the damned tour 1980

The Damned: an epic tale of fast living and faster music

A fast history of punk legends The Damned. Includes: gob, vomit, cider, sulphate, haunted mansions, Cheesey Wotsits, arguments, breakdowns and mad, bad and dangerously loud rock music

“At one point Lemmy came up to me and said, ‘I wanna have a word with you about your drinking’,” says Captain Sensible. “Well, when someone like Lemmy says that to you, you listen. He said, ‘Remember: it’s not what you drink, or how much you drink, it’s how fast you drink.’” The Captain finishes his Grolsch and orders a glass of water. “I’m pleasantly surprised to have come through it and still be alive,” he says.

Welcome to an epic tale of fast living and faster music. The Damned were the first UK punk band to release a record, the first UK punk band to tour America, the first to split up (in 1978), and the first to reform, six months later (when the Clash were only on their second album). They’ve had more line-up changes than Marlon Brando had hot dinners (with both Motorhead’s Lemmy and Culture Club’s Jon Moss joining briefly). Their guitarist became a red-beret wearing novelty pop star. They became synonymous with the 80s goth movement and dented the charts with Eloise . Along the way they’ve been shot at, beaten up, hoodwinked, spat on and chased around venues by three-legged dogs.

Meet Brian James, guitarist, songwriter and the man who was The Damned for a short while. “We used to do a fair bit of speed,” says Brian, “but we used to drink a lot so we needed it to stay awake.” He shrugs: “I like playing fast . I like playing loud .”

Meet Dave Vanian, vocalist and wannabe vamp: “People would ask you why you joined a band,” says Dave, “and other people would say, ‘Well, I want to drink as much as I can, take as many drugs as I can, fuck as many women as I can…’ and all that stuff. What I wanted was the haunted mansion on the hill. With the bats flying around it and the laboratory. And if I got a couple of girls inside of it, great…”

Meet Captain Sensible, sometime punk legend, novelty pop star and Damned bassist, guitarist and songwriter: “We had a saying in the band,” says Captain. “‘The first rule is: there’s no rules’. I’m a working class bloke. I genuinely was a toilet cleaner. Rat was a toilet cleaner. Dave genuinely was a grave digger. If someone comes up to me and says ‘Will you do an ad for Golden Wonder Cheesey Wotsits?’ Am I supposed to say, ‘Fack off! I ain’t doin that shit! I’m gonna stand up for me principles, mate, fuck off! I don’t need that fifty grand!’ When I’m eating Pot Noodles, living in a council flat? I don’t think so. I’m like, ‘Gimme that cash!’”

Meet Rat Scabies, punk pioneer, hell-raiser and The Damned’s surrogate Keith Moon. “…….. ” says Rat. “ …….”. By all accounts, Rat isn’t normally this quiet. Rat, you see, has refused to be interviewed about The Damned, having had a bit of a falling out with the rest of the band over a - cough! - small business matter.

A shame, but that’s The Damned all over: a tempestuous tale of gob, vomit, cider, sulphate, haunted mansions, Cheesey Wotsits, arguments, breakdowns and mad, bad and dangerously loud rock music.

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As the All Music Guide once put it: “The Damned weren’t revolutionaries, they were drunken louts that would do anything for a prank”. It’s a misconception that has done the band no favours over the years: while the Sex Pistols have been the subject of movies, documentaries and books, and The Clash have had a posthumous number one and an Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement Award, The Damned have been overlooked.

“We were outsiders even in the early days,” says Vanian, “‘cos we used to say what we actually felt rather than words that were put in our mouths. I always felt that The Clash’s political stance came from their management more than anything else. He [Clash manager Bernie Rhodes] seemed to have heard about how the MC5 did it in the 60s and decided to copy that. People were believing statements like ‘We’re only here for the kids’, when we’d hear them saying stuff like ‘Oh, when’s the limo coming round?’”

While Johnny Rotten poured negativity on everything (packaged up nicely, meanwhile, in Vivienne Westwood clothes) and the Clash tried their hardest to live up to a manifesto, the Damned were a whole other kettle of fish. “We just adopted this persona of being as troublesome and chaotic onstage as possible,” Rat said later. This generally meant alcohol-fuelled destruction, nudity, vomit, reckless behaviour, verbal abuse and lashings of gob. The kinda stupid shit young working class people do, in other words.

“I was only interested in politics in terms of stirring things up,” says Brian. “If things are flat and boring and you’re being programmed to be like your grandparents then something’s wrong. Something’s wrong if you’ve gotta spend all your life working for a fucking pittance. We weren’t shouting about anarchy or giving it the big Clash number but that was never what we were in it for. We just loved music and we just wanted to play. It was about expression, action y’know? The fun was a bonus. We might’ve been larking about a bit onstage, but we were still coming up with the goods.”

They weren’t hypocrites either. “On the Anarchy In The UK tour [the short-lived punk tour with the Pistols, The Clash and Johnny Thunders],” remembers Dave, “we were in the back of a van, they were in four star hotels. We wouldn’t be hypocritical. We’d say we wanted money - it’d be stupid to say otherwise, y’know, we wanted to make a living - and in some sense that classed us as outsiders.”

Significantly, the Damned refused to go along with the idea that all the music that had come before punk was for hippies. “We refused to go along with the old farts thing,” says Vanian, “saying that all the older music was rubbish. We were only ever against the stuff that was rubbish.”

That said, the music scene at the time more sorely lacking in excitement. “In ‘76 there was nothing to listen to,” says Captain, a confirmed Santana and Hendrix fan. “I didn’t really like The Band and Little Feat and all that stuff. Clapton had gone down the toilet, and that slow country rock thing really wasn’t my cup of tea. And it was that or the Osmonds. So when the Ramones came along it was a revelation. All that ‘1-2-3-4’ stuff: that’s what it’s all about!”

“The charts were pretty crappy at the time,” remembers Dave who - as a teenager in Hemel Hempstead, got his kicks from 60s garage bands like The Seeds and Strawberry Alarm Clock, as well as early Gene Vincent, Alice Cooper and film music. “I managed to see the New York Dolls when they came over back in ‘73 or ‘74. They were like a throwback to the ‘50s Shangri Las period. I thought Johnny Thunders was a great guitarist and of course Brian had come from a long line of those Keith Richards-y type guitar players.”

Guitarist Brian James had played at Phun City, the legendary 1970 festival in Worthing that had been the largest free festival in the UK. Headlined by hippy’s militant wing – the MC5, the Pretty Things, Pink Fairies etc – it had a huge influence on the young Brian. When his high-octane rock failed to land an audience in the UK, he took it to a more appreciative audience in Europe. “I had a band previous to The Damned called Bastard and we were located in Brussels,” he says. “No-one in England would book us. We were just too fucking up for it for them. It was the aftermath of the hippy thing, pub rock – this would be like ‘73/‘74 – so we fucked off to Belgium where people were into the American bands like the Stooges, MC5, the Dolls, Lou Reed, all these good people…

“When I came back in ‘76 I teamed up with a couple of guys in England, Tony James and Mick Jones. They were trying to get a band going called London SS. And then we started auditioning people and I was just really, really surprised at the people coming out of the woodwork that were actually into that kind of music - there was no sign of them a year before.”

“I met Brian through an ad in Melody Maker ,” says Captain. “He had vision. He had this plan of taking over the world through thrashy punk music. And he had a bunch of songs that were exactly what I wanted to hear. It booted butt, and there was nothing like it over on this side of the Atlantic.”

Brian had already hooked up with drummer Chris Miller, soon re-christened Rat Scabies when, at his audition for the London SS, a rat appeared in the rehearsal rooms. Miller had scabies at the time; his nickname was sealed.

“To me, punk was like a fucking dream come true,” says Brian. “Suddenly I was able to play these songs I’d written. Finding like-minded musicians: finding Rat was such a fucking *turn-on*, a drummer that wanted to play like I did. And then there was these guys we were getting introduced to called the Sex Pistols, and they were playing - not with the same musical flair - but with totally negative attitudes to all the hippy-dippy stuff that was still lingering about. Then Mick had teamed up with a couple of guys and they’d got The Clash together, Tony James had Generation X. There was a lot of attitude, bands forming and splintering and other bands forming out of that. It was a really exciting time for a while.”

Dave Vanian had been hanging around Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood’s shop, at that point called Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die (later to become Sex). “I bluffed my way into the musical industry,” says Dave. “I sang in my bedroom and realised that I could hold a note or two. McLaren was looking to put people together and I told him that I’d sang in some local bands. He liked the way I looked, I s’pose. I was all in black, but a little weirder looking. All made up, spikey hair and six inch tall granny boots: high lace up Victorian boots with massive heels. I suppose I used to look quite androgynous and I used to get loads of stick. I was forever getting into fights. It was a nightmare. When Captain was brought in he had all this corkscrew hair like Marc Bolan. I remember Malcolm saying, ‘I don’t wanna use ‘im - ‘e’s just a facking ‘ippy!’”

While McLaren went off to manage the Sex Pistols, the nucleus of the Damned was formed. Brian asked Dave if he’d like to audition as singer. “I found out that there was another guy auditioning so I turned up early to see what he’d be like. He never turned up and I got the job. The weird thing is, the guy who never turned up was Sid Vicious. I often wondered whether, if he had showed up, he’d have become the lead singer in the Damned.”

Getting the gig meant Dave had to leave his job as a grave digger in Hemel. “I actually only did it to give me some time to think about what the hell I was going to do with my life,” he says. “But they offered me some perks to stay and stuff, and I was making a hell of a lot more money digging graves than I was with the Damned, I’ll tell ya.”

New Rose was released in October 1976, pipping the Sex Pistols’ Anarchy In The UK to become the first record released by a UK punk band . Stiff had rushed them into the studio to record the single and album before the Sex Pistols and the pace was matched by the music. It didn’t stop to mess around.

“The album was raw,” says Sensible. “It’s all first takes and hardly any overdubs at all. Fuelled on sulphate and cider, if I remember rightly. We knocked it out in two days with [producer] Nick Lowe. It doesn’t seem that fast nowadays, but at the time, people used to say, ‘Did you speed the album up?’ Ridiculous. But it’s raw and it doesn’t sound polished at all, compared to the Pistols stuff. I mean, take Rotten off and it could be Bad Company or somebody like that. Slow and turgid, I thought. We laughed when we heard Anarchy - couldn’t believe it.”

