December 10th 1991 – Leicester Poly
My first full blown The Damned gig. No more Naz Nomad and the Nightmares, this WAS The Damned this time.
Dave Vanian and Rat Scabies remained, Captain Sensible was back and Paul Gray on Bass……Whenever you wonder if a band can carry on with a change of line up, The Damned spring to mind as a band that somehow exist bigger than the sum of the parts. As longs as one or two out of Vanian, Scabies, Sensible or Jones (who I never saw) were in the band, it feels like it would exist.
The reality is, if singer Dave Vanian was away from the band, I reckon that would the the end.
Well, it wasn’t 1976 anymore (when The Damned released the first ever puck record “New Rose”), but when the guys opened with “New Rose” it felt like it. The room went wild.
I guess you expect a band to go slowly slowly into the hits, nope, not The Damned, no time to warm up!
I was even more impressed with their music now I was hearing the songs not played at the Naz Nomad and the Nightmares concert a couple of years earlier.
Again, Dave played the crowd and whipped up a frenzy, with New Rose immediately followed by “Disco Man”….the crowd was already dripping. It was always a great rock concert when you were soaked to the skin and venture back outside to a cold Winter night!
What I liked most (and still do) about The Damned is the mix of aggression, tuneful songs and lyrics, which gave them a massive edge on pur punk of The Sex Pistols, which felt all together manufactured. These guys felt like they meant it.
“Melody Lee” is a case in point where you are treated to a beautiful piano start…….and then away we go!! and the mania goes again!
“Curtain Call” was an epic again with a mix of emotions running through it and not what you would call traditional punk, more a fusion of goth, punk and almost operatic. Add in short sharp 3 minute songs and another fun night. With anthens like “Love Song”, “Neat, Neat, Neat” and “Smash it up” it was one long singalong…..brilliant!
Interestingly, this set dropped all the songs from “Anything” and “Phantasmagoria” and returned to the best The Damned had on the earlier albums. You could see the crowd appreciated that.
We were so punk, we got the last bus home!!
Set List
- New Rose
- Disco Man
- Plan 9 Channel 7
- Born to Kill
- Help! (The Beatles cover)
- Melody Lee
- Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
- Love Song
- Looking at You (MC5 cover)
- Curtain Call
- Neat Neat Neat
- Noise Noise Noise
- Smash It Up
- 1970 (The Stooges cover)
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