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THE DAMNED

The Damned

The Best Of The Damned - 2023 Reissue

    • With a well-received new album “Darkadelic” in the shops, the Damned continue to build on their legendary status.

    • This month as well as finally releasing the “David Vanian And The Phantom Chords” album as a 2LP set we are delighted to also offer “The Best Of The Damned”.

    • This album was originally released back in 1981 and pulled together the classic singles that the band had made for the label like ‘Love Song’, ‘Smash It Up’ (Parts 1 and 2)’, ‘I Just Can’t Be Happy Today’, ‘History Of The World Part 1’, ‘Hit Or Miss’, their Christmas single ‘There Ain’t No Sanity Clause’ and ‘Wait For The Blackout’. Not only are these now seen as gold-standard Damned tracks but also map out a musical development where they moved from their punk roots to crafting melodic pop songs that also took them into the charts. Better still, when originally pressed up in 1981 the album cannily also included those earlier classics punk classics ‘New Rose’ and ‘Neat Neat Neat’. There’s even Captain Sensible and the Softies’ version of ‘Jet Boy, Jet Girl’ that appeared on the flip of ‘Wait For The Blackout’ in 1982.

    • You don’t mess with a classic so we have reissued the album just as it looked back in 1981, complete with inner sleeve and blackmail label lettering. Saying that, fans of the Damned both old and new will need no encouragement to add this to their collection. 


    TRACK LISTING

    Side One
    1. New Rose
    2. Love Song
    3. Neat Neat Neat
    4. I Just Can't Be Happy Today
    5. Jet Boy, Jet Girl
    6. Hit Or Miss
    7. There Ain't No Sanity Clause
    Side Two
    1. Smash It Up Parts 1 & 2
    2. Plan 9 Channel 7
    3. Rabid (Over You)
    4. Wait For The Blackout
    5. History Of The World Part 1 

    The Damned

    Darkadelic

      46 years after releasing the ground-breaking debut, “Damned Damned Damned”, The Damned return with “DARKADELIC”, their twelfth studio album. The album, from the band that launched punk and invented goth, once again innovating and expanding upon their unique universe. The “The Invisible Man” track is a showcase for Captain Sensible’s riffadelic guitarwork and David Vanian’s snarling baritone vocals. “DARKADELIC” barrels along from there and features some of The Damned’s sharpest song writing and genre-bending performances reaching peaks with other tracks such as “You’re Gonna Realise” and “Beware of the Clowns”, drenched in classic horror movie references, nods to swinging 60’s London, and a refined palette of musical influences. The Damned will indeed paint the world DARKADELIC in 2023.

      TRACK LISTING

      1. The Invisible Man
      2. Bad Weather Girl
      3. You’re Gonna Realise
      4. Beware Of The Clown
      5. Western Promise
      6. Wake The Dead
      7. Follow Me
      8. Motorcycle Man
      9. Girl I’ll Stop At Nothing
      10. Leader Of The Gang
      11. From Your Lips
      12. Roderick

      The Damned

      The Black Album

        “The Black Album” was ambitious, even more so than its multi-faceted predecessor, “Machine Gun Etiquette”. Reviewing the new album, weekly music paper the NME pointed to a Terry Riley influence. Syd Barrett and the Beach Boys were name-checked in Sounds’ review. Thinking of the Damned as a punk rock band was no longer possible.

        Their fourth album – and second since reforming in 1978 after splitting earlier in the year – was issued on 17 November 1980. It was a double. Sides One and Two featured 11 songs. Side Four included six tracks recorded live at Shepperton Studios on 26 July 1980, one of which was a version of their 1976 debut single ‘New Rose’, British punk rock’s first record. Side Three was taken up by one song, the 17-minute ‘Curtain Call’. In four years, the Damned had gone from a short, sharp shock to the epic.

        A slightly different Damned to that of “Machine Gun Etiquette” was heard on “The Black Album”. Bassist Algy Ward had been replaced by Paul Gray from Eddie & the Hot Rods. There was also a new approach to recording as this was their first album made outside London and completed (except Side Four) at the Welsh residential studio Rockfield. Other firsts: one track aside, it was self-produced; ‘History Of The World Part 1’ featured the track’s producer Hans Zimmer on synthesiser, the first time one was used by the band. The Damned were not repeating themselves.

        While the title was a sideways Beatles’ reference, the Black and the White albums actually were counterparts as each featured songs with diverse styles. The introspective ‘Silly Kids Games’ can be read as a look back at the band’s past. ‘Wait For The Blackout’ had an irresistible forward momentum and an equally memorable melody. ‘Drinking About My Baby’ was the closest to punk that it got. ‘Twisted Nerve’ was imbued with darkness. ‘History Of The World Part 1’ nodded to the Kinks. And then, there was the momentous portmanteau aural drama ‘Curtain Call’, with its lyrics of “the crack of the whip” and “the snapping sound of someone’s nerves”.

        The Damned felt they could do anything and “The Black Album” proved they could. Ambitious? Yes. But also confirmation that the Damned were at a peak which would be hard to reach again.

