This is a band that has built up quite a reputation in the past year or two – with both the
music press and potential record labels alike. Touted as one of Manchester's best current
live bands, The Permissive Society are a cross between Led Zeppelin, Pearl Jam and riffing
hair metal bands – and I personally found it difficult to see the attraction.
The best track on this demo is E.P., and it sticks out like a sore thumb from the other two.
Its sweetly picked acoustic guitar provides the perfect backdrop for the vocal gymnastics of singer
Sean Gregson, creating a dark, brooding track similar in spirit to Led Zep's 'Stairway To Heaven'.
In their biography, The Permissive Society claim that they can't 'tolerate' any album made in the
last ten years, and by 'eck does it show. The other two tracks Fighting Crime, Protecting People
and Lazy I can be marked quite confidently with the influences mentioned earlier – Pearl
Jam vocals, Led Zep riffs, 1980s soloing and tapping – and whilst that is clearly enough to have
earned them a burgeoning reputation it does mark them out to me as possible one-trick-ponies.
However, one particular point seems to crop up again and again when reading about the band – they
seem to have much trouble in translating their live performances (which are, apparently, great) onto
their records (which, frankly, aren't). I didn't think that this demo was all that good, but for the
moment I'm reserving judgement.
