The Damned/Hack/Smith TV and the Bored Teens

Words: Diamond Dave

This entire tour of The Damned’s classic lineup was scheduled to take place a couple of years ago, but due to being overwhelmed, it has been pushed back several times and anticipation for it has grown and grown over that time. The night starts well with TV Smith playing a medley of material from his days with The Adverts, the singer covering every inch of the Apollo Theater playing at this amazing venue for the first time since The Adverts supported Iggy Pop here back in 1977. A must. I’d say the years were very kind with Mr. Smith only speaking to the audience twice, before and after the set focusing on rocking it rather than telling stories and with songs like Gary Gilmour’s Eyes and closing the group with bored teenagers. Well who can blame him?

Breakthrough is a band I didn’t know much about, other than Pauline Murray being one of the strong women who broke the ideals out of punk along with other positive female role models like Debbie Harry, Sioux Sioux and Chrissie Hynde. Again, with Murray covering most of the stage, she’s cutting quite a shadowy figure, often roaming the front with very little of a spotlight on her. The hack ended the short 30-minute set with Beat Goes On and I really hope that happens.

Finally to the damned. Lots of anticipation for this tour, it will always be interesting to see if I look back on the time I played this original line-up for the band and how it compares to the many times I’ve seen the band with various line-ups, I wasn’t disappointed.

And the band comes on stage to the tune of Doctor Who, and as our beloved Captain Sensible reminded us, it’s time to travel back in time. The thing that is often forgotten very quickly about The Damned is what great musicians they are and the fact that they never take themselves seriously (and of course they have persisted over the years) makes me feel like they haven’t been given the recognition they deserve in the same way that the Sex Pistols do. Or The Clash or The Jam.

Once the opening set to “I Feel Alrite” came out, all my worries about how the years would affect how The Damned disappeared. With the Rat Scabies crushing his set, Dave Vanian looking the audience straight in the eye, Captain Sensible with a grin on his face the entire time, the band plays classics and lesser-known gems from The Damned’s first two albums “Damned Damned Damned” and “Music For Pleasure.” The third song, performed by Fanian, is Help by “These Lads on the Road in Liverpool” which receives boos from the Manc crowd and is followed by the lesser known songs “I Fall”, “Fan Club” and “Fish” which all sound like lost gems. The Damned played Manchester Apollo at first supporting Marc Bolan and came here to support Motorhead too and there was a sweet moment when “Neat Neat Neat” was dedicated to his only song Lemmy because it was his favorite song.

We just see how lucky we are to see this set of The Damned as bassist Brian James needs help from the stage and the audience is told how the band left the stage not for drugs or groups but a much needed toilet break (it happens to all of us ha ha) but When the classic “new rose” breaks out, energy levels return! Another classic from the ’60s aired with the Rolling Stones “The Last Time” and I just wonder if that’s the case. Could this be the last time I get to see The Damned? But Scabies sets his drum kit on fire and Sensible is demolishing his voice, well… I hope not!!!

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