        Kieron Tyler

        TRACK LISTING

        Side 1
        01 Wait For The Blackout
        02 Lively Arts
        03 Silly Kid's Games
        04 Drinking About My Baby
        05 Twisted Nerve
        06 Hit Or Miss

        Side 2
        01 Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde
        02 Sick Of This And That
        03 History Of The World Part 1
        04 13th Floor Vendetta
        05 Therapy

        Side 3
        01 Curtain Call

        Side 4
        01 Love Song (Live)
        02 Second Time Around (Live)
        03 Smash It Up Parts 1 & 2 (Live)
        04 New Rose (Live)
        05 I Just Can't Be Happy Today (Live)
        06 Plan 9 Channel 7 (Live)

        The Underground Youth

        Beautiful & Damned - Reissue

          Fuzz Club Records are reissuing the ‘Beautiful & Damned’ EP from The Underground Youth, the Blackpool-born and now Berlin-based band led by musician, poet and author Craig Dyer. A homage to the F. Scott Fitzgerald book of the same name, the 4 track EP confirmed Dyer’s obsession for the darker side of literature and poetry of the last two centuries, as well as his early DIY approach. Rigorously recorded in the band’s home studio with the help of producer James Shillito in early 2014, ‘Beautiful & Damned’ acted as a preview to their 2015 ‘Haunted’ LP. It was the first TUY material featuring synth and electronic equipment and also represented a significant shift to a much darker sound and lyrical content, as anticipated by their first single/video ‘Naked’ – a fan-favourite to this day that exhibits a perfect encounter between the atmospheres of the Cocteau Twins and the early Creation Records sound. The 2021 reissue of the EP comes on a coloured 10” with remastered audio.

          TRACK LISTING

          1) Behind
          2) Damned
          3) Naked
          4) Shadow

          The Damned

          Damned Damned Damned - 2017 Deluxe Remaster Edition

          The Damned blazed a trail when they became the very first British punk band to release a single(New Rose) on 22nd October 1976, which was swiftly followed by the release of the very first British punk album, their classic debut long-player ‘Damned Damned Damned,’ originally released by Stiff Records on 18th February 1977.

          Now, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the band’s dramatic breakthrough, a very special Art Of The Album deluxe edition of that incredible debut.

          Featuring fully remastered audio & new sleevenotes recalling the story of the band’s conception and the album’s creation. Comprehensively researched and written by legendary punk writer John Ingham, these new sleevenotes cover in-depth the story of the album & the period in which it was written & recorded, the key players in its creation, the craft and instrumentation, the impact upon release and its legacy 40 years later. Via exclusive interviews with original band members Dave Vanian, Captain Sensible, Brian James and Rat Scabies, John Ingham (best known for writing the first ever review of The Damned and the first ever interview with The Sex Pistols - both in UK music weekly ‘Sounds’ in 1976) is perfectly placed to recount the early hedonistic days of the band in this definitive release of one of the most influential albums of all time..

          STAFF COMMENTS

          Martin says: Chaotic, messy, exhilarating ultra rock'n'roll picking up where the Stooges and MC5 left off (the album includes a cover of the Stooges' 'I Feel Alright'). The machine gun blast of 'Neat Neat Neat' opens in wonderful, menacing fashion, the album careering insanely on from there, but the highlight has to be the utterly amazing 'New Rose' - the first, and one of the greatest U.K. punk singles ever released.

          TRACK LISTING

          01. Neat Neat Neat
          02. Fan Club
          03. I Fall
          04. Born To Kill
          05. Stab Yor Back
          06. Feel The Pain
          07. New Rose
          08. Fish
          09. See Her Tonite
          10. 1 Of The 2
          11. So Messed Up
          12. I Feel Alright

          SWR (Shaun Ryder)

          Close The Dam

            We definitely heard that voice. That warning. But if we don’t look, then we’ll never know, will we? And, turns out, we’d have missed out on something special.

            Confession/confusion: Shaun Ryder taught me to dance, pretty much. It’s all a bit hazy now, of course, but there’s about ten records I just can’t resist and he’s made two of them. It’s been a lonnng journey, with many great records and a great many good times.

            All of which makes Close The Dam more remarkable. It had us hooked inside 20 seconds: that strut, that slinky come-hither groove. Just a hint of Billie Jean perhaps? Producer Sunny Levine is Quincy Jones’ grandson, so maybe that is not too far-fetched.

            What a tune, though. Shaun sounds more focussed than…than ever, really. Close The Dam is something new from him, a little bit future, a spare but insistent club track with the sort of lyrics that burn into your mind. Instant classic. Big.

            “Bigger than you is”

            Electric Scales rewinds the clock a little. If you half close your eyes, its dirty squalls would almost nestle into Squirrel & G-Man’s grooves. Almost. Until you realise just what is going on in the loping capsized production. It comes over harder than Close The Dam but wears its heart on its sleeve and if you roll with the punches, you’ll feel that clearly. There’s a lot of water under this one’s bridge.

            “Baggy trousers, use them like a sail ”

            Coming in low, out of the sun; no-one will see this coming - 2015 is full of surprises.

            TRACK LISTING

            A. Close The Dam
            B. Electric Scales


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