The
Damned
FIVE YEARS OF ANARCHY
CHAOS AND DESTRUCTION
For the first time in four years, England's PUNK
pioneers, THE DAMNED, have finally shown their
faces in the US. Painting each year of their exis
tence with ANARCHY, CHAOS & DESTRUC-
TION, THE DAMNED still show the vigor, stamina
and original outlook that they had when they first
partook in their venture. Being the only band left
from the PUNK explosion of 1976 that hasn't sold
out or broken up, THE DAMNED have, of late,
gained an increased following in their homeland
among the punk, rock 'n' roll and heavy metal fans.
Their revamped success has them filling large con-
cert halls to capacity throughout the UK and
Europe
We have comered THE DAMNED for an im
promptu dise ussion fuckstage at the BERKELEY
SQUARE in Berkeley. This is the second to the
Last of their five US ggs, so as much info as could
be had, had to be squeezed out of these guys be
be the beaded lack to England to start recond
ing for their proposed new album.
The BERKELEY SQUARE, located just down
the street from UC Berkeley, is a small, dimly lit
club One as such you wouldn't expect a hand of
this high calibre to be playing at. But that's THE
DAMNED for von. They seem to want to play
anywhere anytime. The coliseum rock shows
lol no quarter for the type of personal, audi-
ence performer, relationship that is all too vital to
their vitality and explosive impredictable) nature
This group has been and will be around for a long
time. They have preceded THE CLASH and the
SEX PISTOLS, but unlike these groups. THE
DAMNED have not sold out or lost sight of their
original (honorable) intentions, nor have they
broken up or committed themselves to ultra-
capitalistic gains like that of THE CLASH or
olate the name be mentioned in this publication)
THE POLICE (To be noted that THE POLICE
are very much hated a THE DAMNED in land
or any other form.)
Winding through the dark, damp vestiges of
the BERKELEY SQUARE's backstage catacombs
mn assistant Natasha and I happened upon a
drinking session in one of the numerous cubicles
Sating amongst a full a doven cases of Becks were
most of THE DAMNED'S five members. The
guitarist, Captain Sensable, was planted in one
corner, straddling a chair with a bottle in each
hand periodically and simultaneously guzzling
them between belches and sometimes inaudible
remaks Next to him was Rat Scabies, the slightly
red-haired drummer, who likewise, was pencering
brews, Paul Gray tex-member of EDDIE & THE
HOT RODS), the player of the boss, paced back
and forth through the cavernous room, kicking
empties aside in search of a bottle opener. My pre-
vious recollections of this band's notoriousness
with journalistic types had no pluse on us because
we had the magic device that everyone craved in
this room: A BOTTLE OPENER. We were im-
mediately included in the midst of the ensuing
conversation and beer binge.
We asked Mr. Rat Scabies what his sentiments
on the CA Hardcore type PUNK music scene
were. "That's not music, that's an attitude, that's a
statement. It's not. It's very hard to listen to."
Well, that's all fine and dandy, Mr. Rat, but
what about THE DAMNED? Would your music
be considered a statement? "Uh, no. The thing
with us...no it's. YEAH! I think that's about the
feel. Uh, we're THE DAMNED and that's about
all the statement we need."
That was very finely said and I had to agree.
Just then, the Capt. decided that there was deli-
nitely something that had to be said: "I don't re-
strict meself to any kind of music, you know. I
mean, I wouldn't call ourselves a PUNK band or
anything. You know. Music is music, you don't
have to restrict it to categories. I mean, 'cavy
metal, PUNK, Rockabilly, Rastafari music. God
knows. I don't know. Just because I'm in a s
called PUNK hand, why should I only like listen
ing to PUNK music? I like everything."
But we had to ask if he liked the CA PUNKS, "I
say good luck to them. If they can eke out an hone
est living out of this business, good luck to them.
But I wouldn't play their records, because I've got
five years of records. I've got five years with
PUNKnatiousness. I've got all the PUNK records
from the first five years. Why should I start buy-
ing more PUNK records? All I have to do is pull
out THE JAM, uh, anything, you know. I
don't need to start collecting more PUNK albums.
I've got enough of 'em. There's a few you could
get that are new issue, like the BAD BRAINS
They're different than the other PUNK bands.
Rat, who had been following the conversation
up to this point, added, "They're black"
Then the Capt. continued: "Yeah, most of the
new PUNK binds sound like the old PUNK
hands. The BAD BRAINS don't sound like the
old PUNK bands. They've got something differ-
ent from them. Just then the Capt. got up and
moved towards the door. On his way out he said,
"The BAD BRAINS are my personal favorite."
THE DAMNED have been together for quite
awhile, say five and a half years, and the band's
sound has become somewhat relined since the
first LP. THE DAMNED described their music
pretty much as "PUNK in attitude, not in sound.