Rat’s pounding drums, Brian’s razor-sharp riffs and short squealing solos, Sensible’s manic driving bass lines and Vanian’s snarling vocals (his throaty gothic croon didn’t come until a couple of years later) created the sound of a band in a rush to get to the point (or, more likely, the bar). A frantic and furious British version of the Stooges and the MC5, it made the Clash look timid and the Pistols look turgid. The single came out in October, the album was scheduled for February, and in between was the small matter of the Anarchy In The UK Tour with the Sex Pistols, Clash and Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers. The tour started on the 3rd of December. By the 7th, the Damned had been thrown off and labelled ‘punk traitors’: in Derby, the council had refused to let the Pistols play, but said the other bands could. The Clash and the Heartbreakers refused, but the Damned were willing to consider it. And that made them sell-outs.

If you believe Malcolm McLaren’s side of the story, that is. “The truth is,” says Brian, “the only reason Malcolm wanted the Damned on the Anarchy tour was because the Pistols had hardly ever played outside of London. I don’t think the Clash had ever played outside of London, and we had. We had a bit of an audience going, so he wanted to make sure the Damned were on the bill otherwise 30 miles outside of London there’d be no-one there.

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“The night before all the bands were doing a soundcheck when the Pistols came running in: ‘You won’t fucking believe it! We’ve just done the Bill Grundy show… blah blah blah’. Laughing about it. The next day, it’s all over the fucking papers, Bill Grundy’s sacked, the whole thing. And the full effect of that kicks in maybe two days into the tour. At that point, the line-up was the Pistols headlining, the Damned before the Pistols, and then Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers and the Clash on first.

“Two nights into the tour, Malcolm starts having a go at our tour manager. He was like an office boy at Stiff, he wasn’t an experienced manager or anything, he was just there to make sure we got to our hotels and stuff. We weren’t travelling with the rest of them. They had record company support: EMI, CBS and stuff like that. They had a big coach, we had a little Transit. We weren’t part of ‘the Malcolm McLaren gang’. So Malcolm gives this kid such a hard time, saying ‘I don’t need the Damned’ and all this shit, that he’s in tears. So I steamed in and I had a go at Malcolm: ‘What the fuck are you on about?’ I didn’t give a fuck in them days, I was ready to fuckin’ hit ‘im to tell you the truth. But he had his bodyguards.

“So it comes to this big showdown. Malcolm wants the Damned to go on first, then Heartbreakers, then the Clash… It turned into this big political number. Meanwhile, the gigs were being cancelled because the promoters were getting the heebie-jeebies because of all the bad press. We’re getting all this crap from McLaren and there’s people contacting our office saying, ‘Will the Damned play anyway?’ We’d turn up somewhere like Manchester to find the gig’s cancelled, but they still want us: ‘Fuck it, we’ll do it’. What are we meant to do? Say, ‘Oh no, we’re not doing it! Not if our mate Malcolm’s not doing it!’? You know what I mean? I could’ve fucking killed that bastard!”

The incident as reported in the music press ruined some of the band’s credibility. Years later, in Jon Savage’s respected punk tome England’s Dreaming , it was still being distorted: the Damned weren’t good enough, the Clash wanted to be higher up the bill, the Damned couldn’t be trusted. “Total nonsense. Him [Savage] and McLaren have re-written things,” says Sensible. “These people - they refuse to allow the rest of us any credit for dreaming things up or having intelligence. So of course punk didn’t start in the bars down Portobello Road with the bands, it was McLaren and Vivienne Westwood. Nothing to do with us.”

The Anarchy Tour wasn’t the only tour the Damned got thrown off. A support slot with US rockers the Flamin’ Groovies was also short lived. “They couldn’t keep up with us, I’m afraid,” says Captain. “I wouldn’t have liked to work with the Damned at the time, to be quite honest. It was quite dangerous, I’d imagine. To have come through it still alive… I’m not overstating it: there was serious amounts of lunacy going on. If the hotel was next to another building, we’d jump from roof to roof, pissed as parrots, just to get the flag off the roof. I’m scared of heights! The things you do when you’re paralytic…

“We had banners made up that said ‘Gob now!’ And we’d hold the banners up behind the band we were working with. The audience, of course, would comply and the band would be absolutely covered in stuff. We had one support band, they got the whole fisherman’s outfits - sowesters, everything - and they wore them every night onstage! The Flamin’ Groovies didn’t approve! They’d never seen anything like it. There was another band that came over from New Zealand, called Split Enz. They had weird haircuts and funny clothes and in Australia they were shocking people by the way they looked. They came out on stage in the UK and the audience shocked them! Straight on the first plane back home they were. They were pretty manic days.”

The mania continued. For their second album, Brian decided he wanted a second guitarist. Rat and Captain disagreed. “We thought Brian could cover it,” says Captain. “When you’ve got that big wall of noise, you don’t need two of them doing it. Throughout the auditions we were doing everything we could to put people off.”

Like what? “Like spitting at them as they were auditioning. And we’d be playing with our trousers and pants down around our ankles, y’know, urinating on the floor, stuff like that. Out of the 30-40 people we saw that day, most of them didn’t even last one song. This character Lu gave loads back, he loved it. His name was Robert Edmunds, but we called him Lu, short for Lunatic. We were like, ‘Get that lunatic back, he was the only one that had any bottle!’”

The album, Music For Pleasure , recorded with Lu and produced by Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason (The Damned share a publishing company with Floyd – initially, they wanted Syd Barrett), was a disappointment to the band, fans and critics. Today, Brian blames the record company rushing them into the studio with half-finished songs, the posh studios it was done in, and the fact that the band were knackered. (Why didn’t they take a break? “They kept us on the road,” says Brian, “kept us working. They wanted the money coming in.”)

The album came out in November ‘77, their second in one year, and despite standouts like Problem Child, Stretcher Case Baby and Creep , it didn’t live up to expectations. On their UK tour that month, Jon Moss – better known later as the drummer for Culture Club – replaced Rat Scabies. “Rat had a bit of a breakdown in France. He built a campfire in the middle of his hotel room. It was quite cute in a way,” laughs Brian. “Except that he’d drunk a bottle of brandy or something and was threatening to jump out the window. At that point, our only bit of normality was the three quarters of an hour on stage. It was only then that no-one was sticking stuff down our throats or up our noses. Offstage, people’d be… celebrating. And it’s hard to wind down when you’re not used to it. And I think it’d got to Rat. He’d partied hard, *real hard*.”

Jon Moss took over for the UK tour, but auditions for a permanent new drummer didn’t go smoothly. An old rocker who’d drummed with the likes of Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran turned up. ““He had all these great stories,” says Brian, “and you don’t meet these people very often. There were all these drummers queuing up to do their bit - I did feel a bit sorry for them - but we left them waiting and went to the pub. For about two hours.”

Brian had lost interest: “I said to the other guys, ‘Look, I want to break the band up’. I don’t think the Captain was very happy about it. But it wasn’t working.”

“It was Brian’s baby,” says Captain now. “It was his vision and his songs that made us. And when that happens people say, ‘You’re the talent in this band, you don’t need the rest of them.’ I think people were saying that to Brian. I was pretty pissed off, to be quite honest. I could see the toilets beckoning. They’d said they’d keep me job open for me! I didn’t know what to do with myself. Six months later we got back together again, without Brian.”

Captain moved over to his first love, lead guitar, and they got a new bass player, Algy Ward, previously of Aussie punks The Saints. The remaining members, meanwhile, discovered a songwriting chemistry they didn’t know existed. The Captain’s first attempt at a song was Love Song , a blistering two and a half minutes of punk pop thrash. It went to number 20. The resultant album, Machine Gun Etiquette is now thought by many to be their best.

“I think people thought we were washed up,” says Vanian. “The songwriter of our hit album, gone. Guitarist, gone. You’d think that was it. But Captain had always been a great guitarist and when we all started writing it was obvious there was a lot of chemistry there. We went in different directions and I think that’s what has kept the band alive, somehow: each album moves somewhere.”

1980’s The Black Album was double vinyl and a deliberate nod to the Beatles’ White Album . Neither as indulgent or as streaked with genius as the Fab Four’s creation, for a punk band it nevertheless pushed the boundaries. At 17 minutes, marvellous epic Curtain Call filled a whole side of vinyl. Keyboard wizard and soundtrack composer Hans Zimmer produced History Of The World Pt. 1 . Dave Vanian, meanwhile, revealed himself to be one of the most distinctive and gifted singers of the era (“My voice dropped about an octave,” he says. “I could reach much lower notes than I had ever been able to previously. Consequently I wasn’t able to reach the higher notes either”).

Algy Ward was out, Paul Gray was in, and this time around they produced the album themselves on an old pig farm in Wales. “The record company said, ‘You can’t produce yourselves, it’s the kiss of death’,” remembers Dave. “They were freaking out. They sent this guy down to hear the results, so we recorded a really terrible track – out of tune vocals and all this bullshit – and we arranged it so that as he pulled into the car park I was shooting a shotgun at one of the band as he ran off screaming, ‘I’m never fucking working in this band again!” The guy arrives in the middle of all this chaos, comes in and hears this terrible track, turns around and says, ‘Sounds great!’”

Despite a lack of commercial success, the band had hit a purple patch. Follow-up album Strawberries was even better: concise pop songs with beautiful melodies, great rock hooks, clever arrangements and brilliant production. They switched record labels, lost and gained personnel (Roman Jugg joined on keyboards), but still the big hits eluded them. Well, not all of them. Captain Sensible’s version of Rogers and Hammerstein’s Happy Talk , recorded as a joke filler for a solo album he’d been working on, was released as a single in June ‘82 (months before the release of Strawberries ). It went to number one and made Sensible a novelty pop star.

“I suppose it happens in other bands, but usually it’s not the guitarist it happens to,” says Captain. “ Sounds had described me as ‘one of the world’s most disgusting slobs’. We were pretty rancid and disgusting and the joke was that I wasn’t the sort of person that should’ve sung a song like that. People were playing it for that reason at first and then it became a monster hit. A few months before it I’d done a single with [anarcho-punks] Crass! That was me. Happy Talk wasn’t.”

Over the next couple of years, tensions set in. “I thought we could co-exist, but I just didn’t realise it wouldn’t work,” says Sensible. “I remember a gig in north Wales where a limousine came and picked me up and whisked me off to do some promotional thing and the rest of them had to get in the back of some Transit van. It must’ve upset them.”

Vanian disagrees: “That never worried me,” he says. “All this bullshit of people selling out. If the TV people want to pay for some nice car to pick you up, why not take advantage of it? Why go on the bloody bus? Take it - it’s not going to last forever. To me it was great ‘cos here was this great eccentric character, part of our British heritage, getting in the back of a limo going ‘Lend us a fiver. Ah, fuck you mate!’. The thing about Captain is: what you see is what you get. It’s not an act. He genuinely is a complete… weirdo.”

