They released the first punk single, and toured far more widely than their rivals – and now, they’re back
Under a railway arch in Shepherd’s Bush, the final manoeuvre in original British punk rock is being plotted, at extreme volume. Forty-six years on from the infamous summer of 1976, the founding members of The Damned – Dave Vanian, Rat Scabies, Captain Sensible and Brian James – are preparing to make an implausible comeback, with a run of five UK gigs beginning tomorrow at Hammersmith Apollo. Implausible, because they’d always intimated that certain members hated each other.
Back when that foul-mouthed musical genre was forged by dissatisfied teenagers amid spiralling temperatures and political chaos, there were three main perpetrators: the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned.
Over the years, there have been various reunions, most notably by the Sex Pistols, but a recent bust-up between Johnny “Rotten” Lydon and the others over Danny Boyle’s Disney miniseries, Pistol, surely means that only the four gentlemen of pensionable age blasting away across the room from me are left to carry the torch.
“Cor, what a load of ‘orrible noise!” says their mischievous bassist, Captain Sensible, emerging from the rehearsal space after the reunited quartet have blasted through New Rose. “You don’t get that off The Stranglers now, do you?