If my memory serves, I was supposed to be at this gig but a 6th Form Christmas party got in the way. The fact that I was drinking cheap red wine from a dimpled pint jug (they were still a thing in the '80s!) quickly made the train/tube journey a practical issue and something that was probably very unwise. And so I missed it.
Looking at the set though as I prepare this post I am rather perplexed. I cannot say what the situation was in The Damned camp at the time, but their choice of songs for the evening's entertainment strike me being a little odd. When you have only fairly recently so thoroughly toured your most successful album ('Phantasmagoria') and you have at least a handful of strong songs from the follow up album ('Anything'), why fill out the set with so many covers?
'She's A Monster' (The Stems), 'I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)' (The Electric Prunes), 'Johnny Remember Me' (Johnny Leyton), 'Riders On The Storm' (The Doors) and 'Tonight' (MC5). Five covers in a 19 song set is a little overkill I think. Granted 'I Had Too Much To Dream' was no stranger in a Damned set and The Damned/Naz Nomad had kind of made it their own by then, but still I stand by my point.
It feels to me like the band knew the writing was on the wall with regards to their contract with MCA (it wasn't renewed for a third album) after the poor performance of 'Anything', in comparison with its predecessor. Did this gig represent the end of the band's purple patch such that Dave had his sights set on 'The Phantom Chords' project. Later 'Johnny Remember Me' was released by The Phantom Chords and 'Gunning For Love' was bagged by the band too.
By no stretch of the imagination is it a bad gig, but considering what they were doing 18 months previously, it doesn't quite make the mark for me. See what you think.
FLAC: https://we.tl/t-e5r6SJ36XN
Artwork: https://we.tl/t-zDjRyZD2l7
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