When his solo career took off, the good Captain was hitting the sauce pretty hard.  “We used to have this thing called the 24 Hour Club,” he says. “If you went to bed you'd be ejected from the club. So the 24 Hour Club would sometimes run for four or five days, gambling all night, drinking, substances. The Ruts, the Damned – and a bunch of coke dealers – heh-heh, I didn't say that. 

“So I ended up on kids TV several times, completely blitzed out of my mind. I remember Mike Read said to me on one Saturday Superstore: 'Captain, you seem to be on very good form this morning - why don't you sing us a tune?' I was like, 'I'll give you a tune!' I jumped on the table, tap-dancing, kicking everything all over the place, singing at the top of me voice. I slipped on the table, fell off backwards, banged me head on the studio floor and passed out. I was carried out by two blokes on a stretcher, live on Saturday Superstore. Completely zonked.” 

Down but not out, The Damned made their biggest comeback yet. Their new material won them a major label deal with MCA, Roman Jugg moved on to guitar, and Grimly Fiendish a comic up-tempo Goth-meets-Madness number went to number 21 in the UK. The Phantasmagoria album saw them flirt with goth (albeit a far more fun and melodic version than the po-faced doom of the Sisters Of Mercy or Fields of the Nephilim). It reached number 11 and was repackaged in 1986 when a single not on the album reached number two in the UK, their highest chart placing: Eloise , a cover of a 60s hit for Barry Ryan, and written by his brother Paul.

“I’ve got this short list of covers I’ve always wanted to do and that was on the list,” explains Vanian. “I liked Paul Ryan’s writing because it’s not as straight as you first think it is. On the surface they seem like sugary love songs, but really they’re all quite twisted songs about weird situations. The original lyrics of Eloise were banned by the BBC: it’s about an obsession he’d had with a stripper."

“It’s a sad story," he says. "When we covered it, I ended up on TV with Paul and Barry doing interviews, and it was great. Lovely guy. We rekindled his whole interest in writing and he went out and bought a keyboard and started writing again. He recorded some demos and it was the last work he ever did: he killed himself in a bout of depression. In fact, I have a demo of a song that he gave me which at some point we may do. It’s about John Lennon and it’s probably the last song he ever wrote.”

MCA rushed them into the studio for a follow-up, despite the band’s protestations. The result, Anything , was the worst album of their career: over-produced and lacking classic songs. For the first time, the band faced absolute disinterest from fans and record company. MCA dropped them at the end of 1987, then began a series of reunion gigs. “Things really started to fizzle out for us,” says Vanian. “The MCA thing had ended and certain people in the band had got used to that kind of lifestyle. We just didn’t know where it was going.

As the popular music scene was gripped by grunge and then Britpop, The Damned seemed out of step. Vanian threw himself into his side project, The Phantom Chords, while Rat came up with a plan. According to Vanian, the idea was to record an album of guitarist Allan Lee Shaw’s songs for release in Japan only. With the money from that, they’d go in to the studio and work on a proper Damned album. The album, Not Of This Earth was released in Japan and then America, against Vanian’s wishes but with Rat’s approval. It spelt the end of a long relationship. “I don’t bear any animosity towards Rat,” says Vanian. “We hadn’t spoken for a while but we do now. It took me a while to get over it though.”

Six months later, in February ‘96, the Damned were back together without Scabies, but with Sensible. Vanian’s partner Patrica Morrison, formerly of the Gun Club and the Sisters of Mercy, joined on bass. Years of gigging and songwriting paid off with a record deal with Dexter Holland of The Offspring’s Nitro Records. The album, Grave Disorder , was an amazing return to form. So, Who’s Paranoid? followed seven years later. At the 2012 Classic Rock Awards, they won the Outstanding Contribution Award.

“Some people burn very brightly and then they dim for a while and then they suddenly come back better than ever,” says Vanian. “I don’t know if anyone has been consistently brilliant throughout their whole career - not if they’ve had a long career anyway. At the beginning you’re hungry, you’re broke… In some ways that hasn’t changed for us! Maybe that’s what gives us an edge.”

“Yeah,” says Captain, “I can’t think of any bands that’re absolutely stinking rich that make good music, can you? And we’ve always been brassic…”

The Story Behind The Song: New Rose by The Damned

Scott is the Content Director of Music at Future plc, responsible for the editorial strategy of online and print brands like Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer, Prog, Guitarist, Guitar World, Guitar Player, Total Guitar etc. He was Editor in Chief of Classic Rock magazine for 10 years and Editor of Total Guitar for 4 years and has contributed to The Big Issue, Esquire and more. Scott wrote chapters for two of legendary sleeve designer Storm Thorgerson 's books ( For The Love Of Vinyl , 2009, and Gathering Storm , 2015). He regularly appears on Classic Rock’s podcast, The 20 Million Club , and was the writer/researcher on 2017’s Mick Ronson documentary Beside Bowie . 

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The Damned announce US tour with 80s line up

The 80s line-up of The Damned will play USA this May and June. Of course, Dave Vanian, paul gray, Captain Sensible, and Rat scabies will be tearing through tracks from the band's 80s classics. You can see the dates below.

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The Damned – History, Members, Songs & Fun Facts

Jonathon Emery

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The Damned: Biography

The Damned are an English punk rock band formed in London in 1976. The original lineup consisted of Dave Vanian (vocals), Brian James (guitar), Rat Scabies (drums), and Captain Sensible (bass).

The Damned were one of the first punk bands in the UK and they soon gained recognition for their raw, energetic sound and provocative onstage antics. They released their debut single “New Rose ” in October 1976, which is often cited as the first true punk rock single.

The band’s debut album Damned Damned Damned was released the following year and was hailed as the first punk rock album released in the UK. In 1977, the band released their second album, Music for Pleasure , which wasn’t as well received as their debut album, but which is still an excellent punk rock album. The Damned became known for their anarchic live shows and their ability to mix punk and gothic rock together.

In 1979, The Damned released their third full-length album, Machine Gun Etiquette , which featured the hits “Love Song” and “Smash It Up (Part 2) “ . The album marked a new direction for the band and saw them move away from their more traditional punk sound and embrace a more diverse range of styles, from pop to reggae to rockabilly.

The Damned continued to record and tour for the next decade, releasing the albums The Black Album (1980), Strawberries (1982), Phantasmagoria (1985) and Anything (1986). Their sound shifted more in the direction of gothic rock during this time. In 1988, The Damned split up, but reformed a few years later with a new lineup featuring members of The Godfathers and New Model Army . This lineup would tour for about two years before recording and releasing Not of This Earth (1995). Another breakup, another reunion, and more lineup changes would occur, including the return of Captain Sensible in 1996. The reunited band released a couple of albums in the early 2000s, Grave Disorder (2001) and So, Who’s Paranoid? (2008).

The Damned are still active today and continue to tour and release music, most recently with their 2018 album Evil Spirits . The Damned are considered one of the most influential punk bands of all time and remain one of the most enduring first wave punk bands of all time.

The Damned: FAQs

Is the damned goth.

The Damned are not a strictly goth band, but they have been credited as one of the pioneering bands of the gothic rock genre. The band’s music incorporates elements of punk, goth, and psychedelic rock, and their aesthetic has often been associated with the goth scene. However, The Damned have never considered themselves a strictly goth band and have resisted being pigeonholed into any one genre.

Are The Damned punk?

Yes, The Damned are a punk rock band. They were one of the first punk bands to release a single and an album in the UK, and they were also one of the first to tour the United States. The band’s early music was heavily influenced by the likes of The Stooges and The New York Dolls, and their raw, energetic sound helped to define the punk genre.

What genre is The Damned?

The Damned are a punk rock band, but their music incorporates elements of other genres, including goth, rockabilly, and psychedelic rock. As a result, they are often associated with the gothic rock genre. However, The Damned consider themselves a punk band with a unique and eclectic sound.

Are The Damned still together?

Yes, The Damned are still together. The band has undergone numerous lineup changes over the years, but founding members Dave Vanian and Captain Sensible have remained constants in the band. The Damned continue to tour and perform regularly, and they have released a total of eleven studio albums, with their most recent, Evil Spirits , being released in 2018.

Who is currently in The Damned?

The current lineup of The Damned consists of founding members Dave Vanian on vocals, and Captain Sensible on guitar, and well as Paul Gray on bass, Monty Oxymoron on keyboards, and Will Taylor on drums.

Where did The Damned get their name?

Founding guitarist Brian James named the band after the 1969 film, “The Damned”, a historical drama set in 1930’s in Nazi Germany. James apparently chose the name because it resembled the band’s woefully unlucky circumstances at the time.

Was The Damned the first punk band?

The Damned were not the first punk band, but they were one of the earliest punk bands to record and and music, and also to tour in the U.S. The band’s debut single, “New Rose,” was released in 1976 and is considered to be the first punk single to be released in the UK.

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If all The Damned had ever done was to simply release the first-ever Punk record in Britain their place in history of the music would be guaranteed, but they did so much more.

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If all The Damned had ever done was to simply release the first-ever Punk record in Britain their place in the history of the music would be guaranteed, but they did so much more. The Damned’s fifteen plus chart singles and eight chart albums made them a favourite of not just Punk music but also Goth Rock.

“New Rose” came out in late October 1976, three months after they had played their second ever gig as support for the Sex Pistols . Their debut album, Damned, Damned, Damned , produced by Nick Lowe, was released on Stiff Records in February 1977 and delivered fully on the promise of being one of the most exciting bands on the London Punk scene. According to Paul Conroy, the former General Manager of Stiff Records , “ Stiff and the Damned were a perfect pairing, they were one of the most exciting bands from that time and we managed to get much of that excitement from the stage to the studio.” Later in 1977, they became the first British Punk band to play gigs in America, although it did not result in their selling big in the USA, New Rose has subsequently been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame .

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Music For Pleasure , produced by Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason, was not a hit and Stiff soon after dropped the band; what’s now difficult to hear is why it wasn’t more popular, time has made this a much better record. They then recorded for Chiswick Records but success was elusive until signing to Bronze Records and recording the album Strawberries , which made No.15 in 1982. At the same time, Captain Sensible had a No.1 in Britain with “Happy Talk” for A&M , which was taken from the album, Women and Captains First . It was the 1985 album Phantasmagoria that proved to be the most successful chart album of their career. A year later their cover of Paul & Barry Ryan’s “Eloise” made No.3 on the UK chart and their album Anything included the cover of Love’s classic “Alone Again Or”, which made the Top 30.

