Permissive (film)
Introduction '''''Permissive''''' is a 1970 British exploitation drama film directed by Lindsay Shonteff and starring Maggie Stride, Gay Singleton and Gilbert Wynne. It was written by Jeremy Craig Dryden, and depicts a young girl's progress through the rock music groupie subculture of the time.
Plot Suzy arrives in London with nowhere to stay. She meets a friend, Fiona, a  groupie who has settled into a relationship with Lee, bass player and singer with the band Forever More. At first Suzy is just one of many girls who follow the groups and make themselves sexually available to musicians and their hangers-on (a type represented by Forever More's road manager Jimmy). When the band go on tour she is left behind. For some time she lives on the streets with Pogo, a gentle hippie drifter who is eventually killed in a road accident.After the accident Suzy meets Fiona again. She becomes accepted as part of Forever More's entourage, and develops the glamorous style and hard attitude of an experienced  groupie. She makes a play for Lee and ousts Fiona from her status as his 'old lady.' In the final scene, the band are about to leave their hotel when Suzy finds Fiona in the bathroom with her wrists slashed. She walks out, abandoning her former friend.
Cast * Maggie Stride as Suzy* Gay Singleton as Fiona* Gilbert Wynne as Jimi* Alan Gorrie as Lee, Forever More* Stuart Francis as Kip, Forever More* Mick Travis as Mick, Forever More* Onnie Mair as Onnie, Forever More* Debbie Bowen as Lacy* Robert D'Aubigny as Pogo* Titus Groan as themselves* Stuart Cowell as Nick, Titus Groan* Nicola Austine as Coral* Nicole Yearne as  groupie* Suzy Randall as  groupie* Juliet Adams as  groupie* Linda Dean as  groupie* Greta Nelson as  groupie* Maria Vasilou as  groupie* Sussana East as  groupie* Cathy Howard as  groupie* Samantha Bond as  groupie* Maria Frost as  groupie* Louisa Livingstone as  groupie* Madeleine Collinson as  groupie* Mary Collins as  groupie* John Allen as roadie* Eric Simpson as roadie* Joyce Crossley as woman* C. Reeves as technician* Bill Hibbert as policeman* N. Tathan as policeman
Production Forever More were a genuine performing band, although the band members play characters other than themselves in the film. Songs from the soundtrack appear on their 1970 album ''Yours – Forever More''. Alan Gorrie went on to commercial success as a member of the Average White Band.The cult folk band Comus provided the film's opening title theme and other incidental music and songs.
Home media ''Permissive'' was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK as part of the BFI's Flipside series on 25 January 2010.The disc also includes the feature film ''Bread'' (Stanley Long, 1971) and the short ''Ave You Got a Male Assistant Please Miss?'' (Graham Jones, Jon Astley, 1973).
Critical reception In a contemporary review ''The Monthly Film Bulletin'' wrote: "This curiously elliptical account of a groupie's life involves a dispirited road manager, a singularly uninspiring group, an endless succession of anaemic groupies, and a drop-out who announces that "the world is my scene, man" before being arbitrarily knocked down by a truck. The actors do what they can with a thin script, while director Lindsay Shonteff resorts to a frantic series of flashbacks and flashes forward – one shot is repeated at least six times. But his pyrotechnics merely succeed in emphasising the inordinate foolishness of the whole enterprise."
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