The Damned (The Doomed/Les Punks) Electric Ballroom, Camden, London 5th September 1978

 

They were very much a band for firsts. First to release a single, first to get to America and the first to split. 1978 was a particularly frenetic year for the former members of The Damned. Upon parting, Dave Vanian was in and out of Richard Strange's Doctors of Madness in no time at all, Rat Scabies became a White Cat, Captain Sensible formed a new band King (a world apart from the King of Coventry as it were), whilst Brian James formed Tanz Der Youth (and Lu Edmonds formed The Edge). Whilst all of this activity was undoubtedly very creative, none of it was particularly successful (when put up against The Damned) and certainly none of it was long lived!

It did not take the punk renegades long to fathom on which side their bread was buttered and it was not long before Scabies, Sensible and Vanian were once again sharing a stage. So as not to confuse people too much they opted for the name The Doomed and with Henry Badowski in tow they played a handful of dates. A month or so prior to touring as The Doomed they appeared as Les Punks with Motorhead's Lemmy deputising on bass at Camden's Electric Ballroom. This is the stand out gig of this particular incarnation of the band. They played an interesting set that night with the inclusion of Hawkwind's 'Silver Machine' and 'Motorhead's 'City Kids' for the benefit of the new if temporary bass player. Also, for some strange reason the Rich Kids' 'Marching Men' is played. Several songs from the as yet unrecorded 'Machine Gun Etiquette' also get an early airing in this gig which sounds pretty raucous.

Just around the corner was yet another line up as Algy Ward, formerly of The Saints, took on bass playing duties on a permanent basis (or what at least passed for permanent in the world of The Damned).

Many thanks to Mark for this, an upgrade from my MP3 version. Cheers!

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-g6qu5BopjZQwY0ms

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-bvUPTVUpQA3OOz13

Les Punks at the Electric Ballroom

5th September 1978

The Damned Dingwalls Camden Lock London 21st August 2001 (Grave Disorder Launch)

Well, I am 24 hours late with this one, but then again what does a day matter over a span of 50 years. Twenty five years ago yesterday The Damned released 'Grave Disorder' their first studio album having one C. Sensible back in the fold and one separated from its predecessor by no less than fifteen years (if you gloss over 'Not Of This Earth'). Recorded in California the album was released in the US label, Nitro Records. 'Grave Disorder' was to The Damned what 'Norfolk Coast' was to The Stranglers, both a return to form and a return to The Damned's 'signature sound'. In my opinion there is not a duff track on this album, a claim that cannot unfortunately be made for any of The Damned album's that were follow. If ever there were a worthy sequel to 'Strawberries' this was it. Opening with the high velocity rocker 'Democracy?' the album serves up a great variety of tracks that fully demonstrate that there was plenty of life left in this old punk dog! 'Song.com' is an early and prophetic observation of how social media would draw us in and steal our time. The double meaning of surfing was also a nod to the fact that they were laying down these tracks on the West Coast. Throughout the album Vanian's voice is a very significant instrument... still in possession of that rich baritone vocal, only now Elvis has left the building and in his place is a brooding, malevolent crooner... the stuff of nightmares. Just listen to 'Thrill Kill' to get the point.

Lennon, bloody Lennon! A complex character and depending on who's view point to listen to a bit of a nasty piece of work. Upon his death in 1980 many musicians seemed to take umbrage at the rapid about face that the press did. Disdain to deification overnight all flaws forgotten. The Stranglers captured this feeling in 1981 with 'Everybody Loves You When You're Dead' whereas The Damned waited 21 years to put the boot in! The US garage band fuelled 'Lookin' For Action' could be mistaken for a track left over from the 'Damned Damned Damned' sessions!

Not gonna go through track by track, but one stand out track for me to finish with and the finisher for the album too. 'The Beauty of The Beast'. This is a beautiful piano led lament from Dave Vanian for the era of the Hollywood horror film in which he name checks some of the studio greats of the iconic film genre. I don't think that I ever got to see the band play it. It was performed at the album launch (subject of this post) and at the 'Night of a Thousand Vampires' gig. 

'With quickening pulse what lies behind the door

A curious step retreats once more

The creature with a darkened soul

A story of the Damned unfolds

Bela, Boris, Basil, Lon, Lorre, Vincent, now all gone

Looming pallid on the screen

The beauty of the beast

Your magic never ceased

And now though a curtain has been drawn

You go on forever as before...'

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-LChezZYFm9t01gCB

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-Bs1JtsvJoUeinASk

The Damned 'Grave Disorder' Launch

Dingwalls, Camden Lock, London

21st August 2001

What Brian Did Next - Tanz Der Youth Music Machine London 10th August 1978

 

This month, 'Vive Le Rock' magazine must be congratulated on the publication of their 'Damned Annual', a brilliant compilation of articles, interviews, Q&A sessions with key players in the band's long career. As good as the annual undoubtably is, it set me to thinking about all of the side projects, new bands etc etc that have an association with 'brand Damned'. It's a job for Pete Frame I reckon!

