Friday 14 February 2014

THE DAMNED















"damned, damned, damned"
Year:  1977
Label:  Universal
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  12
Time:  36 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Punk Rock













The Damned are a punk-rock band originally from Croydon, England, a suburb of London, who were formed in 1976. Despite being one of the definitive early punk bands they were also one of the most ambitious; with their later albums moving away from the garage-rock sound of their debut and taking in elements from gothic and 60´s psychedelia to progressive rock. They are notable for being the first of the british punk band to release a official single, put out an album and tour the United States. Their debut album, "Damned Damned Damned" was released 6 months before The Sex Pistols’ debut "Never Mind The Bollocks". The Damned have dissolved and reformed many times, with singer Dave Vanian remaining the sole constant. They have incorporated many styles in their music, most notably garage-rock, psychedelic 60´s music, dark-wave, gothic-rock, the British theatrical rock of Screaming Lord Sutch and The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, and New Romantic.   In addition to serving as inspiration for many of the american young bands who created hardcore music beacause their fast punk (in 1976),  The Damned are also generally regarded as one of the founders of goth / dark music. Original members Dave Vanian (David Lett), Captain Sensible (Raymond Burns), and Rat Scabies (Chris Millar) were all members of the semi-legendary Masters of the Backside which included future Pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hynde.
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"music for pleasure"
Year:  1978
Label:  Universal
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  11
Time:  34 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Punk Rock














"music for pleasure" is the second studio album by punk rock band The Damned. It was released on 18 November 1977, through record label Stiff. "Music for Pleasure" was produced by Nick Mason of Pink Floyd and featured new member Lu Edmunds on guitar alongside Brian James, as well as guest saxophonist Lol Coxhill. The album was the last album-length studio release to feature original guitarist Brian James, who would rejoin the band in the late '80s and early '90s for a live album and studio single. It was also the group's final album release on Stiff Records. It saw the band move into more complex song structures, while maintaining the punk sound of their debut album. At the time of its release, the album was dismissed by critics as a poor misstep. During August and September they recorded "Music for pleasure", by produced by Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason (of all people), which eventually did just the job for media hacks with a desire to write them off as has-beens. A notable flop, the LP was rather strange in a way that words can't describe, but boasted another clutch of fine songs, some of which were new ones by James. ‘Politics', a re-done 'Stretcher Case', 'You Take My Money' were James originals, but the standout was Sensible / Scabies' infamous attack on the band Television (‘Idiot Box'), complete with parodic Tom Verlaine guitar. Avant garde saxophonist Lol Coxhill even appeared on one track, the Stooges-like 'You Know'. The press hated it and therefore slated it. Scabies, who had to be persuaded to stay in the band to record the LP, left the band before it was released in November. The LP flopped dramatically: despite brilliant cover art by Barney Bubbles (who was inspired by Wassily Kandinsky ), the bad reviews sunk it.
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"machine gun etiquette"
Year:  1979
Label:  Universal
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  12
Time:  36 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Punk Rock














"Machine gun etiquette" was THE DAMNED's third album but the first after a quasi-breakup and founding guitarist Brian James' departure, which was quite the blessing in disguise. The Damned made history with their punk debut, "Damned Damned Damned" but their second album, "Music for pleasure", was a real stinker. Without James they were able to reinvent themselves. Bassist Captain Sensible switched to guitar and they made an amazing record, far and away their best and one of the best albums of the era. The first song, "Love Song," is absolutely brilliant and the band recorded here (in my opinion) the first "proto-hardcore" songs ever. Hell, the whole record is fuckin great!
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"the black album"
Year:  1980
Label:  Universal
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  12
Time:  40 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Goth Punk














"The Black Album" was the fourth album by The Damned, and the first to feature Paul Gray on bass guitar. It was released in October 1980 on Chiswick as a double album, with "Curtain Call" filling the whole of side three, and a selection of live tracks recorded at Shepperton Studios for Damned fan club members on side four. The song "13th Floor Vendetta" pays tribute to the film "The Abominable Dr. Phibes" (1971), opening with the lyrics "...the organ plays to midnight on maldine Square tonight". The artwork for the reissue parodied the sleeve of The Beatles "White Album", rendered in black with no details other than the group's name embossed in capitals. "It was said that The Beatles had their White Album, we had our Black Album", says David Vanian.
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"strawberries"
Year:  1982
Label:  Universal
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  11
Time:  49 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Goth Punk














