The Damned : 10 takeaway thoughts on the classic punk bands tour

The Damned’s classic lineup reformed for a clutch of shows which we review properly here. 

This is not a live review but an attempt to jot down the swirl of ideas running through John Robb’s mind at these astonishing shows. 

Watching the YouTube of the London gigs and being caught up in the pit at the front of the Manchester Apollo leaves John Robb with 10 burning takeaways from this astonishing comeback…

1. This is unreal. 

No band has the right to emerge from the past like supercharged cadavers with such a zest and such an explosive power and sheer wild musicality. 

Not only are the Damned at the top of their game they are at the top of everybody’s game. 

This is no mere lap of honour and to be honest, that would have enough but this is a right stomp, an explosive finale that throws down the gauntlet to every rock n roll band on the planet. Somehow and it’s crazy to even think it – the Damned have returned as one of the best rock bands on the planet and possibly, typically of them, will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and disappear into the night again like spectral ghosts drenched in the cordite whiff adrenalin! 

2. How did they fuck this up so gloriously in 1977? Even if they were half as good as this at the time they would have wiped the floor with most bands. They were in the right place at the right time and had killer singles and albums and were all over the music press and TV and yet fizzled out without bothering the charts – how come? 

They may have been ridiculous but that was the whole point – it was rock n roll with added dynamite and a wild no holds barred assault that personified punk and yet it still didn’t rampage through the mainstream. 

They influenced loads of other bands and were a part of the big 3 of punk but still didn’t get the big time of their fellow passengers until 2022 when they finally sell out the big shows and feel like the big band they should have been in the first place. 

3. As I always believed Music For Pleasure is a stunning album – the great lost classic from 1977 and it really comes to life live. The much-maligned album is stuffed with great songs from the Syd Barret Astronomy Domine chug of Problem Child to the gonzoid Stretcher Case to the Stooges grooves of You Know which climaxes the set with an added grunting sax (and I love that sax – it’s free jazz, it’s Coltrane, it’s Sun Ra, it’s dirty low down groove and seething skronk! it also reminds you of just how much part of punk the sax was and yet never gets mentioned!) for a full of lowdown Stooges hypnotic grinding groove…the live shows demand that the album needs a re-listen and a reevaluation. 

4. Captain Sensible is a killer bass player – of course, he has spent decades being the band’s guitar hero but back on bass is a reminder of just how damn good he is on the 4 string switching from geometric melodic runs to chugging bass chords to crafty slides or glottal stop punctuation – his bass drives the songs along and as he clowns around on the stage his charismatron presence is vital in a band full of vaudeville characters that look like they have just escaped from a renegade tuppenny opera. This is a showbiz psychodrama – an apocalyptic rampage. It’s fun and it’s dangerous and it’s thrilling and hilarious often all at the same time.

5. Dave Vanian looks more like Dracula than ever and is in full Drac-drag with his black lipstick and jet black hair looking more like Blood For Dracula Udo Kier than ever. His voice is a thing of wonder – the ultimate baritone crooner who threads and weaves his way through the songs and across the stage with his vampiric personae flitting through the songs and with a silken black Byronic mad, bad and dangerous to know cool. . He is always good at this stuff but there is something extra added to the London shows and tonight’s performance – an added frisson and level of gimme danger little stranger and an added layer of dark energy – its captivating stuff. 

6. Get well soon Brian! 

The writer of the songs and the creator of the band Brian looks a tad frail and we worry about him yet his guitar playing is still haute cuisine as he peels out the cascading notes that bely his stock still presence.  Every now and then he grins across the stage at the wild-eyed loon Captain Sensible or the grunting sax player. Tonight is perhaps about Brian – he came up with the concept, the sound and the songs and was once described by the Clash’s Mick Jones at the first person he had met who was punk and saw the future.

7. Rat Scabies drumming is astonishing – where have you been Rattus? When I interviewed him last year he made out he didn’t play the drums much these days but his full-on assault was astonishing. 

There’s the rush of punk rock frenzy of course but there are also waterfalls free jazz drum rolls, a total groove and a wild dexterity – the Damned may be energy personified but fuck can they play! There is something lyrical about Rat’s assault and somehow it locks in with Sensible’s bass for a supernova rhythm section. It’s been far too long since we heard something like this and if it’s only for a flicker of time then at least we saw it again. This a rhythm section that is so unique that it should be a part of the lexicon of rock. 

8. The notorious review in the Daily Telegraph that slammed the band’s London show is so far off the point that it hangs a huge question mark over the writer and not the band. Watching that gig on YouTube only adds to this confusion. The review slated the band for being untogether which is missing the fucking point. Great rock n roll hangs by a thread between chaos and genius. The tension and release of the Damned is always about to boil over. If you don’t get that then you too don’t get the Damned and you don’t get rock n roll and the very dynamic of the magic stuff. 

9. Could they possibly continue? Whoever knows what’s next for this most unlikely of enduring bands. Tonight was a rich reminder of that unique chaos and confusion of punk – the exquisite musicianship crashing into the deliberate chaos but all the time with one great song after another. That reminds me that I’ve not even mentioned Neat Neat Neat and New Rose – the anthems – the set is so good tonight that they don’t even stand out. 

10. The chaos that bubbles underneath the surface finally explodes at the encore. They trash the violin bass and set fire to the drums with a flourish and leave the stage in triumph like high-decibel gladiators. Finale or not the ringing chords of their cover of the Rolling Stones The Last Time may speak their own truth…who knows…?

We have a small favour to ask. Subscribe to Louder Than War and help keep the flame of independent music burning. Click the button below to see the extras you get!

SUBSCRIBE TO LTW

Source: louderthanwar.com