Today The Damned, including Captain Sensible and Dave Vanian, are still touring and their love of oddball pseudonyms has not abated given that their keyboard player is the wonderfully-handled Monty Oxy Moron.

Eschewing political posing, ill-fitting outside rhetoric, and simply doing the same thing over and over again, the group — which lacked anything like a stable lineup — took punk’s simplicity and promise as a starting point and ran with it. The end result, at the group’s finest: a series of inspired, ambitious albums and amazing live shows combining full-on rock energy, a stylish sense of performance, and humorous deadpan cool. Not necessarily what anyone would have thought when Ray Burns and Chris Millar met in 1974 when both ended up working backstage at the Croydon Fairfield Hall.

Burns and Millar — more famously known in later years as guitarist/singer Captain Sensible and manic drummer Rat Scabies — kept in touch as both struggled in the stultifying mid-’70s London scene. Things picked up when Scabies talked his way into a rehearsal with London S.S., the shifting lineup ground zero of U.K. punk that nearly everybody seemed to belong to at one point or another. There he met guitarist Brian James, while in a separate venture overseen by Malcolm McLaren, casting about for his own particular group to oversee, Scabies first met theatrical singer Dave Vanian, still working through his New York Dolls / Alice Cooper obsession. Vanian’s own history allegedly included singing “I Love the Dead” and “Dead Babies” while working as a gravedigger, but whatever the background, he proved to be a perfect frontman. Scabies put Sensible in touch with Vanian and James and the Damned were born, with Sensible switching over to bass while James handled guitar and songwriting.

Though the Sex Pistols became the most publicized of all the original London punk groups, forming and playing before everyone else, the Damned actually ended up scoring most of the firsts on its own, notably the first U.K. punk single — “New Rose” — in 1976 and the first album,  Damned, Damned, Damned , the following year. Produced by Nick Lowe, both were clipped, direct explosions of sheer energy, sometimes rude but never less than entertaining. The group ended up sacked from the Pistols’ cancellation-plagued full U.K. tour after only one show, but rebounded with an opening slot on the final T.Rex tour, while further tweaking everyone else’s noses by being the first U.K. act to take punk back to America via a New York jaunt. Things started to get fairly shaky after that, however, with Lu Edmonds drafted in on second guitar and plans for the group’s second album,  Music for Pleasure , not succeeding as hoped for. The members wanted legendary rock burnout, Syd Barrett, to produce, but had to settle for his Pink Floyd bandmate Nick Mason. The indifferent results and other pressures convinced Scabies to call it a day, and while future Culture Club drummer Jon Moss was drafted in to cover, the group wrapped it up in early 1978.

Or so it seemed; after various go-nowhere ventures (Sensible tried the retro-psych King, Vanian temporarily joined glam-too-late oddballs the Doctors of Madness), all the original members save James realized they still enjoyed working together. Settling the legal rights to the name after some shows incognito in late 1978, the group, now with Sensible playing lead guitar (and also the first U.K. punk band to reunite), embarked on its most successful all-around period. With a series of bassists — first ex-Saints member Algy Ward, then Eddie and the Hot Rods refugee Paul Gray and finally Bryn Merrick — the Damned proceeded to make a run of stone-cold classic albums and singles. There’d be plenty of low points amidst the highs, to be sure, but it’s hard to argue with the results. Vanian’s smart crooning and spooky theatricality ended up more or less founding goth rock inadvertently (with nearly all his clones forgetting what he always kept around — an open sense of humour). Sensible, meanwhile, turned out to be an even better guitarist than James, a master of tight riffs and instantly memorable melodies and, when needed, a darn good keyboardist, while Scabies’ ghost-of-Keith Moon drumming was some of the most entertaining yet technically sharp work on that front in years.

The one-two punch of Machine Gun Etiquette , the 1979 reunion record, and the following year’s The Black Album demonstrated the band’s staying power well, packed with such legendary singles as the intentionally ridiculous “Love Song,” the anthemic “Smash It Up,” and “Wait for the Blackout” and the catchy Satanism (if you will) of “I Just Can’t Be Happy Today.” On the live front, the Damned were unstoppable, riding out punk’s supposed death with a series of fiery performances laden with both great playing and notable antics, from Sensible’s penchant for clothes-shedding to Vanian’s eye for horror style and performance. Released in 1982,  Strawberries  found the Damned creating another generally fine release, but to less public acclaim than Sensible’s solo work, the guitarist having surprisingly found himself a number one star with a version of “Happy Talk” from South Pacific. While the dual career lasted for a year or two more, the Damned found themselves starting to fracture again with little more than a hardcore fan base supporting the group work — Sensible finally left in mid-1984 after disputes over band support staff hirings and firings. Second guitarist Roman Jugg, having joined some time previously, stepped to the lead and the band continued on.

To everyone’s surprise, not only did the Damned bounce back, they did so in a very public way — first by ending up on a major label, MCA , who issued Phantasmagoria in 1985, then scoring the massive U.K. hit via a cover of “Eloise,” a melodramatic ’60s smash for Barry Ryan. It was vindication on a commercial level a decade after having first started, but the Anything album in 1986, flashes of inspiration aside, felt far more anonymous in comparison, the band’s worst since Music for Pleasure . After a full career retrospective release, The Light at the End of the Tunnel , the band undertook a variety of farewell tours, including dates with both Sensible and James joining the then-current quartet. The end of 1989 brought a final We Really Must Be Going tour in the U.K., featuring the original quartet in one last bow, which would seem to have been the end to things.

Anything but. The I Didn’t Say It tour arrived in 1991, with Paul Gray rejoining the band to play along with the quartet. It was the first in a series of dates and shows throughout the ’90s which essentially confirmed the group as a nostalgia act, concentrating on the early part of its career for audiences often too young to have even heard about them the first time around. It was a good nostalgia act, though, with performances regularly showing the old fire (and Sensible his legendary stage presence, often finishing shows nude). After some 1992 shows, the Damned disappeared again for a while — but when December 1993 brought some more dates, an almost all-new band was the result. Only Scabies and Vanian remained, much like the late ’80s lineup; their cohorts were guitarists Kris Dollimore and Alan Lee Shaw and bassist Moose.

This quintet toured and performed in Japan and Europe for about two years, also recording demos here and there that Vanian claimed he believed were for a projected future album with both Sensible and James contributing. Whatever the story, nothing more might have happened if Scabies hadn’t decided to work out a formal release of those demos as Not of This Earth , first appearing in Japan in late November 1995. Vanian, having reestablished contact with Sensible during the former’s touring work with his Phantom Chords band, responded by breaking with Scabies, reuniting fully with Sensible and recruiting a new group to take over the identity of the Damned. Initially, this consisted of Gray once again, plus drummer Garrie Dreadful and keyboardist Monty. However, Gray was replaced later in 1996 following an on-stage tantrum by, in a totally new twist, punk veteran Patricia Morrison, known for her work in the Gun Club and the Sisters of Mercy among many other bands. Scabies reacted to all this with threats of lawsuits and vituperative public comments, but after all was said and done, Vanian, Sensible, and company maintained the rights to the name, occasional billing as “ex-members of the Damned” aside, done to avoid further trouble.

Since then, this latest version of the Damned has toured on a fairly regular basis, though this time with instability in the drumming department (Dreadful left at the end of 1998, first replaced by Spike, then later in 1999 by Pinch). While Vanian continued to pursue work with the Phantom Chords, for the first time in years, the Damned started to become a true outfit once again, the lineup gelling and holding together enough to warrant further attention. The capper was a record contract in 2000 with Nitro Records , the label founded and run by longtime Damned fanatic Dexter Holland, singer with the Offspring (who covered “Smash It Up” for the Batman Forever soundtrack in the mid-’90s). In a fun personal note, meanwhile, Morrison and Vanian married, perhaps making them the ultimate punk/goth couple of all time.

By 2001, the Vanian/Sensible-led Damned looked to be in fine shape, releasing the album Grave Disorder on Nitro and touring to general acclaim. Knowing the fractured history of the band — captured in the literally endless series of releases, authorized and otherwise, from all periods of its career, live, studio, compilations, and more — only a foolish person would claim things would stay on an even keel for the future. Permanently losing Scabies would seem to have been a killer blow on first blush, but the group has soldiered on regardless, a welcome influence from the past as well as a group of fine entertainers for the present. The year 2005 found both eras of the band being represented. While the new lineup was touring and working on a new album, the original lineup was honoured by the three-disc box set  Play It at Your Sister , which was released on the Sanctuary label. The limited-edition set covered the years 1976-1977, featuring all the tracks from the first two albums along with John Peel Sessions and live material. It soon came time for the new lineup to issue its own album, which arrived in 2008 in the form of a slick, pop-influenced record titled So, Who’s Paranoid?