The White Cats

King

Doctors of Madness

Lords of the New Church

The Doomed

Naz Nomad

The Phantom Chords

The Sensible Grey Cells

Professor and the Madman

...

The list goes on and on.

One of the first new ventures was from Brian James who formed a band called Tanz Der Youth after departing from The Damned.

Sounds (20th May 1978)

New Musical Express (20th May 1978)

Record Mirror (20th May 1978)

Sounds (10th June 1978)

New Musical Express (30th September 1978)

Sounds (30th September 1978)

Blink and you will have missed them. In their brief existence they released one single on Radar Records, 'I'm Sorry, I'm Sorry' backed with 'Delay'. Their other 'achievement' was getting a support slot on Black Sabbath's 'Never Say Die!' tour, another short lived venture with TDY quitting the tour seven dates in after successive bottle receptions!

Although there is only one official release to their name, they left some traces in the record, in the form of this gig from August 1978 at the Music Machine in Camden and a John Peel Session (both released unofficially). 

So that was Tanz Der Youth, an sonic experiment that Brian's audience were perhaps not yet prepared for. The music very much brings to mind early XTC and Magazine, so quite a departure from anything that he had done with The Damned!

Next stop Euroman Cometh with his old pal Jean Jacques.

I have included what I believe to be the correct track listing on the artwork (versus the file names). Thanks to the original Dime uploader (theGrape).

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-ggbhjZkf6LCbR3rX

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-QnMScNkyJuY1Lomm

The Damned's Phantasmagoria Is 41 Today!

 

There was a thread that appeared on the 'Punk's Not Dead, But I'm Not Far Off' FaceBook page today, the 41st anniversary of the release of 'Phantasmagoria' that was discussing whether or not it was a shit album! I was a little surprised by this. As a fan of pretty much everything that the band have done over the past 50 years, I have to say that I rate 'Phantasmagoria' pretty highly in the ranking of their studio albums.

It wasn't far into the '80s that punk was particularly out of vogue. With all of the frills of New Romanticism and an all pervading attitude of 'We Just Wanna Have Fun!' infecting the charts, there was little room for anger and chaos anymore. The same music writers who were extolling the virtues of punk a few years before now dismissed the music and the musicians as old hat and irrelevant. If you happened to be one of those old and down punk bands, there were just two options available... adapt or die. In the case of The Damned, other circumstances were coming into play. Sensible, the clown prince of punk, had stumbled into a solo career and was now the property of Saturday morning kid's TV programming. Moreover, the band were for a time without any record company backing. The future was not looking good. 

Then 'Phantasmagoria' happened and the band's fortunes were very much reversed. Fortunately, the band were old enough not to be recognised by a new cohort of the record buying public, but not too old to get airplay and TV time when the hits came. Thus is was that this album saved the band's life and for a time (admittedly a pretty short time) The Damned were once again the flavour of the month.

The Damned heeded the warnings and did indeed adapt. Not everyone followed that example.... think about The Clash!

It was a very different album from what came before it. But, there is no denying that it is one of the most consistent and complete albums that the band ever recorded.

I think that I read somewhere once that the album was very much admired by JJ at the time and was his Walkman (I'm sure he would have had one!) companion. Well, you've gotta keep an eye on the competition! 

So here is a recording from one of the dates from the so-called 'Big Tour' of 1985.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-uXEpgrWd3ZHyCc0t

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-XoHACc64kEfZ6NGy

P**k Rock Versus Local Councils (Sounds 4th June 1977)

Sounds 4th June 1977

June 1977 was noticeably cooler than June 1976. Nevertheless, there was no shortage of local council officials up and down the country who were getting decidedly hot under the collar about this punk rock thing that was seeping out of the big cities into the provincial towns over which they held sway.

Two tours that have now entered the annals (careful with the typing there!) of British punk history, namely the 'Rats On The Road' tour and The Damned's 'The Damned Can Now Play Three Chords, The Adverts Can Play One. Hear All Four Of Them At...' tour were badly mauled by cancellations imposed by over zealous councillor's and entertainment organisations executives.

It is funny to think that now that punk turns 50 that all three of those scandalous bands mentioned in the cutting at the top of this post (The Stranglers, The Damned and Sex Pistols) have all subsequently gone on to play the Royal Albert Hall in London, a monument of The Establishment and its traditions and values if ever there was one! How times change.

The Damned Hot Point Festival Lausanne Switzerland 31st August 1988

 

Well it seems to be a busy and poignant week this week for The Damned. Friends are on the Continent this Easter weekend for European dates leading up to their big 50th gig at Wembley Arena. As such it seems right and proper to upload something from them in acknowledgement of another milestone that the band's of '76/'77 did not in their wildest imaginings expect to see, least of all The Damned.... they first threw in the towel 49 years ago in 1977!!

