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Having A Damned Good Time

Stubble Interview by Dickie Boston

On a rainy day in February I caught up with 2 of the original members of The Damned before their show at Lupo’s in Providence. The steadfast Dave Vanian who has been a part of every incarnation of the band as well as the outragous Captain Sensible.

Captain: (grabbing the recorder from me) OK 1,2, 1,2, hello Dick lend us a fiver. Blah de blah, Phil Collins is my favorite, brilliant singer, great drummer, songwriter just fantastic, nearly as good as this other guy George Michael he is brilliant he’s just like My Tip From The Top be doobie de doo boo boo.

Dick: I noticed you were not on the newest album Not Of This Earth, why was that ?

Captain: Well…without getting into any sorted details, the drummer is extremely greedy, the drummer is not with us anymore, he somehow managed to aquire the rights to our 1st three albums and he doesn’t pay me. He liscences them to people like Cleopatra (records) in America and he does not pay me and that’s pretty unfair. You can’t work with people on that basis. I would gladly work with him but hes just too greedy for his own good. Hes a nice enough bloke, hes a good drummer, hes just greedy. (he belches)

Dick: Being one of the original Punk bands from England how did it all start out ?

Captain: Really strange because in 1976 all the bands used to hang out with each other. The bands were not actually formed , we used to hang out in London down Portebello Road, theres like lots of sleazy pubs and rock n roll pubs down there and people would form bands and have rehersals. There would be Tony James, he was allways there Brian James as well Rat Scabies, me self Crissy Hynes she was there, The Pistols those guys Mick Jones, Joe Strummer. We all were playing with each other Rat Scabies had a tryout with The Pistols Crissy Hines tried out for The Damned she was the singer of The Damned for 5 minutes. We all had a common thing which was we hated what was happening at the time musically. It was really bad there was The Partridge Family, The Osmonds,lots of really crap, pompus music like Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Genesis, that common hatred of bad music brought us together and we just formed these bands that sounded the same and there was no one who used the name Punk, it was never used when we were in the pubs forming bands. Nobody knew we were stating a Punk thing. When somebody called me a Punk musician, the first time I read it in a paper I could not believe it. I didn’t know what they were talking about. (Dave Vanian joins us) Oh no I just sat on a banana.

Dave: Don’t let me interrupt

Captain: Is that a drawing of me ? (looking at cartoon on Issue 21 cover showing cover of Stubble with guy puking)

Dick: No its GG Allin.

Captain: Oh I’ve heard of him he’s good isn’t he. He shits on stage and stuff.

Dave: Holding up true traditions

Dick: How did Nick Lowe produce your first album?

Dave: He was on Stiff Records and he was cheap. We knew him but I don’t remember.

Captain: It was an incestious thing with Stiff Records, one artist would encourage another artist or whatever to do their stuff as well.

Dick: Your 1st two albums sound more alike than any of your others. Why is that ?

Dave: They were recorded within 6 months of each other. But possibly because they are mostly Brian James’ songs. But we don’t listen to the second album, its not really one of our favorites.

Dick: Did the Punk label influence your song writing?

Dave: I don’t think so. It could have been any label they put on us we would have done what we did.

Captain: We always tried to never do the same thing twice and be as adventerous as possible, especially later on we could do anything we wanted to do, there’s no holds barred. Punk was meant to do anything you want to do anyway.

Dick: How did the song Smash it Up come about ?

Captain: I can’t honestly remember writing it. It came from discovering that if you leave the G string droning when you play G if you don’t actually play it. Then if you move that fingering up and down the guitar you get these lovely drone chords so that’s where it came from. That’s a really boring reply isn’t it? I was just experimenting with the guitar.

Dave: That album (Machine Gun Etiquette) was kind of a transition period as well. It was the album that opened up other doors for us, it was more experimental, little inklings of what was to come.

Dick: What caused all the changes in personnel ?

Dave: It wasn’t falling in and out it was people just couldn’t do it anymore. It was like what happened to Algy , Algy just couldn’t take it anymore

Captain: Algy went a little crazy. He woudn’t take his bass out of its case unless someone gave him a bottle of whiskey. Then he could play for about three quarters of an hour, then it was a disaster zone. He would start threatening people with the empty bottle as he did on that video when we did Smash It Up the video. Algy was pretty mental that day, him and Rat had a fight.

Dave: Rat always had fights with bass players. For some reason he picks on them.

Captain: He doesn’t like bass players.

Dick: Which of the early Punk bands were you most friendly with over the years?