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The Damned Live Performances Index The Damned - 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 1987 1986 1985 1984 1983 1982 1981 1980 1979 1978 1977 1976 Naz Nomad & The Nightmares The Phantom Chords Captain Sensible Selected Miscellany Unresolved issues Site updates The Damned: Live Performances - 1981 The list of shows for 1981 should be considered as 'work in progress'. Thursday 24 December 1981 - The Greyhound, Fulham, London Set: unknown . Comments: The Greyhound advertised this as 'The Damned Christmas Party'. Sunday 20 December 1981 - Queen's Hall, Leeds (Christmas on Earth Punk Festival) Set: Lively Arts, Wait For The Blackout, Disco Man, I Just Can't Be Happy Today, Plan 9 Channel 7, Melody Lee, Gun Fury, Noise Noise Noise, Limit Club, Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, Love Song, Neat Neat Neat, New Rose. encore - Smash It Up (part 2 only). Comments: Christmas on Earth was advertised as also featuring Bow Wow Wow, The Exploited, UK Subs, Black Flag, Anti-Pasti, Anti Nowhere League, Chron Gen, Chelsea, Vice Squad, Trockener Kecks, Lama, The Insane, Charge, and GBH. Apparently Bow Wow Wow and Anti-Pasti did not play. Sunday 6 December 1981 - Lyceum, London Set: Lively Arts, Wait for The Blackout, Disco Man, I Just Can't Be Happy Today, Plan 9 Channel 7, Limit Club, Gun Fury, Melody Lee, Fan Club, Noise Noise Noise, Love Song, Neat Neat Neat, New Rose, Smash It Up (part 2 only), Citadel, Looking At You. Comments: Support from Anti Nowhere League, Charge, Black Flag and Chelsea. Saturday 5 December 1981 - Pavilion, West Runton, Cromer Set: unknown . Comments: Support from Anti Nowhere League. Friday 4 December 1981 - Wirrina Stadium, Peterborough Set included : Pretty Vacant. Comments: Anti Nowhere League and Chelsea in support. Thursday 3 December 1981 - Locarno, Portsmouth Set: unknown . Comments: Support from Anti Nowhere League. A contributor to this site wrote 'I remember going to the Portsmouth Locarno and being quite shocked at the hostile atmosphere at the venue - the bouncers were laying into everybody that night. I was quite glad to get out of there at the end of the gig. Tuesday 1 December 1981 - King Charles Hotel, Gillingham Set: Lively Arts, Wait for The Blackout, Disco Man, I Just Can't Be Happy Today, Plan 9 Channel 7, Melody Lee, Gun Fury, Fan Club, Noise Noise Noise, Limit Club, Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, Love Song, Neat Neat Neat, New Rose. encore 1 - Smash It Up, Citadel. encore 2 - Looking At You, Pretty Vacant. Monday 30 November 1981 - Queensway Hall, Dunstable Set: Lively Arts, Wait For The Blackout, Disco Man, I Just Can't Be Happy Today, Plan 9 Channel 7, Melody Lee, Gun Fury, Fan Club, Nights In White Satin, Noise Noise Noise, Limit Club, Love Song, Neat Neat Neat, New Rose, Smash It Up, Citadel. Comments: Support from Anti Nowhere League. A contributor to the officialdamned.com forum wrote of this gig - "Crap sound due to "clever" hall design - a large oval with the stage at one end - which meant that you had to stand in the middle to hear equally in both ears! Sounds wierd I know, but that is how it was. A load of local yobs hijacked the gig fairly early on and "sieg heil" was being shouted constantly. A big fight broke out about 45 minutes into gig, which DV, Captain and crew attempted to stop with only limited success. Horrible atmosphere after that. The band played well but the performance was tainted by what had happened. No encores that night. I guess they couldn't wait to get off, and I was out the door and on my way home as soon as the last note faded away". Sunday 29 November 1981 - Locarno, Bristol Set: Lively Arts, Wait for The Blackout, Disco Man, I Just Can't Be Happy Today, Plan 9 Channel 7, Melody Lee, Gun Fury, Fan Club, Noise Noise Noise, Limit Club, Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, Love Song, Neat Neat Neat, New Rose. encore 1 - Smash It Up, Looking At You. encore 2 - Citadel, Ballroom Blitz. Comments: Support from Anti Nowhere League. Guest appearance of Lol Coxhill on saxophone. Saturday 28 November 1981 - Royal Court, Liverpool Set: Lively Arts, Wait For The Blackout, Disco Man, I Just Can't Be Happy Today, Plan 9 Channel 7, Melody Lee, Gun Fury, Fan Club, Noise Noise Noise, Limit Club, Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, Love Song, Neat Neat Neat, New Rose. encore [ see Comments ]. Comments: Support from Anti Nowhere League. This set is taken from a bootleg recording which ends the main set with 'New Rose'. Two versions of this bootleg were sourced… and both finish with different tracks! Both versions have some cuts between tracks following ‘New Rose’ and both seems to have been manipulated. One contained ‘Smash It Up’, ‘Citadel’, West One (Shine On Me) [with members of The Ruts?], ‘Looking At You’ and ‘Pretty Vacant’, the other contained ‘Burglar’, ‘Pretty Vacant’ and ‘Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps Please [with Max Splodge]’. ‘Smash It Up’ and ‘Citadel’ would make sense as an encore (or first encore) – as this was common at the time… and therefore it is assumed that these 2 tracks were played as an encore at this Liverpool show. However, there seems no logical reason for The Damned to be singing with The Ruts at Liverpool in November 1981… and the same can be said about performing with Max Splodge. It is assumed that the other additional numbers are outtakes of July 1980 shows (though this is unconfirmed) and they are therefore being discarded as having anything to do with this concert. However, it remains possible that a second encore was played, that it may have featured one or other of the combinations of songs mentioned earlier, or indeed that a different second encore was played on the night but unrecorded. Friday 27 November 1981 - Victoria Hall, Hanley, Stoke Set: Lively Arts, Wait For The Blackout, Disco Man, I Just Can't Be Happy Today, Plan 9 Channel 7, Melody Lee, Gun Fury, Fan Club, Noise Noise Noise, Limit Club, Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, Love Song, Neat Neat Neat, New Rose. encore 1 - Smash It Up, Citadel. encore 2 - Billy Bad Breaks, Looking At You. Comments: Support from The Anti-Nowhere League. A short piece of 'Summer Nights' was played prior to 'Disco Man'. Thursday 26 November 1981 - King George's Hall, Blackburn Set: Lively Arts, Wait For The Blackout, Disco Man, I Just Can't Be Happy Today, Plan 9 Channel 7, Gun Fury, Melody Lee, Fan Club, Noise Noise Noise, Limit Club, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Love Song, Neat Neat Neat, New Rose. encore 1 - Smash It Up, Citadel. encore 2 ? - see Comments. Comments: Tosh on keyboards. Anti Nowhere League and Chelsea intended for support - however, a contributors to this site wrote 'ANL definitely supported, but Chelsea did NOT appear'. There is evidence to suggest that 'Pretty Vacant' and 'Looking At You' were also played... and presumably these would have been played as a second encore as at other gigs of this period. Wednesday 25 November 1981 - Locarno, Birmingham Set: Lively Arts, Wait For The Blackout, Disco Man, I Just Can't Be Happy Today, Plan 9 Channel 7, Melody Lee, Gun Fury, Fan Club, Limit Club, Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, Love Song, Neat Neat Neat, New Rose. encore 1 - Smash It Up, Citadel. encore 2 - Noise Noise Noise, Looking At You. Comments: Support form Anti Nowhere League and GBH. Tuesday 24 November 1981 - Top Rank, Cardiff Set: unknown . Comments: Support from Anti Nowhere League. Monday 23 November 1981 - Top Rank, Brighton Set: Lively Arts, Wait For The Blackout, Disco Man, I Just Can't Be Happy Today, Plan 9 Channel 7, Melody Lee, Gun Fury, Fan Club, Noise Noise Noise, Limit Club, Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, Love Song, Neat Neat Neat, New Rose. encore 1 - Smash It Up, Citadel. encore 2 - Billy Bad Breaks. Comments: Anti Nowhere League and Chelsea in support. Sunday 22 November 1981 - Top Rank, Reading Set: Lively Arts, Wait For The Blackout, Disco Man, I Just Can't Be Happy Today, Plan 9 Channel 7, Limit Club, Fan Club, Noise Noise Noise, Love Song, Neat Neat Neat, New Rose, Smash It Up, Citadel. encore - Looking At You, Love Song. Comments: Anti Nowhere League and Chelsea in support. Saturday 21 November 1981 - Manchester University Set: unknown . Comments: Support from Anti Nowhere League and Varicose Veins. Friday 20 November 1981 - The Pier Pavilion, Colwyn Bay Set: unknown . Comments: Support from Anti Nowhere League. Gig known to have taken place. Thursday 19 November 1981 - Victoria Hall, Hanley, Stoke Comments: CANCELLED - rescheduled for 27 November. Intended support from Anti Nowhere League. Thursday 19 November 1981 - Tiffany's, Bradford Comments: CANCELLED. Wednesday 18 November 1981 - De Montfort Hall, Leicester Set: unknown . Comments: Support from Anti Nowhere League. Tuesday 17 November 1981 - Gaskins Plus One, Middlesbrough Set: unknown . Comments: Support from Anti Nowhere League, Emergency Purge and Frenzy Battalion. Gig confirmed as having taken place. Apparently, during the Anti Nowhere League set and preceding The Damned taking to the stage, the crowd were pulling the ceiling and the pipes down and Captain Sensible 'had to keep coming out and threatening not to come on unless they stopped'. Monday 16 November 1981 - Rotters, Doncaster Set: Lively Arts, Wait For The Blackout, Disco Man, Billy Bad Breaks, I Just Can't Be Happy Today, Plan 9 Channel 7, Limit Club, Gun Fury, Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, Fan Club, Noise Noise Noise, Love Song, Neat Neat Neat, New Rose. encore - Smash It Up, Citadel, Looking At You. Comments: Support from Anti Nowhere League. Sunday 15 November 1981 - Lyceum, Sheffield Set included : Pretty Vacant, Ballroom Blitz. Comments: Support from Anti Nowhere League. A contributor to this site has confirmed that this gig, rather than the Town Hall Grimsby took place this night and that the Anti Nowhere League definitely supported. 'Ballroom Blitz' was sang as 'Maggie's tits'. Sunday 15 November 1981 - Town Hall, Grimsby Comments: Some advertising for the time shows this venue / location as part of the tour - however, other tour advertising gives the Lyceum, Sheffield for 15 November and a contributor to this site has confirmed that The Damned did, indeed, play Sheffield. Saturday 14 November 1981 - Pavilion / Town Hall, Skegness Set: unknown . Comments: Support from Anti Nowhere League. The Friday 13th EP advertising included tour dates - one of these dates showed this gig as intended for The Pavilion. However, other advertising from the time shows The Town Hall - it seems likely that the intended venue was altered. Friday 13 November 1981 - Odeon, Edinburgh Set: Lively Arts, Wait For The Blackout, Disco Man, Billy Bad Breaks, I Just Can't Be Happy Today, Plan 9 Channel 7, Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, Fan Club, Noise Noise Noise, Limit Club, Love Song, Neat Neat Neat, New Rose. encore 1 - Smash It Up, Citadel, Looking At You. encore 2 - Melody Lee, Love Song, Ballroom Blitz. Comments: Support from Anti Nowhere League. Release performance of Friday 13th EP. Thursday 12 November 1981 - Mayfair, Newcastle Set: Lively Arts, Wait For The Blackout, Disco Man, Billy Bad Breaks, I Just Can't Be Happy Today, Plan 9 Channel 7, Gun Fury, Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, Noise Noise Noise, Limit Club, Smash It Up ( part 2), Love Song. encore 1 - Neat Neat Neat, New Rose. encore 2 - Citadel, Ballroom Blitz. Comments: Support from Anti Nowhere League. The encore breaks were hard to distinguish on the tape that this set was compiled from, but seem highly likely based on obvious cuts in the audio. Wednesday 11 November 1981 - Porterhouse, Retford Comments: An intended show that did not take place - evidence of which could be seen in a public announcement, by the venue, in which the the band was being sued for breach of contract. Sunday 27 September 1981 - Lyceum, London Set: I Fall, Wait For The Blackout, Lively Arts, Gun Fury, Fan Club, I Just Can't Be Happy Today, Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, Smash It Up, Disco Man, Melody Lee, Neat Neat Neat. encore - New Rose, Love Song. Comments: Support from Wall Of Voodoo and The Dark. Altered Images were also listed as support but did not play. The encore break was hard to distinguish on the tape that this set was compiled from, but seem highly likely based on an obvious cut in the audio. Intended to be a Stiff Little Fingers (SLF) show but The Damned stepped in as last minute replacements [reason unknown... but Jim Reilly (drummer) quit SLF sometime during mid-1981, so lack of a drummer seems possible]. A contributor to this site wrote "Stiff Little Fingers were supposed to play the Lyceum and we had tickets with their name on. We queued up outside, some bloke was walking up and down telling punters that Stiff Little Fingers weren't going to play but the Damned were". Some banter during the show was directed towards Stiff Little Fingers. Friday 18 September 1981 - Phoenix Hall, Polytechnic, Sheffield Set: I Fall, Wait For The Blackout, Lively Arts, I Just Can't Be Happy