancelled (2019) achieving equally great heights there seemed no stopping the band. However, that album’s title proved semi-prophetic and following its release the world plunged into the Covid-19 pandemic.
Undaunted, they released their latest album Motorheart in 2021 which not only received rave reviews but once more catapulted them straight back onto the upper echelons of festival bills such as Download and saw them pack out the arenas around the country with fervent fans hungry for the band’s return to the stage.
2022 saw The Darkness perform incendiary shows around the world while, in tandem with their touring, fabulous frontman Justin was quickly becoming the internet’s favourite rock ‘n’ roll personality with his highly revered Justin Hawkins Rides Again podcast.
The Permission To Land 20 tour promises to be a grand spectacle with the band playing the much-lauded, award-winning, foot-stomping, guitar-wailing, groove-making masterpiece in full. Kicking off with the splendid rifferama of “Black Shuck” they’ll blast their way through all of Permission To Land’s eleven tracks, including “Growing On Me,” “Love Is Only A Feeling,” “Giving Up,” “Love On The Rocks With No Ice,” “Get Your Hands Off My Woman” and of course the iconic “I Believe In A Thing Called Love.” In addition to Permission To Land’s splendid confection of rock brilliance, the band will pump out a bonus “Best Of The Rest” set stuffed to the gills with all the hits and fan favorites from The Darkness’ six subsequent studio albums: One Way Ticket To Hell…and Back, Hot Cakes, Last Of Our Kind, Pinewood Smile, Easter Is Cancelled and Motorheart.