"Strawberries", originally titled "Strawberries for Pigs", is the fifth studio album by English punk rock band The Damned. It was released in October 1982 by record label Bronze. Describing the album we can to say this is a mix with old punk-rock, goth / dark music and also an increasing influence of melodic pop and 80´s new wave music. Despite their sound more melodic, the album is excellent and highly recommended.
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NAZ NOMAD & THE NIGHTMARES
"give daddy the knife cindy"
Year:  1984
Label:  Big beat
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  12
Time:  30 min.
Genre:   rock
Style:        Psychedelic rock












Naz Nomad and The Nightmares was a one-off band, which released the album "give daddy the knife cindy" in 1984. The album was packaged to look like the re-issue of a 1967 soundtrack album to a (fictitious) low budget american horror film. A copyright notice on the front cover claimed the film was "Copyright 1967 American Screen Destiny Pictures", and credits are given for the film's stars, director and producer. Naz Nomad and The Nightmares was a b-side project of The Damned members that recorded an only one album and released live concerts from time to time until 1989. The passion and the nostalgia of The Damned members for the 60s decade is showed here with 12 songs of garage rock, psychedelia and freak-beat music.  Nowadays is still possible to buy this album on LP, CD or digital format  HERE .
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"phantasmagoria"
Year:  1985
Label:  Universal
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  9
Time:  40 min.
Genre:   rock
Style:        Goth Rock
















"Phantasmagoria" is the sixth album by The Damned, released by MCA records in July 1985. Special editions were available on white vinyl or picture disc - some versions included a free 12" of their No. 3 hit Eloise. After much wrangling, the Damned received a new contract with MCA Records in October 1984 (past member Captain Sensible's hit solo career helped) and recorded the album in Eel Pie Studios between March and June 1985. It reached No. 11 in the charts, and was the band's highest charting album ever. The non-album single "Eloise," (a Barry Ryan cover), released six months later, became a huge UK hit reaching No. 3. The Damned centred the entire album around David Vanian's deep voice, giving much of the album a gothic feeling. "Edward the Bear" is a light pop tune sung by Roman Jugg. The album is currently out-of-print in North America but was remastered and reissued by Geffen Records in Japan in 2007, which features replicas of the LP's outer and inner sleeves and the CD's label resembles the white vinyl edition. One of the best gothic albums written ever. The Damned were a major influence on the goth subculture with lead singer Vanian's vampire-themed costume, baritone singing voice and dark lyrics being major influences. Brilliant
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"anything"
Year:  1986
Label:  Universal
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  9
Time:  38 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        New Wave













After Captain Sensible left the Damned in 1984 when his solo career took off with the freak success of his single "Happy Talk," Dave Vanian took over the creative reins of the group, and he began nudging their music in a direction that reflected his growing interest in the goth movement. The Damned's flirtation with goth led to them signing a major label deal for the first time and enjoying one of their biggest commercial successes with the 1985 album Phantasmagoria. But if that album found the Damned looking gingerly into a new direction, 1986's Anything was the sound of Vanian and company falling down a well; fans were probably savvy enough not to expect the Damned to sound like a straightforward punk band by this point, but most of Anything barely even qualifies as rock 'n' roll. The solo keyboard piece "The Portrait" bears an unfortunate resemblance to Nigel Tufnel's "Lick My Love Pump," "Restless" and "In Dulce Decorum" meander at length for all their thunder (and John Kelly's echoing production makes everything thunders if it's meant to or not), "Gigolo" suggests a failed merger of pop and prog rock, and "The Girl Goes Down" is a faintly ridiculous song that borrows from a number of vintage pop styles without distinction. Only "Psychomania" and the title cut generate anything approximating the energy of the Damned's best music, and it's telling that easily the best song on the album is a cover, a reasonably faithful rendition of Love's "Alone Again Or." The Damned began to crumble after Anything, and the band broke up for a spell in 1989; somehow it all seemed fitting after releasing the worst original album in the group's catalog. (*review by Mark Deming ).
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"not of this earth"
Year:  1996
Label:  Universal
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  12
Time:  41 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Goth Punk