Today, Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, Smash It Up, Drinking About My Baby, Melody Lee, Hit or Miss, Noise Noise Noise, Love Song, Neat Neat Neat, New Rose. encore - Looking At You, Ballroom Blitz, Looking At You (reprise). Comments: Support from Rough Copy. Part of a wider project of gigs for the unemployed - advertising indicated that tickets would be made available to the unemployed, from various South Yorkshire outlets, the day before each concert. There was a false start to 'Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde', Captain stopping and discussing being out of tune. Charlie Harper played harmonica during the encore. Saturday 8 August 1981 - Mayflower, Manchester (evening show) Set: I Fall, Wait For The Blackout, Lively Arts, I Just Can't Be Happy Today, Plan 9 Channel 7, Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, Smash It Up, Gun Fury, Melody Lee, Love Song, Neat Neat Neat, New Rose. encore - Looking At You. Comments: Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde was dedicated to Varicose Veins, so it seems likely that they were supporting this night. Saturday 8 August 1981 - Alexandra Park, Manchester (Northern Carnival Against The Missiles) (afternoon show) Set: Wait For The Blackout, Lively Arts, I Just Can't Be Happy Today, Plan 9 Channel 7, Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, Smash It Up, Drinking About My Baby, Melody Lee, Hit or Miss, Noise Noise Noise, Love Song, Neat Neat Neat, New Rose. encore - Ballroom Blitz, Looking At You. Comments: Free show - 'Northern Carnival Against Missiles'. Bill included John Cooper Clarke, The Freshies, Beat Roots, Harlem Spirit (It seems that Ronnie Lane, Thomson Twins & Hawkwind all put pulled-out). Sunday 12 July 1981 - Lyceum, London Set: I Fall, Wait For The Blackout, Lively Arts, I Just Can't Be Happy Today, Plan 9 Channel 7, Dr. Jekyll & Mr Hyde, Smash It Up, Drinking About My Baby, Melody Lee, Looking At You, Noise Noise Noise, Love Song, Neat Neat Neat, New Rose. encore 1 - I Feel Alright. encore 2 [but see Comments] - I Just Can't Take Any More, Shakin' All Over. Comments: Support from Ruts DC, Anti Pasti & Charge. 'I Just Can't Take Any More' with Jock from The Straps. A cut in the recording that this set was sourced from 'suggests' a 2nd encore, but it is possible that the last 3 numbers were played as a single encore. Sunday 5 July 1981 - Lyceum, London Set: I Fall, Wait For The Blackout, Lively Arts, I Just Can't Be Happy Today, Plan 9 Channel 7, Smash It Up, Dr. Jekyll & Mr Hyde, Drinking About My Baby, Melody Lee, Love Song, Neat Neat Neat, New Rose, I Feel Alright, Ballroom Blitz, In A Rut, Love Song (reprise). Comments: 5th anniversary gig. Support from Ruts DC, Anti-Nowhere League & Vice Squad. Apparently The Missing Men also supported at this show, a contributor to this site stating 'Unbilled at this gig, was first band on 'The Missing Men'. In the line up was Roman Jugg and Bryn Merrick, later of The Damned. I was their manager at this time and had befriended, then Damned bass player, Paul Gray. He offered us the opening slot, and we took it on and had a fantastic reception off the audience. Can't remember the full set, but would have played, 'One Of Our Aircraft Is Missing', 'Radio Love', 'Pictures Of The Missing Men', 'I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)', later covered on the Naz Nomad album'. Friday 3 July 1981 - To Act Disco, Weissenohe, West Germany Set: I Fall, Wait For The Blackout, Lively Arts, I Just Can't Be Happy Today, Plan 9 Channel 7, Dr. Jekyll & Mr Hyde, Smash It Up, Drinking About My Baby, Melody Lee, Hit Or Miss, Noise Noise Noise, Love Song, Neat Neat Neat, New Rose. encore - I Feel Alright, Ballroom Blitz, Pretty Vacant, Shakin' All Over. Comments: 'Pretty Vacant' and 'Shakin' All Over' may have been played as a 2nd encore. June / July 1981 - Metropole, Berlin, West Germany Set: I Fall, Wait For The Blackout, Lively Arts, Fan Club, Drinking About My Baby, Smash It Up (part 2), New Rose, Noise Noise Noise, Neat Neat Neat, Pretty Vacant. Comments: For years there has been doubt in 'Damned circles' as to whether this show really took place at The Metropole. It now seems likely that it was actually at The Loft, Berlin - a venue that put on punk gigs, which was just around the corner from The Metropole complex. As to the date, the set compares well with other gigs of this period - also, Captain Sensible and Rat Scabies do the 'My Dog Has No Nose' joke and there has always been a tendancy to use the same banter during a particular tour... and that joke also appeared in the 3 July 1981 show. A chaotic show in which the band claim that Dave Vanian's drink was spiked at the bar - he spent much of the show unable to contibute. Short snippets of songs followed 'Pretty Vacant' - a piece of 'Burglar', a piece of 'Shakin' All Over'. A contributor to this site wrote – “As I recall, the gig referred to was actually the final gig of a residency the Damned played at the Metropole. It may have been the Loft, but the free drinking afterwards was in the Metropole bar – maybe they owned both venues. Anyway, I don’t know how many times they played, but I saw them twice in that stint at the Metropole. Yes, Dave Vanian’s drink had been spiked with Acid as Capaint Sensible explained angrily from the stage. He also suggested “The show must go on” and called for a volunteer from the audience and someone, probably a squaddie as there were a lot of lads there from the two regiments stationed in West Berlin (one of which was the Irish Rangers), leapt up and did the honours for the rest of the gig. He was good – seemed to know all the words! The Captain was on one and set fire to his amp with lighter fluid, squatted on top it and, as he told me afterwards, was trying to do a dump on the amp, but only succeeded in setting fire to his testicles.” Monday 29 June 1981 - Rotation, Hanover, West Germany Set: unknown . Saturday 20 June 1981 - Koria, Finland (Rymyrock Festival) Set included : Wait For The Blackout, Lively Arts, I Just Can't Be Happy Today, Hit Or Miss. Comments: Rymyrock (or Kes�rock) = summer rock. Thursday 18 June 1981 - Tavastia Club, Helsinki, Finland Set: unknown . Monday 1 June 1981 - Nam Nam, Freisdorf, Bonn, West Germany Set: unknown . Comments: Confirmation that this gig went ahead was made by a contributor to this site who wrote ''I saw them in a 'shed' called Nam Nam. The wooden 'shed' named Nam Nam at the time was a rockers club and had a capacity of about 100 people. It's now demolished'. The date of the show was ascertained from a magazine called 'Jungen & Technik'. Thursday 28 May 1981 - Mausefalle, Stuttgart, West Germany Set: unknown . Comments: This show was listed in the old German punk fanzine called 'Der Aktuelle Mulleimer', issue 4. However, whether it took place or not remains unclear. Sunday 26 April 1981 - Unity Hall, Wakefield Set: unknown . Comments: Support from Anti Nowhere League. A contributor to this site wrote 'The gig was memorable for Vanian’s appearance in what I recall as being some sort of demented Futurist / Blitz Club get-up. I’m pretty sure he had some sort of poncho / head scarf and veil affair on at the beginning of the set!' Another contributor wrote 'I thought you might like to know Mr Vanian was basing his look that night on Lazarus risen from the dead (Bible)'. Saturday 25 April 1981 - Town Hall, Walsall Set included: Pretty Vacant. Comments: Support from Anti Nowhere League. A contributor to this site stated that 'Pretty Vacant' was played in the encore. Friday 24 April 1981 - Music Hall, Shrewsbury Set: unknown . Comments: Support from Anti Nowhere League and Fear of Flying. Tuesday 21 April 1981 - Greyhound, Fulham, London Set: unknown . Comments: Advertised support - Dolly Mixture. Monday 20 April 1981 - Greyhound, Fulham, London Set: unknown . Comments: Advertised support - Bite 'n' Be Playful - though there has been a reference to No Dice possibly being the actual support on the night?. Sunday 19 April 1981 - The Bridge House, London Setlist: I Fall, Wait For The Blackout, Lively Arts, Fan Club, I Just Can't Be Happy Today, Plan 9 Channel 7, Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, Smash It Up, Hit Or Miss, Melody Lee, Noise Noise Noise, Love Song, Neat Neat Neat, New Rose. encore - Looking At You. Comments: Advertised support - The Whizz Kids. Friday 17 April 1981 - The Star, Croydon ? (see comments) Set: I Fall, Wait For The Blackout, Drinkin' About My Baby, Hit or Miss, Melody Lee, Fan Club, Smash It Up (part 2 only), Lively Arts, Love Song, Neat Neat Neat, New Rose, Noise Noise Noise, I Feel Alright. Comments: Support from The Straps. The Damned played this gig under the alias of 'The School Bullies'. A contributor to this site states - 'the Damned did indeed play this gig as the School Bullies. Didn’t go myself, but was at a gig at The Star the previous night when Johnny Moped was playing (re-formed for one gig, I believe). Clearly remember an announcement being made that School Bullies aka the Damned were playing the next night, keep your ticket stub for priority entry, �5 on the door.' There was a false start to 'Fan Club'. The final 2 numbers were probably played as the encore but it is difficult to confirm from the recording of this show. [Whilst the facts regarding playing under the alias / playing at The Star etc are correct, the date now seems extremely dubious. The date for this show is taken from a bootleg cassette - but is it correctly dated? The Damned are known, with certainty, to have played The Star as The School Bullies on 15 March (see that entry)... did they really play another show, at the same venue, again under The School Bullies alias, with the same support, during April? There doesn't seem to be any documentary evidence to support such a show - hence, it seems likley that the comments above and the associated set are actually from the 15 March gig]. Saturday 11 April 1981 - The Rusty Nail, Sunderland, Massachusetts Comments: A gig ticket for 11 April shows The Damned to play The Rusty Nail. Though there is no day or year shown on the ticket, process of elimination suggests it related to a planned show from this aborted tour. Friday 3 April 1981 - Club 57, Irving Plaza, New York Comments: Part of an intended US tour that it would appear never came to fruition. Support on the night had been advertised as Minors Aloud. Sunday 15 March 1981 - The Star, Croydon Set unknown . Comments: The Damned played this gig under the alias of 'The School Bullies'. Support from The Straps. An entry in the Captain's diary confirms The Damned played The Star on Sunday 15 March, with the comments 'Me and Dave fell off the stage. Algy bought me a drink'. Additionally, a video of punks from 1981, called Squatparty, has 2 girls talking about seeing The Straps on 3 occasions during this weekend and also mentions the support slot to The Damned playing as The School Bullies. [see also the comment for The Damned at The Star on 17 April]. Tuesday 3 March 1981 - Hammersmith Palais, London Set: I Fall, Wait For The Blackout, Drinking About My Baby, I Just Can't Be Happy Today, Plan 9 Channel 7, Hit or Miss, Fan Club, Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, Smash It Up, Lively Arts, Love Song, Neat Neat Neat, New Rose. encore 1 - Looking At You, Noise Noise Noise. encore 2 - Love Song (reprise). Comments: Support from The Straps. The Damned played this gig under the alias of 'The School Bullies' [unsure now where this information came from, but 1981 seems late for use of the School Bullies alias]. A contributor to this site states - 'the Damned did indeed play this gig as the School Bullies. Didn’t go myself, but was at a gig at The Star the previous night when Johnny Moped was playing (re-formed for one gig, I believe). Clearly remember an announcement being made that School Bullies aka the Damned were playing the next night, keep your ticket stub for priority entry, �5 on the door.' There was a false start to 'Fan Club'. The final 2 numbers were probably played as the encore but it is difficult to confirm from the recording of this show. Wednesday 18 February 1981 - Basement Bar, Clarendon Hotel, London Set: I Fall, Wait For The Blackout, Love Song, Hit or Miss, Drinking About My Baby, Fan Club, Smash It Up (pt2), Looking At You, Neat Neat Neat, Noise Noise Noise, Ballroom Blitz, I Just Can't Take Anymore, New Rose, Pretty Vacant, Love Song. Comments: Advertised support from The Whizz Kids. Jock of The Straps on stage for 'I Just Can't Take Anymore'. Encore break(s) could not be identified in the recording that this set was taken from. Wednesday 21 January 1981 - Underground, Stockholm, Sweden Set: unknown . Comments: Intended support from Rude Kids. Wednesday 21 January 1981 - Gaskins, Middlesbrough Set: unknown . Comments: Support from The Necros. The Damned Live Performances Index The Damned - 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 1987 1986 1985 1984 1983 1982 1981 1980 1979 1978 1977 1976 Naz Nomad & The Nightmares The Phantom Chords Captain Sensible Selected Miscellany Unresolved issues Site updates Page content last reviewed/updated on: 7 April 2018. � 2005-2018 WhiteRabbitSKGs | [email protected]

