Towards the close of 1977, the Damned were promptly self-destructing. Guitarist Brian James had expressed interest in adding an additional guitar player to round out their sound. Robert “Lu” Edmonds was drafted for this purpose immediately before the sessions for “Music For Pleasure”. Although I like this album, it’s terribly mediocre when compared to their debut release. It probably didn’t help that the group was falling to piece and the drummer of Pink Floyd was behind the controls for “Pleasure”. February of ’78 saw Scabies walkout. Several different drummers tried to fill his shoes (even Jon Moss later of Culture Club) but this was the first nail in the coffin of the Damned. When Brian James quit soon after Scabies, they were finished.
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In August of ’78 the Damned reformed with James to play a proper last gig at the Rainbow in London. They smashed their instruments during the climax of the performance and the punk world thought this was unquestionably the conclusion of the Damned.
The individual members of the Damned had a try at solo efforts that went nowhere. Thus, the Les Punks (also later known as the Doomed) were formed. Brian James had copywritten the Damned name preventing Vanian, Sensible, and Scabies from using the name to perform. Before Algy Ward (previously of the Saints) joined the band, friend and supporter Lemmy Kilmister of Motorhead on bass. Thus, the lineup on this recording is Dave Vanian on vocals, Captain Sensible on guitar, Lemmy Kilmister on bass, and Rat Scabies playing drums.
The source of this show is an audience recording. The quality is slightly better than average considering it's source and the probability that it's fairly generated from decades of trading hands amongst collectors. Regardless, it's a scarce historical document of the Damned with Lemmy sitting in.
Track list:
1. Jet Boy Jet Girl (Elton Motello)
2. Stretcher Case
3. Anti-Pope
4. Second Time Around
5. Problem Child
6. Silver Machine (Hawkwind)
7. Burglar
8. Looking At You (MC5)
9. Help (Beatles)
10. Kill (Alberto y Los Trios Paranoias)
11. Stab Your Back
12. City Kids (Motorhead)
13. New Rose
14. I Feel Alright (The Stooges)
15. Neat Neat Neat
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if you haven't already, check out King, as it's essentially the same thing (but with the Saints dude instead of Lemmy).
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Track 12 City Kids is actually a Pink Fairies song from 1973 written by Larry Wallis who was the original guitarist for Motorhead.
ReplyDeleteThat King Peel Session is pretty good and their all-star line up is Captain Sensible - Guitar, Henry (Daze)Badowski (from Chelsea) - Vocals/Keyboards/Sax, Kim Bradshaw (Saints) - Bass, Dave Berk (Johnny Moped)- Drums.
You should also look for the White Cats (w/Rat Scabies) Peel Sessions from 1978. Those have some future Damned songs on them as well.