After my first two defining albums this, my third and final choice may come as a  surprise to some readers but there is a very specific reason why this album is here.

You see, as with many other people perhaps, The Darkness saved my rock soul during a period where I had drifted from the scene and was left cold by the bulk of new music doing the rounds. I had lost my sense of fun and was barely going to any gigs or buying any new albums. My metal mojo had almost gone. Seeing The Darkness as a small, unsigned band they threw such energy and verve into their live performances that they instantly caught my attention. However it was the release of their debut album “Permission To Land” that finally re-ignited the slumbering long haired, hard drinking rock dude that was hiding in the suited and booted frame working in corporate dullsville.

The sheer exuberance displayed by the Hawkins brothers and their cohorts was so very infectious that pretty quickly “Permission” became a permanent fixture in the CD player. I figured that if one new band could be this good then there could be others out there as well. With that in mind I started hitting gigs again and buying albums from new up and coming bands. I was back being me again, and that was solely down to The Darkness.

Permission To Land is by no means one of the best albums of all time, but that isn't the point. It has a lot of shortcomings if truth be told but, as a lapsed aficionado of rock, it saved me and for that Permission To Land deserves its place in my list of most influential album. Four years on I can still appreciate the brilliant daftness of it all and even though The Darkness are no more they left their mark on a generation with a glorious album that put the fun back into rock.

Let us know your views on Permission To Land

Track Listing

Black Shuck
Get Your Hands Off MY Woman
Growing On Me
I Believe In A Thing Called Love
Love Is Only A Feeling
Givin’ Up
Stuck In A Rut
Friday Night
Love on The Rocks With No Ice
Holding My Own

Line Up

Ed Graham - Drums
Dan Hawkins - Guitars
Justin Hawkins - Vocals/Guitars
Frankie Poullain - Bass