Once their line-up had been finalised, The Damned blazed their way into the limelight at breakneck speed. After a month or so of rehearsals, they made their live debut supporting The Sex Pistols in July 1976 at London’s 100 Club. By the following month, they’d played their first show on foreign shores at the first European Punk Festival (more like a pub rock festival in reality). When the band arrived back in London, Stiff offered them a record deal. September saw them perform at Malcolm McLaren’s Punk Special at the 100 Club, and that month also saw them become the first British punk act to play a major venue, when they supported Graham Parker and The Rumour at London’s Victoria Palace.

Earlier that day, New Rose, which was produced by Nick Lowe, became the first British punk record to be released.

Before the year was out, they’d been invited onto the ill-fated Anarchy tour as ‘special guests’, controversially sacked from the Anarchy tour and branded ‘punk pariahs’, and they also recorded Damned Damned Damned, the first British punk album. I’m guessing too that they featured in the first promotional video of a British punk act. Shot in the basement of London’s Hope and Anchor bar, here is that promo:

A genuine two and a half minute long adrenaline rush, New Rose is incessant, it’s intense and almost fifty years ago it sounded so fast as to be borderline insane – some even accused the band of speeding up the recording. And doesn’t the video match the frenzy of the song perfectly? Brian James and that incendiary riff; Dave Vanian with his urgent baritone and yelp, as he visually channels Udo Keir in Andy Warhol’s Dracula; the Captain sneering and supplying a just about holding the chaos together bassline and, crucially, Rat Scabies on pummelling sulphate war drums.

‘At last, a real ‘punk’ single,’ Mark P proclaimed in Sniffin’ Glue. ‘The energy on ‘New Rose’ is frightening.’ According to Jonh Ingham in Sounds, the single: ‘was so hot it’s a wonder the vinyl doesn’t melt.’

The Damned will be touring in December, including a Glasgow date. This time around the line-up consists of three original members: Messrs Vanian, Sensible and Scabies, together with Paul Gray, their bassist on The Black Album and Strawberries.

For more on the band: https://www.officialdamned.com/

‘Is She Really Going Out With Him?’ I did consider playing the Joe Jackson single released two years after New Rose, but instead I’ve opted for the 1964 teenage tragedy track, whose opening line is directly quoted by Dave Vanian.

This little appropriation from The Shangri-Las’ biggest hit has been said to have been an upfront rejection of the whole punk Year Zero concept. It’s also been claimed that the line was an ad-lib that just occurred to Vanian before he delivered his vocal take. The latter strikes me as the most likely. Leader of the Pack had been re-released in Britain during the heatwave summer of 1976 on the back of a TV ad that used an awful cover version of the song with altered lyrics: ‘Leader of the pack/In his Levis.’ I was more a Wranglers boy myself, although sometimes I was known to pull my Brutus jeans on.

This is so much better, although the idea behind the performance is curious. Betty’s parents disapprove of her motorbike riding boyfriend, due to him coming from ‘the wrong side of town’, but looking at this Jimmy, I reckon they should’ve been more concerned at the age-gap between the couple.

Overseen in the studio by George ‘Shadow’ Morton, who later produced The New York Dolls’ Too Much Too Soon, Leader of the Pack was co-written by Ellie Greenwich, who also notched up credits on a clutch of pop classics including Baby, I Love You (The Ronettes); Then He Kissed Me (The Crystals) and Chapel of Love (The Dixie Cups), the tune of which reminds me a wee bit of the Nick Lowe effort mentioned in the previous post.

Later, Ellie would provide some backing vocals on a couple of Blondie tracks, most notably on In The Flesh:

Blondie would also occasionally cover New Rose themselves in their relatively early days and a version can be found on the unofficial release Blondie – By Invitation Only, where the track, recorded live at an AIDS/HIV benefit show at the Beacon Theatre in NYC in the mid-1980s, is credited to Deborah Harry, Chris Stein And Tiger Bomb.

You can hear it here.