Formidable runes such as NEW ROSE from the
first LP and LOVE SONG, SMASH IT UP, along
with NOISE-NOISE-NOISE off
the
MACHINE GUN ETIQUETTE 1P, blah, blah,
blah etc. etc. HISTORY OF THE WORLD.
PART 1. show how they have managed to push
themselves to the forefront of the rock spectrum,
and have become one of the most important rock
'n' roll hands still around in the world today.
Paul Gray, who up to this moment had offered
nothing and thought that the conversation up to
this point was leading into more inane dribble.
sauntered across the room, brushed aside several
empties, retrieved his bullet belt, and headed for
the door mumbling something about poking a
bind. The Capt on his way back into the room
tripped Paul and said to the remaining conver
sationalists, "Jimi Hendrix, I like rediscovered it. I
mean, I hke him more now than I ever did." Mr.
Rat Scabies offered in reminiscence. "In '76, 77.
vou didn't dare admit you liked anything. If you
had a LED ZEPPLIN LP, no one would dare talk
We told the band members present about the
wonderful wills and ways of the skateboard sub-
culture. They seemed pretty amazed at the low so-
cial stature of the skateboarder and seemed im-
pressed at the outlaw status of the same.
The Capt, took this opportunity to exercise his
vocal chords "I bought one. I bought a
skateboard. But I couldn't learn how to ride it and
I kept falling off. So I gave it up. I gave it to me
girlfriend. She couldn't do it either so she gave it
up as well." He sat back in his seat and thought for
a second. Then said, "Listen, I can stand on stage
and get bottles thrown at me. I can have Hells
Angels chase me down the road. I can do every
thing, right? All this stuff, I can have guns pulled
on me." Rat interrupted with. "He pissed on the
Berlin Wall, he did."
"Yeah, that's right. I pissed on the Berlin Wall as
well. I've been chased by a policeman, god knows
what, but I wouldn't get on a bloody skateboard
again. It's too dangerous
Natasha laughed.
When we asked what was the motive behind the
fine laceration of a music industry that was going
downhill to nowhere, Rat said, "Boredom. Very
much boredom. Because when you're bored.
that's when you're more creative."
Of course we had to ask. "Bored of what?"
"Bored with everything, Bored with life, bored
with attitude. Bored bored bored...bored with
being bored. Bored with everything, especially
bored with music. Everybody had to have a
Rhoades piano in their band because they
sounded nice. No aggression.
"It was lucky the way it happened for us. I just
happened to meet people who had the same at-
titude as me, and we got on because we had the
same attitude. Skateboarding is different in at
titude in England. It's aspiring to a more profes
sional attitude. Different from the rogue aspects
here in the States, but I think skateboarding's
great. It's free entertainment. Hit a curb, go up a
few banks and stuff."
Just then the presence of the other members of
the band graced the space between the slimy walls.
Roman, the man who handles the keyboard
duties, and Dave Vanian, the Draculisque lead
vocalist of the band. One would imagine deep
Romanian utterances of demonicry to come from
the bowels of this creature of the stage, but instead
was the polite deep answer to our next question
for the hand. Who writes the bri
"All of us. Sometimes other people. Billy Kar-
lolf mostly. Not to be confused with the big B.
Karloff,
THE DAMNED seemed to have a determined
and firm stand towards their music philosophy
and general belief in personal taste. We wondered
what Rat's thoughts were on how he would best
condemn, denounce or hate the trend of the New
Wave. Preppy-Trendy hands, ie Talking Heads,
Duran-Duran, The Police, etc. Rat's face seemed
to be confused as his brain settled back in deep
thought. Then he snapped with as the lightbulb
flashed above his head signaling them it was close
to the time for them to go on). "Oh, you mean Art.
Art on stage Um. Thate it. It's boring, it's disgust
ing, it's just what we were trying to get rid of. All
they're doing is re-creating the same andful music
that we tried to get rid of, except they play it on
synthesizers, and, uh, just because PINK hap
pened, they're allowed to look funny when they
do it then. 'Oh, I'll be accaveman this week. Isn't
that what Steve Strange is All that romantic crap
Hah. Just a farce. It meant nothing to anybody of
circumstance. What a load of crap.
The lightbulb began flesh and at the same
time the hand flashed on how they were about to
gon. There was no sense in going on any further
with this conversation, they were locked in on
their performance tonight. THE DAMNED were
to go out on stage and deliver what they thought
was the best show that they had on this mini US
tour. We enjoyed it to the maximum, dancing to
all of their standards: DRINKING BOUT MY
BABY, LOOKING AT YOU, SMASH IT UP.
NEW ROSE. THE TURKEY SONG (by the way.
the Capt. mentioned that it was the first time
they'd ever done this song live) and LOVE SONG
Best show we ever saw. After the show we asked
Dave Vanian if he had any final comments. He
thought for a second and said with Christopher
Lee calmness, "I believe it was from SMASFEIT
UP: Gonna scream and shout 'til my dying
breath. I guess that would be appropriate.