THE DARKNESS CELEBRATE 20 YEARS OF THEIR DEBUT ALBUM “PERMISSION TO LAND” AT NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE’S O2 CITY HALL

★★★★★ (5/5)

THE DARKNESS LIVE ON STAGE
PHOTOCREDIT: CALUM BUCHAN

I know it may be hard to believe and it’s probably going to make some of you feel a bit old, but it’s 20 years since The Darkness released Permission To Land, their debut LP and the beginning of their mission to make spandex acceptable again. The album itself was a massive success for them and spawned a massive hit in I Believe In A Thing Called Love. Without that album we wouldn’t have had one of the great all-time cheesy Christmas songs as well, very topical for this time of year.

The tour itself has seen the band play dates across Europe and a very large number of UK venues, proving that their rock revival is still highly popular and fills a need, of the crowd were anything to go by they would love this to be a yearly event!

The show itself was a massive tribute to that debut album, playing it in its entirety with a few of the best of the rest from subsequent album also thrown in. Playing a beloved album in full has become standard practice for many bands in recent years and The Darkness did it full justice.

Justin still has the swagger and stage presence with the willingness to do the high kicks and jumps which were always a staple of his act. The band are as tight and full on as ever and, as is usually the case when seeing this band live, the whole show was a brilliant rock and roll experience.

Having the stage done up to look like a landing strip as per the front cover of the album was a nice touch, what was an even nicer touch was part of the way through the opening, Black Shuck, with its instantly recognisable guitar riff Justin made it clear he wanted some of the audience to stop filming on this phones and just enjoy the music, which they did. Great to see as I’ve been to too many gigs recently where some people seem to spend the entire show filing and not actually enjoying the gig.

Throughout the show the whole band entertained, they played brilliantly, Justin still has his full vocal range, there was plenty of crowd interaction and at one stage Justin was in the audience on someone’s shoulders with a guitar. What more do you want from a rock band?

All in all a brilliant show from a brilliant live band who were clearly enjoying themselves, Weeven got a rendition of the aforementioned cheesy Christmas song, I suppose it is the right time of year for it! There are a few shows left, if you can get a ticket you need to go!