First post after a wee break over the past couple of months. This has been mainly down to dealing with my epilepsy issues and a few of the side effects that come from the drugs I have to take that cause issues like lack of focus etc. I'm not making any great promises that I'm going to post everyday because sometimes that's not going to be possible. The other thing is I am probably not going to be doing big and indepth pieces as I just don't seem to have the capcity to concentrate for huge periods of time and so spending three hours researching and writing is going to be a thing of the past for the moment. Apologies to those who maybe come here looking for that!
Anyway, I thought I'd kick off the return to posting with The Damned's first studio album in a decade! Was pleased to hear that the album made #5 on the UK Album Chart on release.
Phantasmagoria - The Damned MCA Records Produced by The Damned and Jon Kelly Released 15th July 1985 UK Album Chart #11
Side 1
Side 2
Personnel Dave Vanian - Vocals Roman Jugg - Guitar, vocals on Edward The Bear, keyboards Bryn Merrick - Bass Rat Scabies - Drums Andy Richards - Additional keyboards LuÃs Jardim - Percussion Gary Barnacle - Saxophone
* The link is not for the version that appeared on the record but a tv performance.
******************
By 1985 The Sex Pistols were a long gone distant memory and The Clash were on the verge of demonstrating just how vital Mick Jones and Topper Headon had been to the band and how their departure would inflict a fatal blow to the band with the up and coming release of their Sixth and what was to be their final album Cut The Crap (it's still painful to listen to after all these years)! But amid all that there was one band still standing and still making exceptional music, despite changes in personnel...The Damned.
Nine years on from their Debut Single New Rose and Eight Years from their Debut Album Damned Damned Damned it was quite apparent that the intervening years had seen the band moving in a different direction to what they might have started out as.
Band members had come and gone in those years, infact the whole band at one point in early 1978 had called it quits and had upped sticks to new ventures but the lure of the darkness can only be resisted for a short time and before you know it they were back in business. "Second time around" (to quote one of their songs) there was no Brian James and TheCaptain had switched to guitar as Algy Wood (formerly of The Saints) moved into the bass position (a place he held for just under two years before being replaced with former Hot Rod Paul Gray - though by the time of Phantasmagoria he had also left the band).
Three years on from their Strawberries album (which actually had given them their first Top 20 album reaching #15) there were was no Captain Sensible (he had left the band in 1984 and was enjoying a bit success as a Solo Singer!) and was replaced by Roman Jugg (he had previously been playing Keyboards for the band on the Strawberries album) and on Bass was Bryn Merrick who had replaced Paul Gray in 1983.
There was also a new Record Label in MCA Records (their previous label Bronze they only released one album and a couple of singles and they had also released a single on their own short-lived label - Damned Records).
Image-wise there was a real Gothic influence, but that should come as no surprise as the band had always flirted around Gothic concepts, none more so than lead vocalist Dave Vanian. In comparison though to bands like The Fields of Nephilim, The Missionand The Sisters of Mercyetc The Damned would probably be considered Goth-Lite!
Three singles were released from the album and although Grimly Fiendish reached the highest chart position of the trio I am a huge fan of Shadow of Love, which I thought was the much better Single and deserved to go further than its #25 placing. Is It A Dream wasn't too bad but personally I didn't think it was a good choice for a Single but it was a good album track (Street of Dreams might have been better). Maybe they should have just left it at the two releases.
I do really rate this album. Despite its success Strawberries didn't appeal too much to me and I really felt with Phantasmagoria the band gained a new lease of life as they were about to go into their Tenth Anniversary (here's a wee half hour shot from their show in 1986 at The Town and Country Club in Kentish Town that demonstrated that live they were still a force to be reckoned with).
Six months after the release of Phantasmagoria, The Damned would have the biggest selling Single of their career when they released a cover of Barry Ryan's Eloise. It peaked at #3 on the UK Chart.
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 (because 5 is not enough!)
Damned Damned Damned - The Damned Stiff Records Produced by Nick Lowe Released 18th February 1977 UK Chart #36
Notes on Damned Damned Damned
First pressing of this album ( about 2000 copies) were mispressed with Eddie and the Hot Rods on the rear sleeve. With stiff erratum sticker.
