The Damned: Manchester Academy: 05.12.08
Here we go - The Damned. The band that released the first punk single ‘New Rose’ on independent Stiff records, secured the notion of Goth rock and were first to tour the States. This is a band with a puzzling selection of history that now bring a confusing collection of Manchester musos to the Academy.
The Damned remain as theatrical now as they began in the 70s, with the iconic David Vanian pushing his original Goth image, with chalked face and formal suit. With The Damned, there was always a sense of parody and of humour, and as Vanian twists his hand to the sky and rolls his eyes he knows just what image he pushes, as a cartoon. He leads cartoons Sensible, Pinch and Monty Oxymoron for a retrospective pantomime show.
Captain Sensible (Raymond Burns) flails around wearing a red beret and high street star print jeans, and is simply a musician mocking his own past pretensions. He jokes, ‘buy Pot Noodle Bombay Badboy, it’s delicious’ and then chucks it all over the crowd, ‘what next, Johnny Rotten advertising butter?’
They play through classics 'Smash It Up' and 'New Rose' as the mosh pit circles, and new songs 'Shallow Diamonds' and 'Maid for Pleasure' from the eagerly awaited 2008 album So, Who’s Paranoid?
He puzzlingly covers most of the songs in solo shreddin’, breaks out into drum solos with keyboardist Oxymoron, a fuzzy haired pot bellied Colin from the Fast Show character, and plays his guitar with a can of Strongbow. Brilliant fun.
The audience are all middle-aged ‘goths’ and ‘punks’, with a few 14-year-olds spotted around, probably attracted to the band because of their theatrical quality. One particularly bloated bloke splurges, ‘Captain Sensible’s a wanker’, and sparks an amusing wave of spittle and ‘CUNT!’
The punters have still got it all wrong by thinking The Damned are still going to remain as punk as the London SS and that punk means stomping on heads and swearing with a vacant skull. What we see with The Damned is a sense of change, and a sense of the parody of what was and what now can never be. Sensible discusses how Sid Vicious had flares in his wardrobe for God’s sake. Punk was short lived, and at least, (unlike the angry mob), The Damned recognise it.
Review by Alice White
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