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Fifty years after they declared war on music, the party continues for punk icons The Damned
By Scott Ellis
Nearly 50 years ago, at London’s infamous 100 Club, The Damned played their first gig.
They were there to support some mates who had started a group called the Sex Pistols. History was made.
With a melodious but still utterly anarchic sound and a stage presence like nothing the audience had seen, they fired the opening shots in the war punk rock was about to wage on the music establishment.
Damned if he does: Ian ‘Captain Sensible’ Burns performing in New Zealand last year.Credit: Dave Simpson/WireImage
And yes, The Damned’s guitarist Raymond Burns, better known as Captain Sensible, says it was as much fun as it looked.
“Back then, big bands like ELO, The Who and Eric Clapton were playing big stadiums and we were playing little pubs to about 30 or 40 people,” Burns says from his home in Portugal as he prepares to head back out on tour.
“For some reason or other – I suppose maybe it was because people were getting bored with seeing what must have looked like ants on a stage from a distance – getting up close to a band in a small venue was a kind of magic for the audience, and they kept coming.”
Ian Burns aka Captain Sensible at home in the early 1980s.Credit:
Audience participation, something the ironically nicknamed Sensible (“I’m not sensible at all,” he admits, “I’m up for the craic, basically”) has always encouraged, could take the gigs down what he calls “a fun route”, like the time he invited the crowd on the stage, only to watch them walk out with all the band’s gear. But that was punk, he laughs.
“There must be an element of danger to making music, it’s what makes it so special,” he says. “If every show was the same as the last one it’d be an absolute drag for the audience and the band.
“Anything can happen at a Damned show, especially back in the day when we were all raving alcoholics and some of the shows just disintegrated into complete chaos. But it was a lot of fun.”
A lifetime since that 1976 start, Burns is 69 but still more than ready to continue the party on stage with his bandmates (including original Damned singer Dave Vanian and drummer Rat Scabies).
“My theory is that you stay the same age mentally as you are when you join a band because people in bands, they don’t have to worry about the responsible stuff that most people have to,” he says, “We’re still juvenile delinquents. Plus there’s still something great about standing in front of a bloomin’ great amplifier and turning it up to the max. It’s certainly better than sitting at home watching the TV.”
The Damned had a stage presence like nothing the audience had seen.Credit:
That’s a philosophy that has kept Burns at the forefront of the music world since that riotous debut. There have been multiple world tours and hits as part of The Damned, plus a solo career that saw him land a UK No.1 hit with (bizarrely) a cover of the Rodgers and Hammerstein show tune Happy Talk.
This tour, the band will concentrate on tracks from their releases The Black Album (from 1980) and Strawberries (1982), recordings Burns says were made by the band’s current line-up “when we went on this kind of garage psychedelia Goth adventure of ours”.
He also promises “a smattering (of tunes) from across the career for good measure”, no doubt adding up to something The Damned are well known for – tunes the fans know, but played in a way they’ve never heard before.
“The thing about Rat Scabies is he plays each song as if he’s performing it for the first time,” The Captain says.
“He doesn’t go by structure the way most drummers would do it … he just plays the drum solo from the start of each song, basically.
“Then there’s Paul Gray, who is a virtuoso bass player – he once said to me, if he got paid per the amount of notes he throws into a set that he’d be a multimillionaire by now; Vanian has still got that fruity baritone; and I’ve learned to play my guitar by now. So it all bodes well for a fun evening.
“It’s amazing that it’s lasted this long, and people are still interested. Long may it continue while we’re this side of the soil.”
The Damned play at the Enmore Theatre on March 21 and Northcote Theatre on March 22.
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