In 1988 they were in Switzerland playing the Hot Point Festival and what a festival it promised to be with a line up of The Damned, Motorhead, Johnny Thunders and Siouxsie & The Banshees. Maybe Switzerland was the place to congregate if you could claim that you were once in a punk band. The Stranglers had played the Paleo Festival the previous month in Nyon, a little further along the banks on Lake Geneva.

I wonder who the surprise guest was?

At this stage in the game, Dave was in the process of metamorphosing from Nosferatu to Dark Elvis... his Phantom Chords project was not far around the corner at this stage.

DVD image: https://we.tl/t-7zcOU0aaiYypvM9c

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-GckMuFq9qU9ebTCx

The Damned BBC 6 Music Session 26th January 2026

 

So, keeping on a theme of '60s cover versions here is a BBC 6 Music radio session that The Damned did for the Marc Reilly and Gideon Coe show in Salford last month enroute to their 'covers' gig at the Albert Hall in Manchester. I have said it on these pages before that I love a radio session. They are a snapshot of where a band is at at a given moment and the songs, as live performances, are the perfect partners to their studio counterparts. Moreover, it is often the case, for both bands and fans alike, for session versions be be superior to their studio versions... being more spontaneous, edgy, quirky, whatever.

The interviews, whilst interesting, do not offer anything of note that any  moderate fan of the band would not already know (apart perhaps for the influence of Mrs Mills over the band!). The four songs featured all appear on 'Not Like Everybody Else' and they sound good here. I always have a bit of an issue with 'Summer In The City' as I have yet to hear a version that comes anywhere close to the Lovin' Spoonful original. That said, The Damned's version  is streets ahead of The Stranglers version, but then again even Tik and Tok's version betters that one (go on look them up).

WAV: https://we.tl/t-1wAUVbp2oH

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-PxaUs6bYwo

The Damned Albert Hall Manchester 28th January 2026

 

Here are The Damned playing their much talked about 'covers only' gig at Manchester's Albert Hall. Many thanks to rbose1 for the Dime upload. In the event it the set didn't honour the gig tag of 'Not A Single Damned Song' as three slipped the net on the night. Not my place of course to write the set list, but given the chance to bring the gig back in line with the claim I would have brought in 'Help' for '1 Of The 2' or 'Feel The Pain' and 'Citadel' in for 'Disco Man'.

I am not sure what to make of the album. I feel that several of the covers are so faithful to the original that they bring nothing new to the songs which for me has always been the benchmark for a worthy cover version.... to be sure with 'Eloise' they made the song their own (with Barry Ryan even stating that theirs was his preferred version!). A song like 'See Emily Play' whilst a great song and indeed a song with which The Damned have had a long association doesn't move on from Pink Floyd's original. In terms of homage to 1960's psychedelia, Naz's 'Give Daddy The Knife Cindy' is a superior offering in my opinion.

Fair play, the album and dates are a tribute to their founder and friend Brian, but I get the feeling that this album in comparison with most of the band's other studio albums will not get too much turntable time, interesting project though it may be.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-8Ioj1e0Gbm

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-GcL9i4UUAY

The Damned White Eagle Hall Jersey City NJ 1st May 2025

 

There's not really much that needs to be said for this one as The Damned take 'MGE', 'The Black Album' and 'Strawberries' back over to US, winding up tonight in Sacramento if the poster is to be believed. I trust that TV Smith made a good account of himself as support. Great to see 'White Rabbit' in the set, a great cover from a band with a solid track record of recording distinctive cover versions (even though I read that Rat does not rate their version). Thanks to the original Dime uploader, madelf. Please note that this recording is in 24/44 format and will require conversion if you intend to burn it onto CD.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-7YgRgGIxt2

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-PNuM9jk2aT

The Damned Hammersmith Palais London 3rd March 1981

Here's one from The Damned when they played the Hammersmith Palais back in March 1981. The writer who reviewed the gig for Record Mirror in the 11th march issue was seemingly rather underwhelmed by The Damned's performance to the extent that the review, short though it is, is focussed more on Splodgenessabounds than the headlining act. 

Regardless of how The Damned performed on the night I  would love to have been there... out of arm's length from the 'Sieg Heil' ers of course!

Record Mirror 14th March 1981

MP3 (as received): https://we.tl/t-ysviAGRHXC

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-oYfRlR18Pq

The Damned Rebecca's Birmingham 17th February 1977 (TFTLTYTD#18)

 

Well, this one kind of fell into my lap. Last week it was another of those occassions where upon looking at my Facebook feed, I saw one or two posts with pictures of Brian James. Initially, I thought nothing of it and didn't read the posts because there is nothing unusual for me to see many photos of members of The Damned, The Stranglers or The Jam etc throughout the day, as that is just a reflection of the number of band related sites that I belong to. However, when checking again 30 minutes or so later and noting posts from the likes of Louder Than War and Vive Le Rock, the penny dropped.