Underrated and forgot album. Five years after THE DAMNED seemingly called it quits for good, and five years before Dave Vanian and Captain Sensible decided to give the band another go on 2001's "Grave disorder", Vanian and Rat Scabies found themselves working together on a recording project with Kris Dollimore (ex-Godfathers), Alan Lee Shaw (ex-Rings / Brains / Maniacs), and Moose (ex-New Model Army). Stuck for a name, someone figured, "Why not just call it The Damned?" or "I'm Alright Jack and the Beanstalk" and "Not of this earth" became the first THE DAMNED studio album since "Anything" of 1986. One could honestly say with this release that Vanian picked up where the band left off in 1986, but given the low creative ebb of Anything, that's something short of a compliment. In the liner notes Scabies said, "I wanted to make a record that wasn't like a punk album," and this soggy mishmash of dynamic garage rock, psychedelia and art rock "succeeds" in that approach, lacking any of the fire, fervor, or snotty wit that made THE DAMNED great. This recording is simply aa great rock'n'roll work but despite this fact, the reality was the album passed under the radar of many THE DAMNED fans and almost nobody even not knew of its existence. In 1995 was major EMI (Universal) that released the album and one year later another label, "Cleopatra Records" re-made the album with another cover, back and global design and artwork... but neither public nor medias, pay attention to the band. 
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"grave disorder"
Year:  2001
Label:  Universal
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  13
Time:  58 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Goth Punk








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"so, who's the paranoid?"
Year:  2008
Label:  Universal
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  13
Time:  60 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Goth Punk















Like any album from a band on the wrong side of 30, "So, Who's Paranoid?" comes with a stigma attached: The success rate on these kinds of middle-aged reunion projects is already low, and factor in a founding role in the '70s punk scene and members named Captain Sensible and Rat Scabies and the odds plunge to a nearly microscopic level. Realistically, the Damned is lucky enough to still be alive. Yet somehow the band has done two better than expectations would warrant, not only staying together (intermittently, and with a revolving cast of new and original members) but recording an album that somehow rises above mediocrity. So, Who's Paranoid? plays like a slideshow of the Damned's career, moving from simplistic, three-chord punk ("A Nation Fit for Heroes," "Nothing") to crooning goth ("Under the Wheels"), capping off with a baggy, shambling psych exploration that would be destructive if not placed safely at the end of the album. Along the way, the band makes room for some bloated Broadway style numbers ("Since I Met You," "Nature's Dark Passion") and even a dash of Britpop ("Danger to Yourself"), a thematic limpness that is either a sign of distraction or a way of showing off how diversely talented the band is. This cobbled, retrospective feel is the greatest failing here but ultimately feels like a quibble compared to how badly things could have turned out. The album is consistently smart and musically gratifying, if not overly sharp, and with the generally even tone established by Dave Vanian's refreshingly wry lyrics, it maintains a somewhat united feeling despite its scrapbook sensibility. For a band seemingly long past their prime, this level of quality is no small accomplishment, digging at old veins to create a smaller-scale version of the Damned's earlier successes.
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"evil spirits"
Year:  2018
Label:  Universal
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  10
Time:  43 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Goth Punk







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"darkadelic"
Year:  2023
Label:  Universal
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  12
Time:  50 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Goth Punk








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"live at woolwichcoronet"
Year:  1985
Country:  Cleoppatra
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  10
Time:  40 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Goth Punk








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"tribute"
Year:  1991
Label:  MT
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  16
Time:  38 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Garage Rock








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"Tribute"
Year:  2005
Country:  Japan
Label:  Jet Panda
Format:  CD
Bands:  17
Tracks:  17
Time:  42 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Punk Rock








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"Live on WFMU Radio"
Year:  2009
Country:  US
City:  New York
Label:  none
Format: digital
Tracks:  11
Time:  39 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:         Punk Rock












The Damned are an English punk band formed in London in 1976. They are notable for being the first punk rock band from England to release a single ("New Rose"), an album (Damned Damned Damned), and to tour the United States. The Damned later evolved into one of the forerunners of the gothic genre. They have incorporated numerous styles into their music and image, including: garage rock, psychedelic rock, cabaret, and the theatrical rock of Screaming Lord Sutch and Alex Harvey. Lead singer Dave Vanian's vocal style has been described as similar to a crooner. The Damned have dissolved and reformed many times, with Vanian as the sole constant member. However, the lineups have always included either guitarist Captain Sensible and/or drummer Rat Scabies, who are both founding members. The current line-up includes Vanian, Captain Sensible, Monty Oxy Moron, Pinch and Stu West.