THE DAMNED
The Damned usurped the Sex Pistols, working behind their backs
to become the first British punk band to release a record, the
first to have a hit single (the epochal "New Rose").
Their 1977 debut Damned Damned Damned epitomized this sound. Following
the debut, the Damned released a pair of similar records that
weren't quite as successful before delving into a bizarre affair
with goth-rock for several years in the early '80s. By the time
that was worked out of their system, several key members had left
the band and the group had nothing more than a cult following,
yet they still managed the odd hit single in the U.K. until the
late '80s, when the Damned decided to call it a day. But that
wasn't the end of the story. During the '90s, the band continually
reunited in various incarnations, playing concerts across England
and functioning as a sort of bizarre punk nostalgia act.
Of course, at the beginning of their career, it would have been
unthinkable to consider the Damned a band with a long future.
Like many British punks, the group's members had played in a variety
of pub-rock and fledgling punk bands, most notably Brian James
(b. Brian Robertson; guitar), who had played in London S.S. with
Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Terry Chimes, all of whom would later
form the Clash. The Damned's rise to notoriety was quick and ridiculous.
Performing their first concert in London in July 1976, the group
quickly became a sensation due to its drunken, riotous performances
which featured Scabies attacking the audience and Vanian dressed
as a vampire.
Within two months, the band signed with the fledgling Stiff Records
and its accompanying management, and the match couldn't have been
more perfect. The Damned and Stiff were both pranksters, determined
to take a bad joke as far as it could go, and that sensibility
made the group the first British punk band to release a record
In the spring of 1977, the band's Lowe-produced debut, Damned
Damned Damned, was released, beat all other British punks to the
punch.
Damned Damned Damned was well received and the pulled single,
"Neat Neat Neat"/"Stab Your Back," reached
the Top 40. The Damned were riding at the crest of their popularity
when things began to go wrong in the summer of 1977. Early in
1979, they regained their original name and added former Saint
Alistair Ward as bassist, signing to Chiswick Records. "Love
Song" and "Smash It Up" became Top 40 hits later
that year, and the accompanying album Machine Gun Etiquette was
greeted warmly.
In 1980, Ward was replaced by Paul Gray, the former bassist for
Eddie & the Hot Rods, and the group recorded the goth-tinged
The Black Album, which became their first album released in America.
The Damned later signed to MCA and released the full-fledged goth
album Phantasmagoria, which entered the UK charts at number 11.
The following year, the non-LP single "Eloise," a cover
of Barry Ryan's 1968 hit, became the biggest single of the group's
career, and the band released Anything at the end of the year.
In 1987, the double-disc compilation The Light at the End of the
Tunnel appeared.
Although the Damned had a surprising number of Top 40 hits between
1985 and 1987, their audience steadily declined, and in 1989,
they decided to split after a farewell tour of the U.K. Two years
later, the group reunited for a British tour, the first of several
reunion tours occurring sporadically over the course of the '90s;
1999's Eternal Damnation Live captures one of these gigs.