I knew from the late 2022 reunion tour that his health was not good, nevertheless such facts does not diminish the sense of shock that someone from a band that you have been following for decades has gone. Brian James was not just the creative force behind the first incarnation of The Damned, he was one of a few idividuals that were the inspiration for the whole punk rock phenomenon. It was his 'New Rose' that opened punk up to a wider audience, for better or worse.

RIP Brian James.

Here's a reasonable sounding Birmingham club gig from early '77.

MP3 (as received): https://we.tl/t-be0K4AbNIC

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-RJUeTYjRv1

The Damned Manchester Academy 6th December 2024

 

Here are The Damned doing justice to the Holy Trinity of 'Machine Gun Etiquette', 'The Black Album' and 'Strawberries'. If you weren't there first time around (and I wasn't) this is as close as you're gonna get to The Damned A.D. 1982 and its very, very good.

Thanks to the original Dime uploader (rbose1) for the share. 

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-dyBZ5ZzQF9

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-Ad1CwjWosx

The Damned The Roundhouse London 18th December 2024 - A Review Of Sorts

 

Lady Luck has not looked down on the family kindly this year, if indeed at all... that is with one exception. Earlier in the year I booked a couple of tickets to see The Damned. It was just as the first night at the Roundhouse was selling out and a second night was announced. Momentarily I was in a quandary, do I go for the packed sold out first night or go for the second night which may or may not be so rammed. Decision made, I opted for the first night as I knew other mates would be there on the Wednesday. On the night, it was painfully clear that the Captain was suffereing from the lurgy, his voice was shot and he was going through a box of man-sized at a rate of knots! Early evening the following day came an announcement from the band to say that upon the advice of the Dr Jekyll (presumably) the second gig should be pulled. It seems to be the case that the venue and the various ticket vendors are offering refunds so no rescheduled date... hard to manage I guess for the last date of  UK tour. My plans to see the band elsewhere, earlier in the year were also sunk by illness on my part so Wednesday was my last chance to see my classic line up of the band. Thank you Lady Luck!

We entered the auditorium as the the intro tape gave way to Paul Gray's first bass salvo as the band launched into 'Love Song'. We manoeuvered over to the left to the side of the stage, it being a little more spacious, but more importantly it offered a good view of the 'new boy' occupying the drum stool. Another taste of 'Machine Gun Etiquette' was delivered in the form of 'Second Time Around' and the band were in full swing. There then followed a brilliant 'Black Album' trio of 'Wait For The Blackout'. 'Lively Arts' and 'History Of The World', three songs that are so much a part of me as a teenage music fan. This was the time when I was really getting into The Damned. I have no idea what the bands rehearsal schedule was, but they were tight tonight and Rat didn't get a beat out of place.

Dave Vanian attempted to introduce 'Plan 9 Channel 7' with a bit of context around the song's leading character (Maila Nurmi (a.k.a. Vampira), B-movie actress ('Plan 9 From Outer Space'), horror film host and wannabe love interest of James Dean'. But alas, a chant broke out and Dave conceded 'So Maila is less interesting than Sensible wanking!...'.

The highlight of the show came early for me and looking at a posted photo of the set list it looked like it was a change that may have been made specifically for London. 'Are The Ruts in tonight, this one's for Malcolm' said Captain by way of introduction of 'Limit Club', the band's ageless tribute to Malcolm Owen. 'Gun Fury (Of Riot Forces)', a great song in itself, could not have been replaced by a better song!

A great version of 'Eloise' took Sensible's strained vocal chords to the limit, but you've gotta love the drama of that song, even Barry Ryan conceeds that The Damned's version is in a class of its own. 

It was very clear from the set that this was a celebration of The Damned's golden period of '79 to '82, with 'The Damned as MC5' represented by 'Neat Neat Neat' and 'New Rose' alone. After all, the punk thrash version of the band had been revived once more with Brian in 2022. The Damned tonight were less raucous, less chaotic (in truth they have not been chaotic for the longest time now!), tonight was a case of allowing the music to speak for itself . This was also the closest that I was ever going to get to the Strawberries tour, but I loved it. Seven minutes of 'Curtain Call' too, marvellous.

The only critisism that I would have would be concerning the drum solo.... always hated them... but it was Rat so I let it go :)! Oh, and with the prolonged 'Ignite', they have denied the set of an additional song (I feel the same way about 'Walk On By'!). In my opinion 'Ignite' is far superior when played as it was recorded. But these are trifles in what was a brilliant night. 

A speedy recovery for the good Captain and I look forward to doing it all over again (with a few more dates managed by me) next year.