Punk's great survivors still alive and kicking against the system

BY ITS very nature, punk was explosive and ephemeral. The combustion of the Sex Pistols a year after the release of their seminal album Never Mind The B******s seemed to epitomise a cultural movement that was forever on the brink of unravelling.

While 1976 and 1977 are historically seen as the epicentre years of punk, the long lifespan of one the genre’s most important groups proves being a punk isn’t necessarily intrinsically linked to self-destruction. Forty years on from the release of their debut single New Rose, The Damned are still alive and kicking against the system. A 21-date anniversary tour this winter sees the iconic band call in at the Brighton Dome.

“You wouldn’t have put money on that 40 years ago, would you?” laughs guitarist Captain Sensible (Raymond Burns), the current Brighton resident who co-founded the group with singer Dave Vanian in London. “But the first rule of punk is there are no rules.”

No rules, therefore no need to follow the clichéd punk narrative of living fast, crumbling young. It should be stated, though, that The Damned did in fact break up in 1978 – before getting back together a year later, without founding guitarist Brian James, initially under the moniker The Doomed.

The split was one of a few moments through the years in which “The Captain” thought the good ship Damned had gone under for good. “Having rather enjoyed playing in a band, I remember being quite emotional and wondering what I was going to do with the rest of my life,” he says. Eventually, his exbandmates rang him up saying: “’Ere Captain, how you doing for cash at the moment?

What do you reckon we get a couple of gigs together to pay the bills?’ Well, I was broke so we did a couple of shows with Lemmy (from Motorhead) on bass. It worked well and I thought ‘maybe there is a future in all this?’ Although I didn’t realise we’d go on for another 30-plus years.”

Visceral

Before all this, though, The Damned had already made history – although Sensible, Vanian and co. weren’t to know it at the time. While the punk sound was fresh and visceral, only in retrospect is it possible to identify any band as a key player in the scene.

The Damned’s debut album, Damned Damned Damned – which they will perform in full at the Dome among other hits – was the first British punk record. New Rose was the first British punk single. While it is undeniable that the Sex Pistols and The Clash now play a more prominent role in the narrative of the genre, The Damned were the first group of the era to tour America.

Before a shift to a more goth-rock sound in the 1980s, The Damned peddled the kind of fast-paced, immediate, overdriven thrash that would become the vogue in 1977 and be emulated by hardcore bands in the decades since. Sensible points out that Chrissie Hynde once called The Damned “the most musical” of the early punk bands, though, which is testament to their technical nous.

The punk ethos dictated that “anyone can buy a guitar and be creating passable music within a few weeks”, as Sensible says, but The Damned’s early work proved they knew their way around a guitar. Damned Damned Damned could hardly be called “passable”.

“That may be the reason we’ve managed to keep reinventing ourselves despite all the turmoil and line-up changes,” adds the guitarist about the band’s musicality. “As a teenage fan of the likes of Deep Purple and Black Sabbath, I always wanted to end up in a band that flex its muscles musically – there will be plenty of that on this tour.”

Rivalries between related groups can often be built by fans and commentators rather than the members of the bands themselves.The music media were always the main instigators of a supposed schism between Oasis and Blur in the Britpop days, for instance. Sensible says he has always considered it part of his role as a “loose cannon” to “slag off the rest of the 1977 bands”.

As a counterpoint, he adds: “In reality, you have to have a grudging respect. Although imagine John Lydon removed from the Sex Pistols – they ain’t gonna sound quite so anarchic are they?

“The problem wasn’t between the bands but the managers who all wanted their boys to be top dogs. Bernie hated Malcolm,” Sensible says, referring in the first instance to Bernie Rhodes, the punk svengali who played a vital role in the formation of The Clash after his offer to co-manage the Sex Pistols was rejected by the band’s manager Malcolm McLaren. “They both despised Jake [Riviera, then The Damned’s manager]”.

