Dig It! Magazine

A little Damned history:

The Damned played an enourmous role in the uk punk scene that was just starting out everywhere, mainly in England. In fact they were one of the first punk rock bands to ever exist in England, just around the same time The Sex Pistols were starting out too. Actually, Dave Vanian and Sid Vicious almost switched places when it came to the two bands: the only problem was that Sid was late to the audition so Dave got the part but I think we’re all fine with that.

I saw The Damned in a very intimate club in late march. The energy of the concert was just phenomenal, the place was most definitely sold out and when The Damned got on stage everyone got pushed as close to the stage as humanly possible, including me, I almost broke a rib!

Since I became one with the stage, I was standing in front of Paul Gray and Dave Vanian. The show was energetic, dark and mysterious. The smoke machine worked like it was it’s last day on earth, drinks were flying in the air, people dancing out of their minds, I really got the chance to get the hang of a great punk show where it’s all about the music and the people that create it.

The Damned are currently promoting their new album, Darkadelic that came out in April. They played some songs off the album and trust me, they still got it. Beware of the Clown is so catchy but I have to mention it, some songs sounds very similar to the old ones but if you enjoy those, you’ll be just fine.

They played the well known songs like Neat Neat Neat (that was the moment where I almost broke a rib), New Rose and of course Love Song. Everyone just lost their minds, shouting the lyrics word by word, it was a magical moment to experience.

After the show, I decided to stay for a while since many did so too. Paul Gray and Captain Sensible came down to have a chat with us people hanging out which was very lovely of them. I went up to Captain and asked for an autograph but I only had some lipstick, lip liner -the obvious concert essentials- and the smallest piece of paper you could ever imagine so I went up to him and he laughed at my attempt of getting an autograph, he took my lip liner that broke as soon as he tried to write anything on the paper.

Then I went up to Paul and we had a nice conversation about him performing as he was so energetic and lively the whole time. You can already guess, I asked him to sign my miserable paper with Captain’s signature already on it, I switched it quickly and gave him my lipstick to sign with, which also got a little destroyed.

Both Captain and Paul were bubbly, welcoming and very down-to-earth and me not bringing a pen or a normal piece of paper with me just made the experience more memorable and funny.

It would be great to see The Damned play more sold out shows because especially now that the Darkadelic album is out and it’s good too, it’s even more exciting to be a Damned fan.

Want to share your experience? You had a chance to meet any of the people mentioned in the article? TELL ME MORE! email me at: submit.dig.it.magazine@gmail.com if you’d like to be featured in the upcoming article(s)! I sadly do NOT own any of the pictures seen in the article.