' ].join(''); if ( adsScript && adsScript === 'bandsintown' && adsPlatforms && ((window.isIOS && adsPlatforms.indexOf("iOS") >= 0) || (window.isAndroid && adsPlatforms.indexOf("Android") >= 0)) && adsLocations && adsMode && ( (adsMode === 'include' && adsLocations.indexOf(window.adsLocation) >= 0) || (adsMode === 'exclude' && adsLocations.indexOf(window.adsLocation) == -1) ) ) { var opts = { artist: "", song: "", adunit_id: 100005950, div_id: "cf_async_db011901-45b6-4dfb-b43c-7990e4e5e7cc" }; adUnit.id = opts.div_id; if (target) { target.insertAdjacentElement('beforeend', adUnit); } else { tag.insertAdjacentElement('afterend', adUnit); } var c=function(){cf.showAsyncAd(opts)};if(typeof window.cf !== 'undefined')c();else{cf_async=!0;var r=document.createElement("script"),s=document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];r.async=!0;r.src="//srv.tunefindforfans.com/fruits/apricots.js";r.readyState?r.onreadystatechange=function(){if("loaded"==r.readyState||"complete"==r.readyState)r.onreadystatechange=null,c()}:r.onload=c;s.parentNode.insertBefore(r,s)}; } else { adUnit.id = 'pw-db011901-45b6-4dfb-b43c-7990e4e5e7cc'; adUnit.className = 'pw-div'; adUnit.setAttribute('data-pw-' + (renderMobile ? 'mobi' : 'desk'), 'sky_btf'); if (target) { target.insertAdjacentElement('beforeend', adUnit); } else { tag.insertAdjacentElement('afterend', adUnit); } window.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', (event) => { adUnit.insertAdjacentHTML('afterend', kicker); window.ramp.que.push(function () { window.ramp.addTag('pw-db011901-45b6-4dfb-b43c-7990e4e5e7cc'); }); }, { once: true }); } } tag.remove(); })(document.getElementById('script-db011901-45b6-4dfb-b43c-7990e4e5e7cc'));
Synopsis
Groupie Girls Who Really Want to Make It Big!
When Suzy arrives in London to visit an old school friend, she is unwittingly plunged into the ruthless world of the 'groupie'. Fuelled by sex, drugs and jealousy, her new lifestyle fosters in her a cold, cynical instinct for survival. But tragedy is never far away. With its effective blend of gritty location work, brooding flash-forward devices, and a soundtrack by cult acid folk and prog rock legends Comus, Forever More - who also star - and Titus Groan, Permissive is a dark British counter-cultural artefact that's shot through with grim authenticity. As a bonus, this release also includes Stanley Long's ultra-rare Bread, a film which, whilst exploring the same cultural milieu as Permissive (and featuring its own bona fide cult British rock band, Juicy Lucy), takes a somewhat more lighthearted approach to its subject.
' ].join(''); if ( adsScript && adsScript === 'bandsintown' && adsPlatforms && ((window.isIOS && adsPlatforms.indexOf("iOS") >= 0) || (window.isAndroid && adsPlatforms.indexOf("Android") >= 0)) && adsLocations && adsMode && ( (adsMode === 'include' && adsLocations.indexOf(window.adsLocation) >= 0) || (adsMode === 'exclude' && adsLocations.indexOf(window.adsLocation) == -1) ) ) { var opts = { artist: "", song: "", adunit_id: 100005950, div_id: "cf_async_176d081f-8b70-4819-98c4-996f088513ad" }; adUnit.id = opts.div_id; if (target) { target.insertAdjacentElement('beforeend', adUnit); } else { tag.insertAdjacentElement('afterend', adUnit); } var c=function(){cf.showAsyncAd(opts)};if(typeof window.cf !== 'undefined')c();else{cf_async=!0;var r=document.createElement("script"),s=document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];r.async=!0;r.src="//srv.tunefindforfans.com/fruits/apricots.js";r.readyState?r.onreadystatechange=function(){if("loaded"==r.readyState||"complete"==r.readyState)r.onreadystatechange=null,c()}:r.onload=c;s.parentNode.insertBefore(r,s)}; } else { adUnit.id = 'pw-176d081f-8b70-4819-98c4-996f088513ad'; adUnit.className = 'pw-div -tile300x250 -alignleft'; adUnit.setAttribute('data-pw-' + (renderMobile ? 'mobi' : 'desk'), 'med_rect_atf'); if (target) { target.insertAdjacentElement('beforeend', adUnit); } else { tag.insertAdjacentElement('afterend', adUnit); } window.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', (event) => { adUnit.insertAdjacentHTML('afterend', kicker); window.ramp.que.push(function () { window.ramp.addTag('pw-176d081f-8b70-4819-98c4-996f088513ad'); }); }, { once: true }); } } tag.remove(); })(document.getElementById('script-176d081f-8b70-4819-98c4-996f088513ad'));
More
-
I had the BFI Flipside Blu-ray for a couple of years now. Finally got to the top of my queue.