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The Damned unveil 2024 tour dates with their ’80s band line-up

The Damned’s ’80s line-up – which includes the return of drummer Rat Scabies – will be hitting the road together in just over a year…

The Damned have announced a 2024 UK headline tour.

Featuring a reunited line-up of vocalist Dave Vanian, guitarist Captain Sensible, bassist Paul Gray and returning drummer Rat Scabies, it’ll be their first tour together since 1989. Of rejoining the band for live duties, Rat Scabies says in a very brief but to-the-point statement: “Be careful what you wish for.”

The tour kicks off in Newcastle on December 4, 2024, and will wrap up at London’s Roundhouse just a week before Christmas. Tickets go on sale this Friday, November 24 at 10am.

Catch The Damned at the following:

December 2024

4 Newcastle NX 5 Glasgow Barrowlands 6 Manchester Academy 8 Leeds O2 Academy 9 Nottingham Rock City 10 Wolverhampton Civic at The Halls 12 Bristol Beacon 13 Southampton O2 Guildhall 14 Eastbourne Winter Garden 16 Cambridge Corn Exchange 18 London Roundhouse

Read this: The story of British punk in 23 songs

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YUNGBLUD announces inaugural BLUDFEST at Milton Keynes Bowl

YUNGBLUD will be bringing together everyone from Lil Yachty to The Damned to Jazmin Bean for BLUDFEST – his very own festival that will “blur the lines of genre and destroy the limitation of imagination”.

13 of the best songs about bad luck

In honour of Friday the 13th, here are 13 songs about when fortune frowns on you. Watch out for those black cats!

Updated: A round-up of all tours and events affected by coronavirus in 2021

Stay up-to-date on all cancelled and rescheduled tours, festivals and events this year.

The story of British punk in 23 songs

From the filth and fury of the Sex Pistols through the extremity of Discharge to the snot-nosed chaos of Gallows, this is the story of British punk in (almost) chronological order…

AC/DC, BMTH and more taking part in awesome Teenage Cancer Trust Christmas raffle

Teenage Cancer Trust have announced an amazing Christmas raffle featuring one-of-a-kind prizes from AC/DC, Bring Me The Horizon, Enter Shikari and more.

Punk Rock Bowling Is The Ultimate Anarchist Party Weekend

With performances by Rancid, The Damned, and Killing Joke, Punk Rock Bowling was a weekend to sooort of remember.

The best of Kerrang! delivered straight to your inbox three times a week. What are you waiting for?

April 8 in Music History: Happy 40th birthday to Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig

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April 08, 2024

History Highlight:

Born on April 8, 1984, Ezra Michael Koenig, singer and guitarist for Vampire Weekend, is 40. Born in New York City and raised in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, Koenig dove into writing songs at around the age of 10. His first composition was titled “Bad Birthday Party.” In 2005, he formed Vampire Weekend with friends he met while studying at Columbia University. The band has released five studio albums, including Only God Was Above Us , which arrived on Friday.

Also, Today In:

1964 - The Supremes recorded "Where Did Our Love Go" at Motown Studios in Detroit. The song would become the first of their five U.S. number-one singles. Originally founded as the Primettes in Detroit in 1959, the Supremes were the most commercially successful of Motown's acts and are, to date, America's most successful vocal group with 12 No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100.

1973 - During his Ziggy Stardust world tour, David Bowie played the first of three sold-out nights in Tokyo, Japan.

1977 - The Clash released their self-titled debut album on CBS. In the United States, the Clash's debut studio album was released one year after Give 'Em Enough Rope, so it was their second release in the US. CBS in America had decided that the album was 'not radio friendly', so it was initially only available in the States during 1977-1978 as an import, and as such became the best-selling import of the year, shifting over 100,000 copies.

1977 - The Damned were among the first British punk outfits to perform in America when they played New York's legendary CBGB's. They released the single “New Rose” in 1976 and the album Damned Damned Damned followed in February of 1977.

1980 - The TV movie Kenny Rogers as The Gambler, based on the song "The Gambler," aired on CBS. It became the highest-rated TV movie of the year and led to four sequels, all starring Rogers.

1982 - New Order's bass player Peter Hook was knocked unconscious during a riot at a gig in Rotterdam.

1989 - Roxette went to No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "The Look," the Swedish duo's first U.S. No. 1. It was while studying in Sweden that an exchange student from Minneapolis, Dean Cushman, heard "The Look", and brought a copy of Roxette's album Look Sharp! home for the 1988 holiday break. He gave the album to a Minneapolis radio station, which started playing "The Look". The song became very popular and was quickly picked up by other radio stations.

1998 - Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood and 10 other passengers were rescued from a boat off the coast of Brazil after the engine caught fire.

1994 - Kurt Cobain's body was found in his Seattle home by an electrician sent to install a burglar alarm. He was believed to have died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound three days earlier.

1994 - The Offspring's breakthrough album Smash was released. Thanks to the success of the singles "Come Out and Play" and "Self Esteem," Smash eventually became one of the best-selling independent records of all time, selling at least 15 million copies worldwide.

2006 - Following 2003's false starts, The Rolling Stones finally performed for the first time in mainland China, at Shanghai's Grand Stage Theatre. The Stones were banned from performing three songs (Brown Sugar, Honky Tonk Women, Rough Justice). Chinese rock star Cui Jian joined the band on stage for a duet with Mick Jagger on Wild Horses.

2008 - Led Zeppelin topped the list of Classic Rock magazine's "Best Live Acts Of All Time". The Who were voted in at No. 2 and AC/DC at No. 3.

2017 - The late rapper Tupac Shakur, singer, songwriter Joan Baez and Pearl Jam were all entered into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.They were inducted alongside the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), Journey and Yes during a concert in New York City.

Jazz singer Carmen McRae was born on this day in 1920.

Belgian singer and songwriter Jacques Brel was born on this day in 1929.

Fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, who styled the Sex Pistols, was born on this day in 1941.

Roger “Chappo” Chapman, of Family and Streetwalkers, is 82.

Steve Howe, guitarist for Yes, is 77.

Brenda Russell — a Grammy-nominated solo artist (“Piano in the Dark”) and collaborator with Earth Wind and Fire, Joni Mitchell, Diana Ross, and others — is 75.

Mel Schacher, bassist for Grand Funk Railroad, is 74.

Mexican singer-songwriter Joan Sebastian was born today in 1951.

Izzy Stradlin, guitarist for Guns ‘N Roses, is 62.

Julian Lennon is 61.

L7 frontwoman Donita Sparks is 61.

Biz Markie was born on this day in 1964.

Darren Jessee, drummer for Ben Folds Five (as well as collaborator with Sharon Van Etten and Hiss Golden Messenger), is 53.

Slipknot guitarist Paul Gray was born on this day in 1972.

Children of Bodom frontman Alexi Laiho was born on this day in 1979.

Matthew Healy of The 1975 is 35.

Highlights for Today in Music History are gathered from This Day in Music , Paul Shaffer's Day in Rock , Song Facts and Wikipedia .

Here's the basic science behind New Jersey earthquakes and the Ramapo Fault

2-minute read.