This no doubt was a cheeky marketing ploy on behalf of Stiff Records who had earlier in the month signed a distribution deal with Island Records for whom Eddie and The Hot Rods were also signed to!
A few came shrinkwrapped with red "DAMNED DAMNED" lettering on the shrink wrap, which lined up below the printed word DAMNED on the cover, to make the 3-word name of the album. Intact copies of these appear to be worth approx 3 times as much.
(Dave Vanian, Captain Sensible, Rat Scabies and Brian James)
If you wanted nice and pretty music in February 1977 you would not have to go to far to search it out because sitting at the top of the charts for three weeks was Leo Sayer!
If you wanted to throw some cosmic disturbance into your world and upset your neighbour's you wouldn't have to go too far either, a trip to your local record store, to purchase a copy of the very first UK Punk Rock Album!...not by the Sex Pistols (they were still trying to find a label) or The Clash (who were actually busy recording their Debut at this stage of the game)...but rather by an unlikely bunch of oiks called The Damned.
You couldn't get anyone like them on the cover of the pop magazines, after all they weren't all cute and cuddly like Leo Sayer or David Soul! Lead vocalist Dave Vanian ( a former gravedigger) looked like he had just stepped off the set of a Hammer House of Horror production playing the lead vampire, guitarist Brian James looked like the crazed rock star he was, Captain Sensible on bass guitar was anything but sensible often turning up on stage wearing a tutu, a nurses outfit and reports (unfounded I hasten to add!) that sometimes he was totally naked! On the drums was a fella with a charming name that you would be scared to introduce to your Grandma incase she had a sudden fainting fit at hearing, "and Gran, this is Rat Scabies!"
Ten days of recording and the end result produced by Nick Lowe is a work of epic proportions! There was absolutely nothing like it (though maybe Raw Power by Iggy & The Stooges was the closest thing to being like it!)!
It was fast, furious and Scabies sounded more like he was physically assualting the drumkit rather than actually playing it! Dark and sinister songs like Born To Kill, Stab Your Back, Feel The Pain were surrounded by songs that would become legendary like Neat Neat Neat, New Rose, and the brilliant tip of the hat to Iggy & The Stooges with a blistering cover of 1970 (renamed here as I Feel Alright). 1 of the 2 is one of my favourites on the album. This was not safe music by any means, it was dangerous, violent and yet totally captivating and very exciting! For enthusiasm, I have to say that when compared to The Clash or the Pistols Debut albums Damned Damned Damned wins everytime! Those two debuts whilst good in their own right really didn't have this same kind of nervous energy that was unleashed on this day in February 1977. The day of release was also the 22nd Birthday of Brian James, so we'd like to wish him a very happy 62nd Birthday today!
With The Damned gearing up for the release of their second single - Neat, Neat, Neat - and also the release of their Debut Album - Damned, Damned, Damned - John Peel took the opportunity to repeat their Debut Session on his show on this night back in 1977.
The session included their debut Single New Rose and also their up and coming single Neat, Neat, Neat.
Jeff Griffin who produced the Session said this for the The Peel Sessions book by Ken Garner: "I think I was apprehensive about it, because I hadn't seem them before or met them; but, in fact, when we got to the studio, I'm not sure who was more apprehensive, them, about being in a BBC studio, or me about working with them. The amusing thing was quite a few other people had heard that The Damned were in, and every now and again we got people creeping in through the door, looking through the window to see if they were being sick all over the place or spitting at us. Which they weren't at all, of course; they were four of the nicest blokes I ever got to work with."
Recorded 30th November 1976
First Broadcast 10th December 1976
Repeat Broadcast 2nd February 1977
1. Stab Your Back 2. Neat Neat Neat 3. New Rose 4. So Messed Up 5. I Fall
When the Session was broadcast in 1976 it was part of a special spotlight upon Punk. It's a brilliant show and well worth taking some time to listen. If I remember correctly I Fall was not originally broadcast in 1976.
The Light At The End Of The Tunnel was the first Compilation from The Damned to include music spanning their career between 1976-1987.
