Live Review: The Damned - Academy, Manchester
6th December 2024
Words: Dan Barnes
Photos: Rich Price
The Academy in Manchester is as good a place as any to seek refuge from the opening salvos of Storm Darragh this evening; it’s low and of a robust construction, meaning it’s unlikely to have the roof ripped off by an unexpectedly rambunctious wind. There’s also the small matter of punk pioneers – and all round-genre royalty – The Damned being in residence, taking our minds off the approaching apocalypse out of doors.
The band are regular visitors to the municipality and an evening with The Damned is always one of surprises. When I saw them a couple of years ago it was the Original Line-Up shows with Rat and Brian back in the fold; that night they night they played as a four-piece and celebrated the music they, as a quartet, had created, focusing on the first two albums.
As someone who was but a nipper back then, it was a glorious sight to behold, but The Damned are a collective whose iconic past – and sometimes sketchy middle – has been enhanced by the two most recent full-lengths: 2018’s Evil Spirits and last year’s Darkadelic.
The central axis of The Damned had always pivoted on the personas of Dave Vanian’s uber-cool gothic presence and Captain Sensible’s mad joker; add the that the returning Rat Scabies behind the drums and you have three-quarters of the band that took to the Apollo stage back in 2022.
Paul Grey has been adding the core to the band’s sound since the Captain switched from bass to guitar following Brian James’ departure in ’79, and Monty Oxymoron’s keys give the gothic undertones a more lush and warm texture.
As with any band who’ve been treading the boards for multiple decades, a Damned show must feature certain touchstones: New Rose, Neat, Neat, Neat, Love Song and, of course, their cover of Barry Ryan’s Eloise. But it’s the other songs they play that are of the most interest.
Tonight’s show is heavily laced with tracks from the third album, the excellent Machine Gun Etiquette, opening with Love Song before diving straight into the short, sharp musical savagery of the title-track.
There’s a triple dose of The Black Album with Wait for the Blackout, Lively Arts and The History of the World (part 1), dip back to Machine Gun for Plan 9 Channel 7.
It’s a fan’s dream set so far: the proggy, folky feel of Blackout, the snotty punk of Arts, and the accessibility of History, where Monty’s keys come into their own, give the packed Academy a change to relive their past, raising voices to drown out the worse of Darragh.
Surprisingly, the set features four very unexpected additions from the 1982 Strawberries record, the direct follow up to the imperious The Black Album. The poppier direction of some of Strawberries found it wanting when set against the band’s earlier work, but the inclusion of Gun Fury (of Riot Forces) with its meaty guitar intro, the very Eighties vibes of Life Goes On, and the big stomp of Stranger on the Town, punctuating the more familiar fare of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and I Just Can’t Be Happy Today. A rampant Ignite shows Sensible has some serous guitar chops and his soloing here, and elsewhere throughout the evening, demonstrates he’s more than just the class fool.
Darkadelic numbers, The Invisible Man and Beware the Clowns, prove The Damned still have much worthwhile to say and the energy by which to say it; my personal favourite of the band’s many offerings, Curtain Call, forms the opening of the first encore, leading into Rat’s drum solo and Neat, Neat, Neat, with a second encore of There Ain’t No Sanity Clause and parts 1 and 2 of Smash It Up.
With close to fifty-years under their belts, The Damned, have weathered many of the storms the industry has thrown at them; the uniqueness of the band comes from the constituent parts, with Vanian’s persona as the vampiric man in black contrasted with the bright and colourful Captain. If ever there was a better visual representation of what a band was all about then I’d like to see it. Add into that the raw power of Rat’s drumming, the understated bass work from Grey and Monty’s quiet eccentricity, and you have yourself a recipe for success.
Like The Stranglers, The Damned are punk in attitude only; there’s nothing overwhelming punk about their sound, but it’s the approach that makes all the difference. And, like The Stranglers, it’s the thing that keeps us coming back for more.
Outside the Academy, Darragh is ravaging the land, but F-it! We’ve just watched The Damned.
Photo Credits: Rich Price Photography
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