The Damned: Damned Damned Damned 1977 + The Black Album 1980

The Damned are an English punk rock band formed in London in 1976 by lead vocalist Dave Vanian,

guitarist Brian James, bassist (and later guitarist) Captain Sensible, and drummer Rat Scabies. They were rarely cited as the most important of the first wave of British punk bands, nor one of the most influential, but in many respects, the Damned can honestly claim to be first. They released the first U.K. punk single (1976's "New Rose" b/w "Help"), the first U.K. punk album (1977's Damned Damned Damned), and were the first British punks to tour the United States.
                            

They were also one of the first major bands on the scene to break up, and were later ahead of the pack

when they reunited. And few of their peers have had a longer or more interesting career path. Playing music that was dark but playful at the same time, the Damned started out as a loud, hell-bent-for-leather punk quartet.
                    

The band briefly broke up after Music for Pleasure (1977), the follow-up to their debut studio album,

was critically dismissed. They quickly reformed without Brian James, and released Machine Gun Etiquette (1979). In the 1980s they released four studio albums, The Black Album (1980), Strawberries (1982), Phantasmagoria (1985), and Anything (1986), which saw the band moving towards a gothic rock style.
                       

The latter two albums did not feature Captain Sensible, who had left the band in 1984. In 1988, James

and Sensible rejoined to play a series of reunion gigs, one of which was released the next year as the live album Final Damnation (1989). Their fast-driven punk rock has been cited for influencing and shaping the emergence of hardcore punk in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the United Kingdom and the United States.
                     

They soon began adding psychedelic and garage rock influences into their music (1979's Machine Gun Etiquette), detoured into epic-scale pop with a dash of prog (1980's The Black Album), and embraced a

tuneful but muscular take on goth (1985's Phantasmagoria), all within their first ten years. While the strong, mannered but witty vocals from Dave Vanian remained a constant, the band's personnel and style was in flux as the group broke up and reunited with remarkable frequency. They finally found a relatively stable lineup in the 2000s, led by Vanian and co-founder Captain Sensible, delivering a slick but enthusiastic fusion of pop, rock, and goth on latter-day albums such as 2008's So, Who's Paranoid? and 2018's Evil Spirits.
                     

Throug it all, the band's ability to take their music seriously without taking themselves seriously endeared them to a tremendously loyal fan base.
                          

THE DAMNED - DAMNED DAMNED DAMNED 1977

                                  

[By Ned Raggett  
While the Sex Pistols will always have a prominent place in the story of U.K. punk, the Damned did

nearly everything first, including the first single, the smoking "New Rose," and the first album, namely this stone classic of rock & roll fire. At just half an hour long, Damned Damned Damned is a permanent testimony to original guitarist Brian James' songwriting (ten of the 12 tracks are his) and the band's take-no-prisoners aesthetic. Starting with Captain Sensible's sharp bassline for "Neat Neat Neat," which rapidly explodes into a full band thrash, the Damned left rhetoric for the theoreticians and political posing for the Clash. All the foursome wanted to do was rock, and that they do here. Dave Vanian already has his spooky-voiced theatrics down cold; "Feel the Pain" indulges his Alice Cooper fascination while the band creates some creepy fun behind him. Most of the time, he's yelping with the best of them, but with considerably more control than most of the era's shouters. Scabies' considerable

reputation as a drummer starts here; comparisons flew thick and fast to Keith Moon, and not just for on-stage antics (of which there were plenty). His sense of stop-start rhythm and fills is simply astounding, whether on "So Messed Up" or in his own one-minute goof, "Stab Yer Back." Though the Captain doesn't get his full chance to shine on bass, he's more than adequate, while James just cranks the amps and lets fly. Concluding with a version of the Stooges' "I Feel Alright" that sounds hollower than the original but no less energetic, Damned Damned Damned is and remains rock at its messy, wonderful best.]
 

The Damned – Damned Damned Damned
Label: Demon Records – FIEND CD 91
Format: CD, Album, Reissue 1987
Country: UK
Released: 1977
Genre: Rock
Style: Punk

TRAXS

                           

01. Neat Neat Neat    2:46
02. Fan Club    2:59
03. I Fall    2:08
04. Born To Kill    2:37
05. Stab Your Back    1:03
06. Feel The Pain    3:37
07. New Rose    2:44
08. Fish    1:38
09. See Her Tonite    2:29
10. 1 Of The 2    3:10
11. So Messed Up    1:55
12. I Feel Alright    4:26

