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Pioneering UK punks the Damned hit Regency Ballroom

The Sex Pistols may have gotten more headlines thanks to the publicity-savvy machinations of manager Malcolm McLaren, but British contemporaries The Damned were actually the first UK punk band to issue both a single and a full-length record and the first to tour the United States.

Formed by guitarist Brian James (who had played in proto-punk outfit London SS) and drummer Rat Scabies (aka Chris Millar), the initial line-up of the band was filled out by singer Dave Vanian (born David Letts), and then bassist Captain Sensible (aka Raymond Burns). The quartet played its first show supporting the Pistols at the legendary 100 Club in July of 1976, but beat the band into record stores with the October release of their debut single on Stiff Records of their classic anthem "New Rose."

The Damned - New Rose (1976) (HD) by MadFranko008 on YouTube

The Damned would join the Sex Pistols along with the Clash and former New York Doll Johnny Thunders and his band the Heartbreakers on the notorious "Anarchy Tour of the UK" in December of 1976 that found a majority of the dates canceled by promoters or authorities. The Damned issued their proper debut album Damned Damned Damned in February of 1977.

Produced by pub rock veteran Nick Lowe, the album featured a raw set of blistering future punk classics like "Neat Neat Neat," "Born to Kill" and "Messed Up." The band's maiden voyage to the U.S. that spring was marked by a tendency to ramp up the already fast tempos, a move that's credited for inspiring early bands of the West Coast hardcore punk scene.

The band's follow-up effort Music For Pleasure found the band making the unusual choice of Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason as producer after mentally fractured Floyd founder Syd Barrett was unavailable. Though now considered another classic, at the time it was dismissed by critics and fans. Already at odds with each other during the tracking of the album, the failure of Music For Pleasure got the Damned dropped by Stiff Records and group split up for the first time shortly thereafter.

The Damned
The Damned

The individual members would delve into other projects before eventually reforming without James, initially with Motorhead bassist Lemmy Kilmister temporarily filling in for performances under the monikers Les Punks and the Doomed after Sensible switched to guitar before scoring a new deal with Chiswick to record as the Damned. The band rebounded with the garage-rock infused gem Machine Gun Etiquette in late 1979 featuring the hit singles and future classics "Love Song," "I Just Can't Be Happy Today" and "Smash It Up."

The Damned - Love Song (live and exclusive to Lock In Live) by Lock In Live on YouTube

The band would go on to record a string of influential '80s albums, branching out into early gothic punk on the ambitious 1980 effort The Black Album (featuring the epic 17-minute track "Curtain Call") and delving into a mix of goth rock and punk psychedelia with subsequent classics Strawberries (Captain Sensible's last effort prior to an extended departure for his own successful solo career) and Phantasmagoria.

The band split up again in 1988 after a farewell concert, but it didn't take long for Vanian and Scabies to reunite and tour with new recruits the following decade, with Captain Sensible returning to the fold in 1996. While the Damned have only issued a handful of studio albums in the past two decades, the group has toured regularly and remains a fixture of punk festivals on both sides of the Atlantic.

More recently, the outfit was the subject of the raucous 2016 documentary by director Wes Orshoski entitled The Damned: Don't You Wish That We Were Dead that explored the band's early roots and took a closer look at the bond that has kept Vanian and Sensible on the road four decades later. Last year found the Damned celebrating its 40th anniversary with an extensive tour and completing their first new studio album in a decade after an online crowd-funding campaign.

Recorded with legendary producer Tony Visconti -- who worked with David Bowie, T. Rex and Thin Lizzy to name but a few -- as Strawberries-era bassist Paul Gray, Evil Spirits was released on Search and Destroy/Spinefarm records this past spring to wide acclaim, with some critics calling it the band's best effort since the '80s. The band would headline the Burger Boogaloo in 2018 before returning to play the Regency Ballroom that Halloween. The Damned have stayed busy in the years since, even given the challenges of the pandemic, issuing The Rockfield Files EP as well as live recordings documenting a COVID-delayed reunion of the original line-up with Scabies and James that played a series of dates in the U.K. and the horror-themed concert document A Night of a Thousand Vampires that was released as both a recording and DVD/Blu-Ray. More recently, the band released its latest studio album Darkadelic this year. The band's first to feature new drummer William Granville-Taylor (longtime member Pinch departed in 2019), it has earned the venerable crew another round of solid reviews.

For the band's current swing of West Coast dates including Saturday night's show at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco, they are joined by fellow punk pioneers the Dictators. While they might not receive the same amount of credit and attention as their New York City punk contemporaries like the Ramones and Richard Hell, brilliantly trashy rockers the Dictators laid the groundwork for many of the CBGBs regulars who would follow in their wake. Mixing a proto-punk sound indebted to Detroit bands the MC5 and the Stooges with a Bronx wise-guy sense of humor and "cars and girls" junk culture sensibility, the Dictators crafted a unique lowbrow aesthetic when first came together in 1974.

The Dictators - The Next Big Thing by weiner slave on YouTube

Led by main songwriter, bassist and singer Andy "Adny" Shernoff and guitarists Ross "The Boss" Funchinello and Scott "Top Ten" Kempner, the band built up a local following in New York and -- with help from manager and Blue Oyster Cult guru Sandy Pearlman -- eventually got signed to Epic Records. They released their groundbreaking debut Go Girl Crazy! in 1975. Featuring revved-up covers of a couple of '60s pop chestnuts (Sonny Bono's "I Got You Babe" and the surf classic "California Sun"), the album celebrated wrestling, fast food and snotty attitude with a major assist from roadie, onstage "secret weapon" and future lead singer "Handsome" Dick Manitoba, who was featured in all his ridiculous splendor on the album cover.

Unsure of how to market the band, Epic would let the group go. They switched to Asylum and would release two more seminal if more straight-ahead hard rock recordings -- Manifest Destiny in 1977 and Bloodbrothers the following year. Both were packed with hook-laden Shernoff gems like "Sleepin' with the TV On," "Science Gone Too Far," and "Faster and Louder." But the struggle to move beyond their regional fan base -- an effort not assisted by an abortive tour supporting Kiss that found the band kicked off after Manitoba mockingly copied Paul Stanley's stage banter word for word -- led to their first break up.

Dictators @ Winterland Ballroom San Francisco, CA. 07 30 77 by Video Music Archives on YouTube

The band would reunite occasionally during the '80s (though Ross the Boss stayed busy as a member of the power metal band Manowar). Late in the decade, Shernoff and Manitoba began playing in the more metal-focused outfit Manitoba's Wild Kingdom, eventually issuing the under-appreciated classic ...And You? in 1990.  It would be almost another 10 years before the Dictators would reunite again, eventually releasing D.F.F.D., the band's first album of new material since 1978.

God Damn New York by The Dictators on YouTube

The group has toured periodically since, but have largely been quiet since the last time Manitoba and Ross the Boss toured under the moniker Dictators NYC in 2016. However, in 2020 Shernoff announced that the Dictators were reforming to record new material and possibly play live. While Manitoba was not involved, the line-up included Shernoff on bass and vocals, Ross the Boss and Kempner on guitars and former Blue Oyster Cult drummer Albert Bouchard. While Kempner has since dropped out due to health reasons, guitarist Keith Roth (David Johansen, Earl Slick, Cherie Currie, Cheetah Chrome) has taken his place.   

The Damned with the Dictators
Saturday, May 20, 8 p.m. $35-$55
Regency Ballroom

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