HE IS one of the grandfathers of punk rock whose 40-year career has seen him play with a who’s who of legendary bands.

But Brian James says he "didn’t do this to be rich and famous".

"I started off because it’s the only thing I wanted to do in life, and it still is”.

Speaking to The Argus from his home in Saltdean, the former guitarist of the forefathers of punk The Damned is returning to his roots with his latest solo effort The Guitar That Dripped Blood.

“I was dying to do another guitar album, it is what I am known for – rock and roll,” he said.

“It was really good fun to just have a laugh, not worry so much about the quality of the sound and just let it happen. It is my main forte.”

The latest record is Brian’s first all new rock record for nearly ten years and boasts to marry British punk with Detroit street rock, with an “abrasive, coruscating” sound of garage-guitar anthems.

Also featuring on the new record is Cheetah Chrome from the American punk band The Dead Boys and Adam Becvare from Lustkillers – with album art by horror movie poster artist Graham Humphries.

Brian rode the forefront of the punk movement, starting out with the London SS before becoming one of the founding members of The Damned – the first punk band in the UK to release a single with New Rose in 1976.

After leaving the band during their 1978 break-up, Brian went on to play with Iggy Pop, the Lords of the New Church, the Dripping Lips and alongside members of Guns N’ Roses, Blondie, MC5 and The Police with super group Mad for Racket.

As well as living in Brighton for more than 20 years his new solo record was also recorded here at Studio 284 – which is being forced to move due to the crumbling Madeira Terraces.

Brian lamented the studio’s closure, hailing its sound as "one-of-kind" and perfect for his brand of rock and roll - saying “it has old disintegrating history with a wonderful sound to it”.

He said: “I have recorded in Paris, in Belgium, but I have never come across a room like Studio 284.

“It used to be a gentleman’s toilets built into the cliff. It had such a special sound which you would spend hours trying to get near somewhere else. But when you walk into 284 it is just there.

“It is so sad. There is a whole bunch of bands, loads of them, coming for it. People dig it down there.”

The rocker moved to Brighton in the mid-nineties saying he “always liked” the city and “the vibe” – visiting here often as a youngster.

He said: “I was born in London and we moved down to Crawley. As a kid I used to hitch-hike all over the place and I could not decide what to do.

"We would go out to the motorway and have one of us stood on either side – whichever car stopped first, either going to Brighton or London, that is where we would go,” he said.

“You have that nice bohemian feel which is what I dig. I used to live around Portobello Road in London, it had loads of musicians and the West Indian culture, it was a lot of fun until the yuppies moved in and the soul moved out.”

Brian continued, “What I found with Brighton is it still had that feel – especially in the North Laine area. One meets new musicians, young musicians, there is a lot of kids with a lot of good ideas and the city does that - it provokes it”.

“It is not so easy if you are living in some grey town which has just become another city taken over by Starbucks, McDonalds and chain stores, but Brighton is not like that – it has retained its personality, which is cool.

“You are just a spit away from the downs and a spit away from the sea. If you have the blues you can go down to the channel and just look at it and suddenly your blues seem so small. Compared to the sea, it is just little old you sitting there with your little old blues.”

His latest record comes as The Damned are coming around to celebrate their 40th anniversary next year.

The band are also the subject of a documentary by filmmaker Wes Orshoski, known for his 2010 documentary Lemmy about the Motorhead singer. The new film is called The Damned: Don't You Wish That We Were Dead.

The punk band still tours, but Brian said he is not hopefully for a reunion of the original line-up for their 40th birthday.

“There is always talk of reunions and if the other three wanted to do it, then I would do it”, he said “It would be fun. Wes’s dream ending for the film was a reunion concert and kept saying ‘come on, do it, do it’.

“I find it sad it might never happen, because if something did happen to one of us, there would the feeling we absolutely should have done it and not let some stupid falling out get in the way – but I do not see it happening.”

Brian said: “When you talk about punk rock and you talk about The Damned the two evolved at the same time. It is fun to have been part of something happening in such a positive way.

“There have been fashions but not in such a colourful way as the punk thing. I think something needs to happen, I get this feeling there is a total lack of stimulation.”

“A lot of people like looking back rather than looking forward, with the punk scene we had something to rebel against, but now the scene has got very boring and it needs something to kick it right up the backside.

“I hate to talk about the good old days, but if you wanted something you had to work for it, the whole thing has become very corporate now.”

He said young musicians sometimes take the “easy way out” and relying on “toys” such as drum machines and bedroom studios instead of working for their music with other artists and “getting out there and treading the boards”.

“The pop scene is also abysmal, its rubbish, and you have the horrible stuff off the television with Simon Cowell sitting in judgement. It is just de-humanising,” he added.

He fondly remembered the early days of The Damned.

He said in the 1970s people “may not have known what they were waiting for” and added, “you had people making their own clothes, forming the own individual thing”.

“As the band was getting bigger, we got the record deal and suddenly when New Rose had been on the radio they could recognise it and people had an idea of what punk was and it exploded.”

The guitarist is currently working on an autobiography.

But he said “I am going to keep playing till I drop, what else am I going to do? I write, I get up, play my songs, do gigs and writing this bloody book which is driving me mad.”

The Guitar That Dripped Blood will be released on November 6.