Founding members of The Damned. Rat Scabies and Brian James will be performing the classic 1st album ‘Damned Damned Damned‘ in its entirety along with selected tracks from ‘Music For Pleasure’.
Following raved about gigs at the legendary 100 Club in London in June and for Rats birthday at the Retro Bar, they return to do it all again for a 3 day Halloween weekend blitz of London this weekend. And a further 5 shows in December.
Oct
Fri 26 St Paul’s Church Hall , Brentford
Sat 27 Ruislip, Slough Paul Fox memorial show
Sun 28 Fiddlers Elbow Camden London
Dec
Fri 14th York Stereo, York
Sat 15th The Well, Leeds
Sun 16th The Cluny , Newcastle Upon Tyne
Mon 17th Pivo Pivo, Glasgow
Sat 22nd Boston Arms – london
On December the 3rd, the ultimate version of the first ever British Punk album Damned, Damned, Damned is released.
Damned, Damned, Damned features the first UK punk single New Rose and 11 further tracks, that in just over 30 minutes rewrote the musical landscape. To The Damned. Punk Rock was all about the the music they played and the attitude required to play it
This anniversary edition contains not only the original album but also a disc of BBC sessions and rarities and the bands first gig supporting the Sex Pistols at the 100 Club, an exclusive 4th disc contains a rare hour long documentary on the making of the album and the events leading up to it, with comments from the band and contempories such as Chrissie Hynde and Glenn Matlock.
The box set is packed with rare photos (some never seen before) as well as a brand new essay from Mojo’s Kieron Tyler who for the first time interviews all 4 members of the band to provide a great background to the album all encased in a fanzine style book.
The Damned Song Book (in hard back) is available in this set for the first time since 1976 as well as 3 badges and a poster containing Pete Frames legendary family tree.
History
“I thought the Damned caught the true spirit of punk , as understood by punks, better than their rivals’ – John Peel
The Damned were, for a short while in 1976, well ahead of the game.Their appearance on the nascent Stiff label joined the dots between punk’s older brother: pub rock and the younger, hipper crowd. Not only did they use ex-Brinsley Schwartz bass player Nick Lowe as house producer, but the label printed a picture of Eddie And The Hot Rods on the rear. Each track feature’s the hammering toms of Rat Scabies and Captain Sensible’s bass-as-guitar propelling Brian James’ machine gun axe. If Dave Vanian’s frequently flat delivery sounded distinctly laissez faire then it all added to the thrill of a band bent on acts of auto-destruction.
The key moment has to be Vanian’s sarcastic lampooning of the Shangri-Las in his ‘Is she really going out with him?’ intro to “New Rose”. This was a band who wanted to exercise the fact that they’d fused their love of early Stooges, MC5 into witty, brief bursts of anti-pop.
Brian James’ songs somehow encapsulated the thrill and nihilism of youth (“I Feel Alright”, “Neat Neat Neat”, “I Fall”) while Rat Scabies’ one contribution injected a fine sense of nasty humour as well (“Stab Your Back”).
The album highlights a number of ‘firsts’. The first UK punk single (“New Rose”), the first punk band to land a major tour (supporting Marc Bolan) and, of course, the first proper punk LP (easily a year before the Pistols).
This is truly the last word on this classic punk album and here’s the Damned playing the second single on“> Supersonic
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