That was not your imagination. New Jersey and other areas on the East Coast experienced a 4.8 magnitude earthquake on Friday morning, according to the United States Geological Survey.

After Friday's unusual experience, many may wonder what caused the earthquake and how strong it was compared to others in the state or worldwide. Here are what the experts say about the science behind an earthquake.

What causes an earthquake?

An earthquake occurs because of slippage between the earth's tectonic plates, according to the U.S. Geological Survey .

The edges of the plates, or plate boundaries, are made up of many faults, and most earthquakes occur on these faults. "Since the edges of the plates are rough, they get stuck while the rest of the plate keeps moving," according to the USGS. "Finally, when the plate has moved far enough, the edges unstick on one of the faults and there is an earthquake."

In New Jersey and elsewhere, earthquakes usually occur "when slowly accumulated strain within the Earth's crust is suddenly released along a fault," according to "Earthquake Risk in New Jersey," a publication of the New Jersey Geological Survey.

More: The April 8 solar eclipse is almost here, North Jersey. Here's your complete viewing guide

"The energy from this movement travels as seismic waves along the ground surface and within the earth," the publication says.

The earthquake waves are caused by the release of energy as the Earth's plates move, said Dr. Matthew Gorring, an associate professor of Earth and Environment Studies at Montclair State University.

The surface where that slippage occurs is called a fault.

While there are many faults in New Jersey, the best known is the Ramapo Fault, which runs northeast-southwest in North Jersey. The majority of New Jersey's quakes occurred around this fault area.

History: Friday's earthquake was the strongest in NJ since 1783. A look back at quake history

The Ramapo Fault system runs from southeastern New York to eastern Pennsylvania, according to the earth Institute at Columbia University. "These faults were active at different times during the evolution of the Appalachians, especially in the Mesozoic when they served as border faults to the Newark Basin and other extensional basins formed by the opening of the Atlantic Ocean approximately 200 million years ago."

In New Jersey, fault lines do not generally break the Earth's surface, but are based several miles below.

Earthquakes east of the Rockies are generally less intense than to the west, but because of geologic differences, eastern earthquakes tend to affect areas 10 times larger than western ones of the same magnitude, according to the New Jersey Geological Survey.

The location below the earth’s surface where the earthquake starts is called the hypocenter and the location directly above it on the surface of the earth is called the epicenter. The epicenter for Friday's earthquake was near Readington in Hunterdon County according to a post on X from Gov. Phil Murphy.

How major is a 4.8 earthquake?

Earthquakes are recorded using seismographs and magnitude measures the strength of an earthquake. A 4.8 earthquake usually calculates minor to no damage to the surrounding areas.

As the magnitude increases by one whole number, the size of the earthquake increases by a factor of 10. So an earthquake that measures a magnitude of 5.0 would result in 10 times more ground shaking than one with a magnitude of 4.0. — and about 32 times as much energy would be released.

According to a New Jersey Office of Emergency Management report, "New Jersey is in an area where the rarer plate interior-related earthquakes occur. As plates continue to move and plate boundaries change geologically over time, weakened boundary regions become part of the interiors of the plates. These zones of weakness within the continents can cause earthquakes in response to stresses that originate at the edges of the plate or in the deeper crust."

Friday's earthquake will go down in the history books in New Jersey as it was the largest in the state in centuries — in fact the largest since 1783.

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How Zach Edey, Purdue beat Tennessee in Elite 8 to reach Final 4

Zach Edey's big game leads Purdue to Final 4

Zach Edey had 40 points and 16 rebounds to lead Purdue to a 72-66 win over Tennessee in the Elite Eight and earn a spot in the Final Four. It marks Purdue's first Final Four trip since 1980.

Edey made 13-of-21 shots from the floor and 14-of-22 from the free-throw line.

Dalton Knecht scored 37 points for Tennessee. The Vols have never been to the Final Four.

With Purdue’s win, eight of the old school 10 Big Ten men’s basketball programs have qualified for the Final Four in the last 27 years.

1-seeds who lose to 16-seeds are now 2-for-2 in making the Final Four the next season.

First Virginia won a national title in 2019 after the UMBC loss, and now Purdue is going to the Final Four after losing to Fairleigh Dickinson.

Zach Edey now has 39 points. A new career-high comes in his 136th game at Purdue and the biggest game the program has played in 44 years. Legend.

DETROIT - Lance Jones has worked his butt off guarding Dalton Knecht this half.

Still hit the potential dagger three.

That’s good portaling.

Counting Alabama on Saturday, there have been 57 teams to qualify for the Final Four since Purdue’s most recent trip to the national semifinals in 1980.

The Boilers since then have been to 12 Sweet 16s and three Elite 8s.

Purdue leads 54-43 with 7:54 remaining

DETROIT — When Tennessee can’t find its offense, what does it do? It creates it. The Vols have upped the intensity on defense - which seemed pretty intense to begin with- and have climbed back into a game that looked to be getting away from them.

Jordan Gainey, who was MIA for much of the first 30 minutes, has been big. Hit two threes, and forced a turnover on a lousy long inbound pass to get Dalton Knecht an easy bucket.

This game is, for the record, bananas.

Zach Edey's interior dominance will rightly get all the attention, but a huge factor for Purdue all game has been its guards matching Tennessee's perimeter physicality and driving the ball into the paint. This has not been a day for Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer to hunt for open spot-up 3s. Instead, their offense has come via driving and attacking. The two have combined for 21 points and eight assists.

DETROIT — Simple question: does Tennessee have enough offensive options to match Purdue? Dalton Knecht is a one-man wrecking crew, but Zakai Zeigler’s floater is not going in. Santiago Vescovi, who missed the Sweet 16 with the flu, still looks a little green. Jordan Gainey is apparently missing in action. Josiah-Jordan James has only gotten three touches, and between foul trouble and Zach Edey, might be a bit to ask of the big men (related: Jonas Aidoo needs to stop shooting).

DETROIT — Zach Edey is going to foul out all of Tennessee’s big men options in five minutes. Tobe Awaka and Jonas Aidoo both have three, and there’s 16:24 left in this game.

DETROIT — I already feel bad for whoever loses this game. Every possession feels like the entire arena is holding its collective breath, as if THIS BASKET WILL MEAN WE DON’T GO TO THE FINAL FOUR. Honestly, the tension is that thick. It’s reminiscent, honestly, of the Elite Eight game in Louisville in 2019 between Virginia and Purdue, the one that went to overtime thanks to Kihei Clark. Remember?

By my count, Purdue created 16 post touches for Zach Edey out of its offensive actions in that first half, ultimately producing 15 of his 19 points at the break. Seven of those touches resulted in made field goals, two resulted in turnovers, three ended with a missed shot, while he passed out of the remainder.

DETROIT — What did Matt Painter say at the timeout he called after back-to-back Dalton Knecht 3s with 5:11 left? That's the question. His team outscored Purdue 15-2 after that huddle, with Knecht going 1-for-5 from the field, his only basket coming on a runout dunk. Purdue scored 13 straight, all coming from Zach Edey (7) and Fletcher Loyer (6), over four minutes after the timeout.

Purdue leads 36-34 at the half

DETROIT — This is what an Elite 8 game pitting No. 1 and No. 2 seeds with tortured NCAA Tournament histories and great coaches and players should be.

It’s 36-34 Purdue at halftime at Little Caesar’s Arena after the No. 2 seed Vols came out and established an early lead. After which Purdue held Tennessee scoreless for a stretch of 5:35 and took the lead. The Vols went on a Dalton Knecht-fueled 15-2 run to go up 11 and force a Matt Painter timeout.

Purdue then showed the resolve of a champion, responding immediately in front of a crowd that is around 80 percent in favor of the Boilermakers. The Boilers went on a 13-0 tear, holding the Vols scoreless for another stretch of 4:30, to regain tentative control.

The stars are starring. Knecht has 18 points. Edey has 19. He’s getting big-time help from Braden Smith (nine points, five rebounds). UT’s Josiah James is having another terrific game (eight points, one help-side block of Edey).

Dalton Kencht walking into timeout huddle, looks up at Tennessee fans behind the bench, points to his chest and declares, "This is my f— game."

He ain't wrong. 6-9 FGs, 4-4 3s, 16 points.

Matt Painter taking a bit of risk here, stealing a few minutes of Trey Kaufman-Renn's playing time despite his two fouls. The calculus is pretty clear — the Boilers need Kaufman-Renn's defense and there's only so much worth holding back with so much on the line.

Tennessee, meanwhile, after being called for six fouls in the game's opening seven minutes, hasn't been whistled for another in the last six minutes.

DETROIT — Matt Painter spent a lot of time, understandably, talking about Dalton Knecht. He wanted to make sure the Tennessee All-American got zero space to move around. Knecht already has 10, and Painter has moved Fletcher Loyer off of him and is going with Cam Heide for now.

Fouls adding up for Tennessee

Six fouls on six different Tennessee players through seven minutes of basketball is not part of the Vols' script for a win,

Following up on the previous note on Vescovi

He was welcomed back to the Tennesseee lineup by promptly being put into a post-up against Trey Kaufman-Renn and bodied under the basket, surrendering an and-1 layup as the game hits the first media timeout with Purdue leading, 10-9.

Santiago Vescovi, who didn’t start or play Friday with the flu, is available tonight for Tennessee, despite remaining out of the starting lineup.

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The Angels Setlist at Eaves Movie Ranch, Santa Fe, NM, USA

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• No Secrets Play Video
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• Marseilles Play Video
• Wasted Sleepless Nights Play Video
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• Devil's Gate Play Video
• Outcast Play Video

Note: Exact date unknown. "September 1980"

Edits and Comments

6 activities (last edit by conditionnm , 10 Apr 2024, 01:31 Etc/UTC )

Songs on Albums

• Devil's Gate
• Wasted Sleepless Nights
• After the Rain
• Who Rings the Bell
• Straight Jacket / I Ain't the One / Save Me
• Shadow Boxer

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Festival Time!

Hey, this setlist was played at a festival:

Thirsty Ear Festival 1980 setlists

The Angels Gig Timeline

• Sep 06 1980 Hordern Pavilion Sydney, Australia Add time Add time
• Sep 17 1980 Uptown Theater Chicago, IL, USA Add time Add time
• Sep 18 1980 Thirsty Ear Festival 1980 This Setlist Santa Fe, NM, USA Add time Add time
• Oct 03 1980 Seattle Center Arena Seattle, WA, USA Add time Add time
• Oct 04 1980 Pacific Coliseum Vancouver, BC, Canada Add time Add time

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