Bass, Vocals – Captain Sensible
Design – Big Jobs Inc.
Drums, Vocals – Rat Scabies
Engineer – Bazza
Guitar, Vocals – Brian James
Producer – Nick Lowe
Vocals – Dave Vanian
Written-By – B. James (tracks: 1 to 4, 6 to 11), R. Scabies (tracks: 5), Stooges (tracks: 12)

MP3 @ 320 Size: 76 MB
Flac  Size: 229 MB

THE DAMNED - THE BLACK ALBUM 1980

                                 

[Ned Raggett
The fact that one of its songs is called "Hit or Miss" is quite appropriate for the double-vinyl Black

Album, it's definitely got some high points on it. Given the intentionally parodic reference to the Beatles' own two-disc sprawler, perhaps the semi-schizophrenia is perfectly intentional. Some of the numbers show the band following their original punk vein, but by this point the four (joined here by a new bassist, Paul Gray) were leaving straight, three-chord thrash to the cul-de-sac revivalists. It's still a surprisingly good blast, a tour de force for Vanian particularly and a chance for the band to try everything from straightforward rock to gentler atmospherics.]
                         

Bass – Paul Gray
Drums – Rat Scabies
Guitar – Captain Sensible, Rat Scabies (tracks: 1-04)
Keyboards – Captain Sensible
Vocals – Captain Sensible, David Vanian, Rat Scabies (tracks: 1-04)

Written-By – Alasdair Ward (tracks: 2-01 to 2-03, 2-05, 2-06), Andy Le-Vien (tracks: 2-08), Billy Karloff (tracks: 1-01), Brian James (tracks: 2-04), Christopher Millar (tracks: 1-01 to 2-03, 2-05, 2-06, 2-08 to 2-13), David Vanian (tracks: 1-01 to 2-03, 2-05, 2-06, 2-08 to 2-13), Dennis Thompson (tracks: 2-14), Fay Hart (tracks: 1-11), Frederick Smith (tracks: 2-14), Giovanni Dadomo (tracks: 1-07, 2-05, 2-13), Grace Slick (tracks: 2-07, 2-15), Michael Davis (tracks: 2-14), Paul Gray (2) (tracks: 1-01 to 1-12, 2-10 to 2-12), Raymond Burns (tracks: 1-01 to 2-03, 2-05, 2-06, 2-08 to 2-13), Wayne Kramer (tracks: 2-14)
                       

The Damned – The Black Album
Label: Chiswick Records – CDWKM2 275
Format: 2 x CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered 2005
Country: UK
Released: 1980   
Genre: Rock
Style: New Wave, Punk

DISC 1.

                         

01. Wait For The Blackout    3:51
02. Lively Arts    2:55
03. Silly Kid's Games    2:15
04. Drinking About My Baby    3:27
05. Twisted Nerve   4:35
Trumpet – Ray Martinez
06. Hit Or Miss    2:36
07. Dr Jeckyll And Mr Hyde    4:31
08. Sick Of This And That    1:47
09. The History Of The World (Part 1)   3:52
Engineer [Sound Fx Recording], Engineer [Mix] – Steve Rance/Synthesizer – Hans Zimmer
10. 13th Floor Vendetta   5:04
Backing Vocals – David Vanian, Hugh Jones
11. Therapy    6:11
12. Curtain Call    17:12

MP3 @ 320 Size: 136 MB
Flac  Size: 371 MB

DISC 2.

                         

01. Love Song (Live)    2:10
02. Second Time Around (Live)    1:46
03. Smash It Up Parts 1 & 2 (Live)    4:24
04. New Rose (Live)    1:50
05. I Just Can't Be Happy Today (Live)    3:55
06. Plan 9 Channel 7 (Live)    5:12
07. White Rabbit    3:00
08. Rabid (Over You)   3:43
Engineer [Mix] – Gary Edwards/Synthesizer – Anthony More
09. Seagulls    2:36
10. The History Of The World (Part 1) (Single Version)    3:48
11. I Believe The Impossible   2:54
Recorded By – Captain Sensible, Rat Scabies
12. Sugar And Spite   1:30
Recorded By – Captain Sensible, Rat Scabies
13. There Ain't No Sanity Clause    2:27
14. Looking At You (Live)    5:51
15. White Rabbit (Extended Version)    5:22

MP3 @ 320 Size: 119 MB
Flac  Size: 346 MB

DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE  LYRICS

 
          

I'm normal outside, he's evil inside
I'm Dr. Jekyll and he's Mr Hyde
I try to be true, he tries to be cruel
I'll hold you gently but he'll smother you

My clothes will impress you
And my claws will undress you
I'm normal outside, he's evil inside
I'm Dr. Jekyll and he's Mr Hyde

