The Damned - live at the Eventim Apollo - Saturday 29 October 2022 - review

In the interests of full disclosure, I must say we arrived a bit late and caught only the tail end of the Smalltown Tigers. What I heard sounded good and I’ll be investigating them further.

I took advantage of the break to get the beers in. There was a nice atmosphere in the Eventim Apollo. It felt good to be surrounded by other guys with Damned and Sex Pistols t-shirts stretched over their middle-aged paunches. These are my people!

TV Smith opened with ‘No Time To Be 21,’ which is no doubt true, but so not a problem for this audience. It’s also no time to be 61. He blasted through his set with aggression and passion. The highlight was the classic ‘Gary Gilmore’s Eyes’ which gave the crowd its first real singalong of the night.

The Rezillos were the big disappointment. I’d been looking forward to seeing them. They had plenty of stage presence, but the sound was all wrong. Fay Fife’s vocals were barely audible and listening to ‘Top of the Pops’ was like hearing it played on a transistor radio two doors away. I’ve heard tales of sound crews being told to mess up the support’s levels so the main act sounds better by comparison. I’d like to think the Damned are above such things, but listening to the Rezillos was disorienting. It was often hard to know which song they were doing or where they were in it. Also, Eugene Reynolds’s look had more than a hint of Gary Glitter about it and that’s not a good role model for anyone. The sound issues were partially resolved for their closing number, ‘Somebody’s Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight.’ Everyone sang along to that one, but fortunately didn’t act on it.

Then it was time for the main event of the evening. I’ve seen the Damned walk on to the organ introduction of ‘Sanctum Sanctorum’ and the Mars movement from Holst’s Planet Suite. This time, it was the theme to Dr Who. I guess this was to create the idea of time travel back to 1976. As the band emerged from the shadows, it was important to appreciate just how momentous this was. These four legends of punk had put aside their differences and were all in the same place for the first time in years. When they started playing, it was clear just how tight the band was – four individuals working as one machine to produce a rock-solid sound.

It was good to see Brian James again. He’s kept the profile low recently. I have to say he did not look well. Hidden by hat and beard, he stood still on his patch of carpet, not saying anything or singing backing vocals. His guitar-playing was great and that’s what he was there to do. The crunchy chords and riffs rang out with more power than ever.

Captain Sensible seemed a bit reined-in – at least until the end of the show. There was only a little of his trademark banter between songs. He was concentrating on being a musician rather than a showman. It worked. He proved he’s almost as good with four strings as with six. OK, let’s get this out of the way …. Captain Sensible is one of my all-time heroes. I love that man, but I didn’t like watching him smash his bass at the end of the show. I don’t want to be po-faced about it, but this sort of destruction was tin eared at a time when people are struggling financially. If you don’t want your bass, Captain, give it away. There are thousands of Damned fans who would love a genuine Sensible bass. Auction it off for charity. I just hate that moment on the second or third whack where it loses its shape and something useful is deliberately made useless. It was a dick move when Hendrix and Townshend did it in the sixties and it hasn’t got any better since. (Here endeth the rant.)

Dave Vanian was on great form. When I saw A Night of a Thousand Vampires, he looked confused, sometimes forgetting his words. During ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde,’ he was so entranced by what the Circus of Horrors was doing that he forgot to sing altogether. At this show, however, he was reenergised. He’s lost so much weight and slathered on so much Grecian 2000 you could almost believe he is indeed one of the undead and hasn’t aged since 1976. He scuttled round the stage like a malevolent sprite. His kind-hearted side came out during ‘New Rose’ when a little guy from the crowd ran on stage and was literally sat on by one of the security guards. Dave peeled the bouncer off him and let him come up front to dance and sing along. Must have been a great moment for the guy.

The biggest revelation of the evening was the return of Rat Scabies, who might regret that nickname now he’s a respectable man in his sixties and seeker of the Holy Grail. I mean no disrespect to Pinch, who’s a good drummer, but the group sounds so much more like the Damned with Rat’s distinctive drumming. It was great to hear those thunderous fills again. I haven’t heard Will Taylor yet and I’m sure he’s good, but I can’t help hoping that Rat joins the current line-up. That, to me, would be the Holy Grail.

Apart from a few covers, the group stuck resolutely to songs from the albums on which Brian James played. I don’t see any good reason for this. When the Rolling Stones do shows, Ronnie Wood happily plays on songs originally recorded in the Brian Jones and Mick Taylor eras. I’m sure it’s not beyond Brian James to learn the guitar parts to ‘Love Song’ or ‘Wait For The Blackout’ and it would be interesting to hear his take on them. Don’t get me wrong, I like Damned Damned Damned and Music For Pleasure, but the songs get a bit samey after a while. For my money, their best work was the golden triumvirate of Machine Gun Etiquette, The Black Album, and Strawberries. A few numbers from those albums would have made for a more varied show.

That aside, it was wonderful to see the original line-up back together and playing so well. The evening ended with a great version of the Stones’ ‘The Last Time.’ Maybe it was the last time, I don’t know. Given how popular – and presumably profitable – this reunion was, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see the fab four on stage again before too long.