The Damned Classic Line Up Together For The First Time Since 1989

The Damned are the undisputed, unmatched and unassailable living gods of Punk Rock; and for the very first and final time in thirty five years they have reassembled the absolute classic line up of the band, recreating the period in their storied career when they were at their peak creativity and the summit of their influence and swagger.

The Damned have always been brilliant in every iteration, but even then, the combination of Dave Vanian, Captain Sensible, Rat Scabies and Paul Gray represents the best of the best of this fabled and trailblazing band and it is this quartet who will shortly grace Australia with their presence to perform the highlights from their seminal albums, Machine Gun Etiquette, The Black Album and Strawberries, as well as fan favourites like Neat Neat Neat, New Rose and more. Dave Vanian talks to Hi Fi Way about the tour.

This is shaping up to be one of those tours, definitely not to miss you. Are you excited to be returning to Australia with the classic line up for one last time here in Australia?
It’s bizarre, I must admit, but yeah, I’m looking forward to. I just spent three days rehearsing. It was the first time we’ve all been together in as much I’m working on this since, back in many, many years. It sounded good, I must admit, confident that there’s going to be a good show ahead of us. It doesn’t get any easier.

Did it take a lot of convincing or negotiating to get the classic line up together and in the one place at the one at a time to actually try and make this happen?
Not this, because that part of it had already happened with the original line up with Brian Jones and it was trying to heal a feud basically between Rat and Captain was the reason that so it made it difficult. Once that had been overcome it wasn’t that difficult at all.

What was the catalyst to get those two guys talking there? Was it just the benefit of time?
Large amounts of cash! No, it just took time. Band are a very strange environment and little things can happen that get blown up into stupidly large things that that are childish basically, and it happens in many, many bands. The whole thing of ego and God knows what else comes into it as well. Eventually, hopefully, if it’s not too serious, those brushed aside and I don’t even remember why they didn’t speak to each other and that’s kind of what happened in this place, I think.

So what’s the energy replaying like in a rehearsal so far? Has it probably been the most exciting that it’s been sort of in in your career with the with The Damned?
I don’t know. I wouldn’t say that, but it’s certainly very interesting, you know Rats, there’s not another drummer like him. He’s an amazing drummer and there’s a magic there that’s certainly still there, which is good. I’m more likely to say answers to questions like that and answer it better once we’ve done a gig together because it’s hard to say. We’re just rehearsing, but it’s certainly sounding very good.

Is this something that even beyond the Australian that you’re looking to continue?
Well, there’s certainly a few shows this year with this line up in, not just in Australia but also in England and Europe. I can never tell you know, I will continue as long as I can do the songs justice. Once I start, for me personally, I think that I’m going the route of where I just can’t do it anymore the way it should be done. Then it will be time to call it a day. But at the moment it doesn’t seem to be it’s time yet, so I’m happy to do it but obviously it’s very different than it was in 1976 as well, we are all very much older, but I think the basic gist of the music itself is the same.

Did you take a lot out of the Australian tour from last year knowing there’s plenty of love for the band in Australia?
It’s lovely to come, and also because we’re playing all the new songs and stuff on the album. I’ve always loved coming to Australia and New Zealand as well. Always! There’s quite a lot of memories from the 80s there for us as well, I would have liked to have done more work there. Australia’s had such a good music scene for so many years. There’s some great 60s garage bands came out of Australia. There was a great scene of musicians like Nick Cave and The Johnnys and all those kind of bands that came through the 80s. There was a time when you didn’t hear so much, when you heard some bands are broke through in the 80s like Split Enz and loads of others. Generally, I don’t think people realise how good the music scene was there on its own. I was always surprised when I came across that there was all these great bands that I’ve not heard of, but the scene is really healthy. I guess it’s because you’re so far away or we’re so far away.

Have you been blown away by the response to this tour?
I have, it must mean that we must be doing something right, so it gives you great confidence as well and it’s lovely. We’re very much looking forward to it.

Has there been much discussion about what “classics” you are playing on this tour and how to fit them all in?
Oh yeah, it gets crazy because that that’s a kind of pleasure and the curse. The fact is that you’ve got this great chunk of your career of so many different songs that when you try and put a set together it’s so difficult because you know that you’re going to miss some of the good ones out that people want to hear. But that’s where you’re going to be at. It’s a great position to be in rather than thinking we’ve only got ten songs that are any good and we’ve got nothing else. Where we’ve got too many, it’s a problem. What is nice though is we are trying to change the sets around and we haven’t been playing the same set for years and years. It’s always different every time we go out, which is great. There’s a few constants like New Rose and Neat Neat Neat, which have always been in there. Then there’s some songs we’ve hardly ever played at all. It’s nice as it keeps us on our toes, keeps the challenge for us to play them right, rather than be complacent up there and boring bad.

The Hard-Ons are an awesome inclusion as the main support. Do you know much about those guys?
It’s funny, the last thing Monty said to be before he left the rehearsal studio was that he was really looking forward to seeing the hoarding on the building outside that says “The Damned Hard-Ons!”.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch The Damned on tour with The Hard-Ons on the following dates, tickets from The Phoenix…