     

I want what's right
He walks in the night
Searching for sin in his
Decadent life

My charms will beguile you
And my arms will defile you
Me, I'm on the side of the angels
But the Devil is my best friend

                     

Sin is a way of life
Saints are for suckers
Welcome to the underworld
I start where nightmares end

Two for the price of one
Two, for the price of one I'm normal outside, he's evil inside
I'm Dr. Jekyll and he's Mr Hyde

               

I try to be true, he tries to be cruel
I'll hold you gently but he'll smother you
My clothes will impress you
And my claws will undress you 

THE DAMNED: FANTASMAGORIA (EXPANDED EDITION) HERE

The Damned: Phantasmagoria 1985 (Expanded Edition 2 CD - 2009)

The Damned are an English rock band formed in London, England, in 1976 by lead vocalist Dave Vanian, guitarist Brian James, bassist (and later guitarist) Captain Sensible, and drummer Rat Scabies. In July 1976, the Damned played their first show in public, opening for the Sex Pistols at London's 100 Club.
                                                                            

They were rarely cited as the most important of the first wave of British punk bands, nor one of the most influential, but in many respects, the Damned can honestly claim to be first. They released the first

U.K. punk single (1976's "New Rose" b/w "Help"), the first U.K. punk album (1977's Damned Damned Damned), and were the first British punks to tour the United States. The first spark of the Damned occurred in 1974, when guitarist Ray Burns and drummer Chris Millar met while both were working backstage at London's Croydon Fairfield Hall. Burns and Millar, who would be better known in later years as Captain Sensible and Rat Scabies, kept in touch as both struggled in the stagnant mid-'70s London music scene. Things took a turn when Scabies talked his way into a rehearsal with London S.S., the ground zero of U.K. punk whose shifting lineup included future members of the Clash, Generation X, and the Boys.
                                                                       

The band briefly broke up after Music for Pleasure (1977), the follow-up to their debut album, was critically dismissed. They quickly reformed without Brian James, and released Machine Gun Etiquette

(1979). In the 1980s they released four studio albums, The Black Album (1980), Strawberries (1982), Phantasmagoria (1985), and Anything (1986), which saw the band moving towards a gothic rock style. As one of the first gothic rock bands, The Damned were a major influence on the goth subculture with lead singer Vanian's vampire-themed costume, baritone singing voice and dark lyrics being major influences.
                                                                             

From the beginnings of the band, Vanian had adopted a vampire-like appearance onstage, with chalk-

white makeup and formal dress. With Sensible gone, Vanian's image became more characteristic of the band as a whole. The Damned signed a contract with major label MCA, and the Phantasmagoria album followed in July 1985, preceded by the UK No. 21 single "Grimly Fiendish". Other hits from the same album were "The Shadow of Love" with its gloomy gothic sound, and the lighter "Is It A Dream?".
                                                              

In January 1986, the non-album single "Eloise", a cover of a 1968 hit by Barry Ryan, was a No. 3 chart success in the UK, the group's highest chart placing to date. Sensible rejoined Vanian in 1996 and yet another formation of The Damned appeared. This initially featured bassist Paul Gray, who was later replaced by Patricia Morrison, previously of Bags, The Gun Club and The Sisters of Mercy.
                                                            

By 2000, The Damned consisted of Vanian, Sensible, Morrison and new recruits Monty Oxymoron on keyboards and Andy (Pinch) Pinching, a founding member of English Dogs, on drums. Garrie

Dreadful, another recruit from Sensible's solo band, played drums from 1997 to 1999 then gave way to Pinch. In 2001, the band released the album Grave Disorder, on Dexter Holland's Nitro Records label and promoted it with continual touring. A spring tour of the United States was planned in 2002 supporting Rob Zombie. However, the band dropped off after a few shows with Captain Sensible saying, "gothic punk was completely lost on the predominantly metal crowds". In the summer they played the Vans Warped Tour in the US.
                                                                 

                                                                  
Starting on 23 May 2019 The Damned will be on tour performing their third studio album, Machine

Gun Etiquette, which they haven’t played in full since its release in 1979. The tour will include such venues as the House of Blues, Punk Rock Bowling and Music Festival and Rebellion Festival.
On 25 June 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed The Damned (band) among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.
                                                               

On 25 October 2019 Pinch announced that he would be departing the band after 20 years. His last gig

was The Damned's show at the London Palladium on 27 October 2019.
On 21 October 2020 The Damned announced that in 2021 the original line up of Dave Vanian, Captain Sensible, Brian James and Rat Scabies will play a series of shows. This marks the first time in over two decades that Brian James and Rat Scabies have played with Vanian and Sensible.
 

