The Press, York - news, sports, leisure, houses, jobs, cars, what’s on and live travel

Doing their Damned-est

From the Evening Press, first published Saturday 26th Apr 2003.

The faithful 600 gather at the church of The Damned. There's more black than on funeral days, Gothic regalia, coats worn indoors, and hair like Dracula or gone missing.

It is the opening night of the Pop Be Damned tour - they'll be rocking in Scunthorpe tonight, Preston tomorrow, Swansea Monday - and it feels like a private party, a convention, a reunion ball.

Not that The Damned have ever been away since kick-starting British punk with Neat Neat Neat in '76. They start late; very punk. Something to do with bedding in new equipment; not very punk. The sound, nevertheless, is as thick as blood, conducive to a rush, a buzz and the thrash-dancing at the feet of the Captain and Dave Vanian.

Captain Sensible, 48 during the week, is in trademark red beret, sleeveless t-shirt, tartan kilt and monkey boots: a tribute act unto himself, mickey-taking about the late Lennon and imminent Melanie C show and leading the sing-song insults at his own expense.

Vanian, all in blackest black and pointed heels, looks more Gene Vincent rock'n'roll than Goth lord, indeed a psychobilly strut goes with the punk anthem Gothic melodramas and the Captain's karaoke Happy Talk.

With Pinch packing a punch on drums, Patricia Morrison, the high priestess of Goth, on bass, and Monty Oxymoron as hyperactive as childrens' TV on keyboards, The Damned are never too neat neat neat: the pranking cartoon Sensible countered by the darker comic-book edge of the prancing Vanian. They won't go quietly.

Updated: 10:34 Saturday, April 26, 2003

Archive Home