In 1977, McLaren threw The Damned off the Sex Pistols’ Anarchy tour of the UK. The exact reason is still contended. Clearly interband tension was rife in the punk era, although Sensible now says that all the groups agreed on one thing: “The old dinosaur acts like ELP and Yes were past their sell-by date and destined for the bin, along with their drum solos and concept albums.” Clearly The Captain has lost none of his anarchic spirit at the age of 62.

Vanian is the only member of The Damned not to have left the group at any time in the last 40 years. Sensible had released a solo single, Jet Boy, Jet Girl, when The Damned were first on hiatus in 1978 and decided to pursue this avenue further early in the next decade. His song Happy Talk was a number one hit. Meanwhile, The Damned were confronted with a baffled crowd chanting “where’s Sensible?” at a festival in Yorkshire when it became apparent the guitarist had been replaced by Roman Jugg.

“The intensity of the schedules was simply too much to cope with,” says Sensible of juggling a solo career with The Damned for a few years. “I almost welcomed getting the heave-ho from the band.”

As Sensible was revelling in chart success, The Damned had a huge hit of their own with their single Eloise. Sensible teamed up once more with Vanian in 1996 after the single had been involved in a legal wrangle with founding drummer Rat Scabies. They have since released two albums, the latest being So, Who’s Paranoid? in 2008. The band are currently recording a new album through the fund-raising site Pledge Music.

While there is something commendably punk about this DIY approach (which can also be witnessed in Sensible’s selfrun political protest party Blah!, set up a decade ago), it certainly puts pay to the notion that The Damned’s iconic status goes hand in hand with economic wealth.

“Rich? That’s a good one,” laughs Sensible. “With the way they’ve declined, record royalties aren’t going to pay the bills. You’ve got to work until you drop, and hopefully flog a few T-shirts along the way.” There are a few differences between now and the old days, though – namely the size and grandeur of the venues The Damned are visiting.

“Do I prefer playing the Dome, with it’s nice cosy dressing rooms, to scuzzy dives like the Hope and Ruin’s cellar bar? I’d be a liar if I said no. But 40 years ago I happily spent a year sleeping on people’s floors... it was just the way it was.”

This trip down memory lane is the catalyst for an impassioned spiel in which Sensible outlines the merits of a Damned show nowadays. “It might be impossible to recreate the early punk vibe but our songs take the audience on a musical rollercoaster ride – it’s never the same twice.”

Sensible’s final comment acts as a mission statement for British punk’s great survivors: “We get a kick out of doing the unexpected.”

Pioneers of a music explosion

Flying the flag for punk

The Damned are often referred as the “band of firsts”, being the first punk band to release a single and album and tour America. The band’s debut single New Rose was released just five weeks before that of the Sex Pistols, Anarchy In The UK. In keeping with the disorder of punk music, The Damned were also the first of the genre to split up and return (in the late 1970s).

Before The Damned

Dave Vanian, Captain Sensible and Rat Scabies were all members of the crudely-titled group Masters Of The Backside, which also included future Pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hynde. Hynde would later write that “without me, they were probably the most musically accomplished punk outfit in town”.

A hit with the critics

New Rose was described by renowned critic Ned Raggett as a “deathless anthem of nuclear-strength romantic angst”. The B-side was a raucous cover of The Beatles’ Help.

Food fight

The album cover for Damned Damned Damned features the four members of band just after they had been hit by pies. Original guitarist Brian James said it was photographer Peter Kodick’s idea: “He thought it was a jolly wheeze to surprise us with a few cream cakes, little knowing that we would relish it, get into it and enjoy the whole experience.”

Family affair

Dave Vanian is married to Patricia Morrison, who joined the band in 1996. The couple have a daughter, Emily. In 2004 Morrison left the band but became The Damned’s manager.

Style on show

A distinctive stage outfit worn by Captain Sensible will be displayed at Brighton Museum as part of the PhotoPunk exhibition, along with a Gibson guitar used at the band’s gigs. Captain Sensible said: “This guitar has been thoroughly road-tested in typical Damned fashion - having been set on fire and attacked with an axe. Amazingly, it has survived to tell the tale.” See Edwin’s top five events on page 22.

Brighton Dome, Thursday, November 24, 7pm, £27, 01273 709709