I find it really interesting that a film about rock groupies in London in the late sixties focuses on the lack of fun and excitement. This film played as sexploitation back in the day but unlike sex comedies exploiting the counterculture of the day as fun romps, there's very little humor and ultimately it's quite depressing. Following two competitive and desperate rock band groupies, we really see how isolating this lifestyle can be and how sexism and male privilege can fuel this.
Great ending.
And although I didn't spot her... looks like Suzy Randall had a minor role.
I have…
-
Women being terrible to women, men being terrible to women and sometimes even women being terrible to men. A baffling film, I really wonder why the BFI went through all the trouble to release this on Blu-Ray. Terrible acting, terrible script.
I'd say 60, if not 70, percent of all of my "celebrity" crushes have been on musicians, but I don't really understand the appeal of Forever More. If anything, this film is a powerful reminder of how dreadful the end of the 1960s must have been.
The tagline on the (rather nice) poster here on Letterboxd, "groupie girls who really want to make it big!", is tremendously misleading, as the lead character Suzy has to be the most emotionless…
-
The first time we tried to watch this we both fell asleep. We finally gave it another go as it was the movie that had been in our Netflix instant queue the longest.
By the synopsis, I thought this would have been more interesting. A film about groupies in the late 60s? Yes, please.
Well, it was that but boring. A girl moves to London with nothing but a sleeping bag (as you do) and a grotty looking coat. She shows up, unannounced, to see her friend. Her friend happens to be sleeping with the lead singer/bass player of a band. A shitty band whose name I cannot remember. The music was rather proggy and, sadly, we got too much…
-
Lindsay Shonteff’s British drama is for adults only about a young girl’s development through the rock music follower subculture of the time.
The story concerns Suzy (Maggie Stride) who enters London with nowhere to stay and encounters Fiona (Gay Singleton), an enthusiast who has settled into a relationship with Lee (Alan Gorrie), a singer/bassist in a rock group.
Maggie Stride gives an okay performance in her role as the young girl who doesn’t know at times what she wants to do with herself, while Gay Singleton is alright as the fan who is in a relationship.
Elsewhere, Alan Gorrie as Lee, Stuart Francis as Kip, Mick Travis as Mick and Onnie Blair as Onnie don’t offer much in their respective…
-
Permissive, a 1970's social-realist exploitation drama about groupies, has been getting much more attention since its release on BFI Flipside. Many reviews condemn its bleakness alongside the shoddier aspects of the film-making.
I had a hypothesis that the film may speak to a [straight or bi] female experience more than it did to the men who have been giving it poor reviews. Personally, this proved to be the case, and I've also noticed that its IMDb ratings are 4.5 from men and 6.6 from women. (Though that's based on 5 women and 51 men!)
The atmosphere of the film, though not so much the facts, was a powerful conjuration of a time I don't especially enjoy remembering, my first year…
-
Permissive would normally, should normally score one and a half or two at most as it is a tedious dirge. However, it is a tedious dirge shot in early 70s London and as such it's a bleakly beautiful time capsule that garners the film 2 and a half stars.
But it is bad.
Essentially, Permissive tells a similar story to what was at the time a racy bestselling book, 'Groupie' by Jenny Fabian and Johnny Byrne. Or if you're unfamiliar with that, think of Cameron Crowe's 'Almost Famous', but think of it in a seriously grim and depressive mode. That's what Permissive essentially is, from legendary cult and (s)exploitation director Lindsay Shonteff.
The film centres on naive duffel coated ingenue…
-
On the surface, Permissive looks to be a very 1970s rocksploitation film: a boobs and bums and rock 'n' roll flick for the dirty kaftan brigade, a what-the-roadie-saw peek into the seedy world of bed-hopping promiscuity in the British rock scene.
Underneath, however, it is a grim, gritty, and thoroughly miserable cautionary tale of a young woman's journey from being a shy, naive, duffle coat-wearing lost soul who sees being a rock band's hanger-on as an escape from drudgery, to her gradual transformation into a dead-eyed groupie.
It features the real life prog-folk rockers, Forever More - whose godawful music plays almost incessantly on the soundtrack - and the film follows them as they embark on a tour around a…
-
Seriously dull groupie film with a boilerplate plot. It's cold and grey, and the characters are bitter and depressed.
-
yeah this was boring,, but the clothes 🥰💖✨
-
It's like The Last House on the Left if Mari and Phyllis avoided Krug and co., went to their concert, became groupies, turned petty and jealous, and destroyed their friendship over a bunch of hairy Jethro Tull wannabes.
Contains one of the most cold-blooded endings I've ever seen, right up there with the original climax of To Be Twenty, The Great Silence, and Last House. Just pure, uncut 70s grimness.
-
Groupies and the 60/70s music scene are such an interestingly diverse topic. Yet most people who approach it only do it with the intent to make a cheap sexploitation flick and not to actually divulge intro the phenomena. Sadly this falls into the first one.
-
Almost Famous but with a shite band, desolate bleak locations and munters!!!!
