The Damned still managing to offend shocker

email me off list, I still owe you something I think.

i dunno guys... for once, i gotta agree with the Xians

the joy of google and lyrics websites...

"Clergyman Objects to Punk Band Light Show

CAMBRIDGE, England - A clergyman has criticized a city's decision to ask an
aging punk band to switch on its annual civic display of Christmas lights.

The Damned, the Rev. Stephen Leeke said Wednesday, do not really encapsulate
the spirit of the season.
"I do not think they are the best people to be switching on the Christmas
lights," said Leeke, vicar of St. Martin's Church in Cambridge, 50 miles
north of London. "I think perhaps it would be more appropriate for them to
switch them off.

"It just seems to me to be a bit of a culture clash in launching the city's
Christmas celebrations with a group who really haven't been renowned with
looking at the positive side of life and Christian principles," he added.

The band, which sprang from London's mid-70s punk scene and released songs
including "Problem Child," "Smash It Up" and "Suicide," is due to switch on
the historic university town's seasonal decorations on Sunday.

Lead singer Captain Sensible, who had a solo hit in 1982 with the cheery
Rogers and Hammerstein song "Happy Talk," defended the band, saying The
Damned represented the true spirit of Christmas.

"It's a time to behave disgracefully and slob out in front of the TV," he
told Independent Radio News. "The Damned are particularly good at that sort
of thing and the church stuff just gets in the way.""

Possibly the best piece of publicity The Damned have had since the Daily Mirror ran a banner headline reproducing Ratty's drunken claims to have eaten the Eiffel Tower.

At least the hack who wrote the BBC piece had spent a full minute doing his research.

Shame no-one's mentioning the festive re-release of the Punk-Aid single 'though.

http://www.officialdamned.com/media/images/misc/eresyourxmas2.jpg

Bound to sell more copies than Geldof and his mates' feeble effort as well as achieving world peace, thereby making Bono look even more stupid than he does already.

Or something.

WTF???

Dave Vanian and the Captain from the original line up.

"since the Daily Mirror ran a banner headline reproducing Ratty's drunken claims to have eaten the Eiffel Tower."

Must be about 25 years ago, just before Machine Gun Etiquette came out the first time IIRC.

I briefly owned a 4-way mains extension socket that had once belonged to Captain Sensible. (this thrilling little snippet of knowledge is actually true!!)

Lumme2: Where is Chris Miller now?

Turns out that Mr. Millar was actually a villan and a rogue who'd nick your wallet or garden gnome all the time - cor blimey guvnor, there's a right old turn up for a caper an' no mistake; would you ever 'ave adam an' eve'd it?!

I think the most recent news I've heard of him was this although I believe he's got a band together and is gigging sporadically.

Nice. ;-)

Oh well, in that case I just bet that extension lead was actually the one that my old mate Sprogg from The K9's (who also once auditioned for The Damned, just after Algy left, curiously enough) originally borrowed from me and "lost" when he was playing bass for Inner City Unit....

""Shadow of Love" and "Is it a Dream" were lamentable singles, but I'll stand by "Street of Dreams"."

I thought "Shadow of Love" and "Is it a Dream" were great singles - especially the "Ten Inches Of Hell" mix of "Shadow...."; and what about "Grimly Fiendish"?!?

Yes, yes, I know what you're thinking: "Stewart in liking a Damned single shockah! Goodness me, why that's almost as much of a surprise as the Revelations (tee hee) that Alex likes a Killing Joke single"; but these aren't blind Adorations (tee hee hee!) like that, really they're not!

Phantasmagoria isn't a great album by any means, but it's a better album than Anything or Music For Pleasure; and if Mr. Millar really wants to trash a Damned album then he really ought to start with that appalling piece of excrement (for which he himself was largely responsible) Not Of This Earth / I'm Alright Jack And The Beanstalk, like everyone else in their right mind does!

I missed that 'burglar' reference until last thing yest. All night, brain singing "I'm a burglar..."

My copy of the album also has a rather interesting 3-D cover.

In fact, as a product, it's only the music that lets it down.

"And when you wake up,
You'll start to SCREAM!
Burglary's the life for me...."

whoops, I've fallen off-ah
throw on the bracelets clink click oh god i'm nicked etc etc

My tongue was in my cheek but it is certainly true that youing Mr. Aird is an old mate of mine (he even kindly let me stay at his place for a while around '83 / '84 when I was having a few problems) and he regularly used to borrow all sorts of little bits of kit off me like guitar leads and rolls of gaffer tape and extension cables and so on because (being a completely disorganised little git) he frequently managed to lose his own; and (being a completely disorganised little git) he regularly then used to proceed to lose mine too.

So you see it is entirely possible!

AH, forgot about that one. "Grimly Fiendish" is okay...if a bit overproduced (like much of Phantasmagoria). Was "Eloise" originally on one of their albums, or was it just a single?

Nope! So perhaps the set will address this. I have heard the sped-up "Whip In My Valise" via a live set at the Roxy, though.

Just a single.

Nedwin, please check you're he-male ;~)

Switch on and be Damned!
Xmas Lights: Vicar: Points 'The Damned' Toward the off Switch
Damned are a festive turn-off

You wrote all those press reports for each paper, didn't you Stew?

Gotta hit the sites
Because I'm always surfin', always surfin'
Surfin' for my life

Me: "Mummy and I have seen the Ramones in concert"
Alice (4): "Really! Wow! (etc)"

1. Smash it up (parts one and two) (I suspect this is a fib)
2. Burglar
3. Smash it up parts 1 to 4.
and a vidclip from 1979.

Trailer for a new docu-film looks promising...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVI8SOt3OvI

If I was doing SXSW I would partake. Instead, I'll wait for it to come to me.

Good thread, happy times!

Better still, catch them on the last date of the tour at London Astoria on Sunday 12th December and you'll also get to see all these other great British punk rock institutions, also still kicking varying different quantities of arse: Sham 69; UK Subs; Chelsea; 999; The Vibrators; Splodgenessabounds; Alternative TV; TV Smith; and me; plus great American punk rock institutions The Avengers; and, for no good reason that I can make out, Hazel O'Connor.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, November 25, 2004 1:16 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I went to this gig! I missed Alternative TV though. And Splodgenessabounds but I can live with that.

I dunno, apropos of nothing at all I was singing "Have you seen the butterfly on the windowsill John" to myself over the weekend.

Agree, the documentary looks promising.

My smug mate is seeing The Damned in London in June
Then the Replacements on the same trip. After he returns from a holiday in Australia...
Cant

The Damned always appealed to me more than, say the sloganeering Clash

Hello Colonel! Where you been?

Looking forward to this a lot.

Almost as much as this Johnny Moped doc made by Capt Sensible's son:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tELNUGii58M