Love this album and I’m super excited for this. All the B-Sides were great too, and the live material from this era was killer.

The announcement of the reissue comes nearly 20 years to the day that Permission to Land was released (July 7th, 2003). Permission to Land… Again will be available in a 5-LP version and a 4-CD/DVD edition. The album has been out of print on vinyl since its original pressing. This is about living in a small town but leaving to adventure elsewhere in a van. There’s two roads out of Lowestoft, the town where we grew up. One of them is called Barnby Bends, and, as you’d imagine, a lot of people wipe out. The other is completely straight, but then people try to overtake agricultural vehicles coming out of the field and get wiped out by that. So getting out of that town in a hurry is actually pretty difficult to do with your life and body intact. It’s a bit like ‘Hotel California’, really. Perhaps I shouldn’t mention that because we’ll all get sued.” 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.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.’” 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. 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. 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…

Today the band are delighted to announce 13 European dates on the Permission To Land 20 tour, with many more jaw-dropping, show-stopping concerts around the world to be revealed shortly. The shows promise to be a grand spectacle with the band playing the foot-stomping, guitar-wailing, groove-making masterpiece album in full, alongside a ‘Best Of The Rest’ set, stuffed to the gills with all the hits and fan favourites from their six subsequent studio albums. 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. The Darkness have announced the European leg of their planned 20th anniversary Permission To Land tour. The reissue will be available in a range of formats. The 4xCD+DVD deluxe reissue will feature rare B-sides, previously unreleased demos, and live albums from three of the Darkness’ early 2000s London shows: one at the Astoria in 2003, one at Knebworth Park in support of Robbie Williams in 2003, and a 2004 Wembley Arena concert. The DVD portion of Permission to Land… Again will include footage of the Knebworth and Astoria shows, a History of the Darkness documentary, music videos, and behind-the-scenes footage from the years surrounding Permission to Land’s release.

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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: The Darkness announce Permission To Land… Again; a special 20 th Anniversary reissue collection, to be released on October 6 th 2023 via Warner Music on a 2CD. 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.” 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.