Dave: I don’t know cause at the time I think even within the band we were friendly with different bands we got close to bands that we played with like The Adverts who didn’t actually go on to much. At the beginning a lot of people were pushed together in the same places because there weren’t that many places to go to meet up. There were certain places you could go drink together and meet people like Joe Strummer like Henikee’s on Portland Road or something. I mean you knew Sid Quite well (to captain) from the Pistols I think rat knew Johnny quite well.

Dick: Was Sid like how the media portayed him ?

Captain: No he was very different, I wouldn’t go see the film because I knew it would upset me. Sid was actually quite intelligent he wasn’t at all a troublemaker untill he had a few beers or other substances. He wasen’t dumb. He was quite a nice bloke.

Dick: (to Captain)What promted you to record Happy Talk ?

Captain: I did an album for A&M and I didn’t have enough tracks for it. They are all Damned rejects on the album and Happy Talk of course. I went home and flipped thru me records and chose that to do a cover.

Dick: I used to clear rooms with that one.

Captain: Thank you very much Mr. Stubble. To be quite honest it’s a bit of a millstone around my neck. People don’t recognise me as a great guitarist that I am because they think I am a novelty sort of song merchant there you go for ya.

Dave: We are going to change all of that now.

Dick: What prompted this tour I mean your latest album is over a year old ?

Dave: Cap had nothing to do with that (Not Of This Earth) its kind of a bit of a thorn in our sides, what did you think of it ?

Dick: I like about 3 or 4 cuts from it.

Dave: Its not really a Damned album.

Dick: With all your years of touring could you share an intersting or humorous story with Stubble readers ?

Dave: Lets see where is the lawyers number ?

Captain: I remember I was drunk once in Los Angeles and Kiss were quite big at the time and I said Oh I’m going to put some Kiss makeup on and someone gave me an indelable marker pen, I was quite drunk, and I had to go on the plane the next day with all this Kiss makeup on.

Dave: Brin happened to do that one time. We were in this hotel and he was rumaging around his room and found a lipstick and he goes over to a mirror and then we are outside in the van waiting for him to come out and he had it all on his face everywhere. What is was, was a lipstick that lasts for 3 days and he put it on for some reason for a joke and he just spread it all over his face, so it was there for 3 days and it was blue. Brin Merrick was one of our bass players, hes probably in jail now.

Dick: Is that common for ex members ?

Dave: For Brin it is. Brin was a nice chap but a little trouble you could say.

Dick: What solo projects have you done ?

Dave: I was with a band The Phanthom Chords its kind of like a Chris Issac but a little darker than that. It was good but it’s a hard business you know and I had some bad luck with record companies and I made an album but it never got released and sat on a shelf for 5 years, now I have the rights back and I can do what I want with it. At the time it was a nightmare.

Dick: Are you going to release it now or record with this current Damned outfit ?

Dave: I don’t know, but we are looking for a record company with money so we can go into a studio and record.

Dick: The Damned is also considered a pionerer of Gothic Music as well as punk. Comments.

Dave: Its quite ironic really. I think there is good and bad in it (the gothic scene) I heard a big pack of CD’s and the only pity of it is that the bands sound so alike. I think if they break a few more rules it would be great. Thgere is kind of this sub Sisters Of Mercy sounding bands as well. When we did all that we took a lot of risks and did diferent things within it , it wasen’t just one dimension.

Dick: You have been the mainstay of the band how do you keep doing it ? Are you like the father figure of the band?

Dave: I never thought of it that way. 21 years is a long time I guess. I have no idea but then again look at Iggy Pop my God he is amazing, he’s better now than he has been for years, its incredible the performance he puts in. The ironic thing is that hes cleaned up his act so much, he used to be completely out of his head on drugs and booze and he would spend half of his time rolling around and not be able to do what he can now. He didn’t have the stamina.

Dick: How did this tour come about ?

Dave: It fell together, I was touring with my band The Phanthom Chords and Captain was touring with his band Punk Floyd and we by total accident someone booked us on the same night together. It was really good I had not seen him for a couple of years and we were offered a show to do a Damned show then all of a sudden we were off to Australia , off to Japan then we realized this was really good we should make a new album. Hes got some really good songs and I’ve got some songs and we are just looking for a record company intrest now. Its more like another Machine Gun Etiquette as if there was another album that sprang up rather than these more recent albums, I’m looking forward to this.

Dick: Final Comments

Captain: Phil Collins is our favorite buy more Phil Collins records!