Phantasmagoria 1985: Expanded Edition (2009)

                                                                                    

Phantasmagoria is the sixth album by the Damned, released by MCA in July 1985. Special editions

were available on white vinyl or picture disc; some versions included a free 12" of their No. 3 hit "Eloise".
After much wrangling, the Damned received a new contract with MCA Records in October 1984 on the strength of the song "Grimly Fiendish", issued as a single the following March. They recorded the album in Eel Pie Studios between March and June 1985. It reached No. 11 in the charts, and was the band's highest charting album ever, until the release of Evil Spirits in 2018, which cracked the top-ten at No. 7. The non-album single "Eloise," (a Barry Ryan cover), released six months later, became a huge UK hit, reaching No. 3.
                                                              

The Damned centred the entire album around David Vanian's deep voice, giving much of the album a gothic feeling. The album was remastered and reissued by Geffen Records in Japan in 2007, featuring replicas of the LP's outer and inner sleeves and a CD label resembling the white vinyl edition. In 2009, an expanded edition was issued by Universal Music Group in Europe.
                                                         

The cover image of Susie Bick (future wife of Nick Cave) was taken by photographer Bob Carlos Clarke at Kensal Green Cemetery, Harrow Road.
                                                                 

Label: Universal UMC – 5316241, Island Records – 5316241
Format: 2 x CD, Album, Remastered, Reissue
Country: Europe
Released: 2009
Genre: Rock
Style: New Wave, Goth Rock

CD 1.

01. Street Of Dreams    5:39
02. Shadow Of Love    3:52
03. There'll Come A Day    4:15
04. Sanctum Sanctorum    6:28
05. Is It A Dream (Written-By – Sensible)  3:28
06. Grimly Fiendish (Written-By – Doctor)  3:50
07. Edward The Bear    3:37
08. The Eighth Day    3:47
09. Trojans    4:53

Bonus Tracks
    
10. Grimly Fiendish (Bad Trip) (Written-By – Doctor)  5:12
11. The Shadow Of Love (Ten Inches Of Hell Mix)    6:46
12. Is It A Dream (Wild West Express Mix Live) (Written-By – Sensible)  6:45

MP3 @ 320 Size: 140 MB
Flac  Size: 379 MB

CD 2.

01. Grimly Fiendish (Spic N Span Mix) (Written-By – Doctor)  5:23
02. Edward The Bear    3:56
03. The Shadow Of Love (Pressure Mix)    5:27
04. Nightshift    2:28
05. Let There Be Rats    2:12
06. Wiped Out    1:38
07. Would You  (Written-By – Mason)  2:49
08. Is It A Dream (Wild West End Mix) (Written-By – Sensible)  8:13
09. Street Of Dreams (Live)    5:05
10. Curtain Call (Live)  (Written-By – Millar, Gray, Burns)  4:30
11. Pretty Vacant (Live)  (Written-By – Matlock, Rotten, Cook, Jones)  2:05
12. Wild Thing (Live)  (Written-By – Taylor)  2:18
13. Shadow Of Love (Radio One Session 20/5/85)    4:09
14. Is It A Dream (Radio One Session 20/5/85) (Written-By – Sensible)  3:40
15. Street Of Dreams (Radio One Session 20/5/85)  4:43

"Let There Be Rats" and "Wiped Out" were originally released as a Rat Scabies 7" solo single in 1984.

MP3 @ 320 Size: 140 MB
Flac  Size: 393 MB

Personnel

Dave Vanian – lead vocals
Roman Jugg – guitar, keyboards, lead vocals (7), backing vocals
Bryn Merrick – bass, backing vocals
Rat Scabies – drums

Additional musicians

Paul Shepley – additional keyboards (8)
Andy Richards – additional keyboards
Luís Jardim – percussion
Gary Barnacle – saxophone and brass
Steve Nieve – keyboard inspiration (4)

WOULD YOU  LYRICS

 

Would you love me if I had three eyes?
If I had no hair, would I need to disguise?
Oh, if we woke up and I'd been sick in the bucket
Would you empty it while I snored?
If the answer's yes, then my prayers ain't been ignored

Would you love me if I had a wooden leg?
Would you care if the neighbours left and called me Piggy?
Would you put out the barbecue if my teeth all came out too?
If the answer's yes, my prayers ain't been ignored

Darlin', where were you when I lay on my sick-bed?
When I needed a doctor, you sent a vet instead
Well, I know you're just a farmer-boy, but that's really no excuse
So pass me my spanner, 'cos my leg has just came loose