Whilst the music on the album is great there was a real hint of MCA cashing in on the band who they had recently dropped from the label following the commercial failure of the Anything album - it only reached #40 in the UK Album Chart and the singles from the album had "failed" to reach the Top 20.
The sequencing of the album is one of the biggest problems though as it doesn't run with a chronological order at all but rather is quite scattered starting with their magnificent 1977 cover of The Stooges' "I Feel Alright" and following it with the single "Anything" from 1986 for example. This presents the band in such a way that they come off as sounding as if they were confused as to their identity. If it was sequenced in chronological order then that sense of confusion vanishes entirely.
The Smash It Up Anthology released in 2002 deals with the same time frame as The Light At The End Of The Tunnel but manages to get it right by placing the track order in chronological order.
Up until the Smash It Up Anthology we just had to make do with The Light At The End Of The Tunnel album as a decent career spanning Compilation, either that or go and dig out the original albums and play them loud!
A1 Love Song A2 Machine Gun Etiquette A3 I Just Can't Be Happy Today A4 Melody Lee A5 Antipope A6 These Hands B1 Plan 9 Channel 7 B2 Noise Noise Noise B3 Looking At You B4 Liar B5 Smash It Up (Part 1) B6 Smash It Up
Personnel The Damned Dave Vanian – vocals Captain Sensible – guitars, vocals, keyboards Rat Scabies – drums, vocals Algy Ward – bass guitar, vocals
On the CD Reissue this was included as well (except for the third track - Seagulls). This wasn't released in the UK back in 1980 for some reason but did get released in 1983 by Big Beat Records. It was originally released in France and Germany. By the time this was released Algy Ward had departed the band to form Heavy Metal band Tank and former Eddie & the Hot Rods Bassist Paul Gray made his recording debut with The Damned. French Picture Sleeve
I've said elsewhere on this blog that The Damned were a band of many Firsts, the first of the UK Punk Bands to release a single (New Rose in 1976); the first of the UK Punk Bands to release an Album (Damned Damned Damned- February 1977); and they were also the first of the major UK Punk Bands to break up and then the first to reform again (minus original guitarist Brian James).
After the poor reception of their second album Music For PleasureRat Scabies had departed the band and Stiff Records had dropped them. Jon Moss, who was the drummer of the Punk group London took over the drum stool, but by February 1978 it was all over.
With the various members drifting off to other projects and bands (Scabies had The White Cats, Sensible had King, Brian James had Tanz Der Youth and Vanian did some live work with the Doctors of Madness) it was interesting to see that a couple of songs by The White Cats and King would resurface again when The Damned got back together as The Doomed to begin with. With no Brian James the Captain moved over to Guitar and Lemmy helped out on Bass before Henry Badowski was brought in and he was eventually replaced by former Bassist of The SaintsAlgy Ward. Are you keeping up?
With lots of new songs the band signed to Chiswick Records and began their comeback with the excellent Love Song single (produced by Ed Hollis - who was responsible for a number of the great singles by Eddie and the Hot Rods) released in April 1979.
Recording of the third album took place at Wessex Studios.The Clash were there at the same time recording their third album London Calling, and apparently Strummer and Topper are doing backing vocals on Noise, Noise, Noise.
Machine Gun Etiquette was a real step up from Music For Pleasure and I would honestly say that it is on a par with their Debut Album. So many quality songs on it including what I think is their best Cover Version - MC5's Looking At You (this had actually been recorded in December 1978 for a Peel Session along with Love Song, Melody Lee, I'm a Burglar). Prior to the album's release they did another session for John Peel in which they featured I Just Can't Be Happy Today, Smash It Up, Liar and a throwaway track I'm So Bored. It was broadcast on the 29th October 1979.
I saw them at the Rainbow Theatre on the tour for the album and they were much more solid sounding than I had ever seen them before. Captain of course was as entertaining as ever and he seemed way more at home playing Guitar than he had with the Bass.
Their performance on The Old Grey Whistle Test of Smash It Up and I Just Can't Be Happy Today is the stuff of legend!
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