During Covid-induced lockdown, baking banana bread and sourdough were the skills du jour, but when things opened up and life returned to some semblance of normal, some were having to resharpen other skills.
“After the two years of lockdown, well, I have to tell you that, when you get to a certain age, you tend to forget all the song lyrics and the riffs and I had to relearn the entire Damned set all over again,” says the band’s charismatic, beret-wearing guitarist, Captain Sensible.
A co-founder of the famous band, Captain Sensible, whose full name is Raymond Burns, has been, along with the line-up of lead vocalist David Vanian, Monty Oxymoron, Paul Gray and William Glanville-Taylor, touring Europe and the UK of late, with The Nightingales as their special guests.
Having played Glasgow last month, the end of May will see them doing a small run of shows in the US (including San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and more), and next month they’ll take to the stage at the Glastonbury music festival.
READ MORE: Ramones to Green Day : The history of punk told through the music
The band, who charted with hits such as Smash It Up, Love Song and Eloise, are often celebrated as the first British punk act to release a single, after issuing their debut New Rose on the Stiff Records label in October 1976.
In 2014, Captain Sensible told WBUR-FM he adopted the name in the light of the irony of having been a “debauched maniac”.
Their debut album Damned Damned Damned was released in 1977 and their new album Darkadelic, released at the end of April, follows on from A Night of a Thousand Vampires, released last year.
“Actually, the only gaps that we’ve had in a 45-year career was the two years of Covid because we’ve actually been a touring band for all those years,” the 69-year-old says.
“Amazingly, I think you’re supposed to as a punk group, make one album, full of mania and brimstone and fire and all the rest of it and then explode and split up or, as did poor old Sid Vicious (from the Sex Pistols), you know, kick the bucket, and then everyone calls you a legend.
“But The Damned didn’t do it that way. We went on this musical adventure.
“So from punk rock, we’ve kind of meandered through all sorts of genres and been instrumental in starting goth music and I had a rap hit, amazingly unlikely as it sounds, in 1982, with a song called Wot, which was number one in loads of countries all over Europe. So it’s been a funny old career.”
The band, which has seen line-up changes and reunions, had a run of minor hits in the Seventies.
And with a new line-up – which did not feature Sensible – they had further success in the mid 1980s, charting with songs such as Grimly Fiendish and adopting a gothic look to match Vanian’s vampiric image.
Over the years the band included Jon Moss – before he formed Culture Club – and, for a brief period when they were known as The Doomed, Motorhead’s Lemmy played bass.
They also released a spin-off album of garage psychedelia covers under the name Naz Nomad & The Nightmares.
The five-piece played most of the album on their recent tour, with Sensible having re-joined the line-up in 1986.
Released at the end of last month, Darkadelic is the band’s 12th album and only their fourth this century.
The album title pays tribute to their enduring influence as a pioneering goth band and interest in psychedelia, with 12 tracks packed full of melodies and insistent hooks.
It also takes inspiration from two early 1980s albums – Strawberries (1982) and Phantasmagoria (1985) – when The Damned were trying to broaden their punk sound.
Darkadelic was recorded in Acton, west London, with the location prompting a story from Captain Sensible about him and Sid Vicious, who died in February 1979.
“I spent the night in the cells; Sid, being a better runner, managed to scarper,” Sensible recalls.
The Damned are, he says, still in touch with Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones.
“We do his radio show when we go to Los Angeles. Good luck to them. I mean, good luck to anyone from ’77 who lived through those crazy years and is still alive.
“Because, you know, we lived the rock and roll lifestyle. And it’s only now, (in) my advanced age that I realised how lucky I am to have survived that, because every stupid thing that was possible, we did.
“It was bloody good fun. I wish I could go back and relive it all actually, and do all the stupid stuff again… I used to work for British Rail and it’s a lot more fun than that.”
The band, who in 2012 were rewarded for their outstanding contribution to music at the Classic Rock Roll Of Honour awards, have remained at the forefront of the punk genre, something Sensible attributes to their loyal fans and hard work.
“Without them, we wouldn’t be here now. And for some reason or other they seem to still like us,” he says.
“I mean, in some respects, it’s a reaction against the plastic kind of over-produced nonsense that they call pop music these days.
“But I would say that, wouldn’t I?
“The second reason why we’re still jumping around on stages like lunatics is unlike our contemporaries, the Sex Pistols, we didn’t utter a four-letter word on daytime TV.
“So it wasn’t us who were kind of… projected into mega stardom and become billionaires, we have to work for a living like everyone else in Britain. So that’s the second reason.
“And the third reason is, it’s bloody good fun standing up there in front of a loud amplifier. I think everyone should try it.”
The Sex Pistols’ appearance on Bill Grundy’s Thames Today programme in 1976 is still talked-about after a four-letter outburst on teatime television.
But for Sensible, it has, been a “marvellous experience”, he says, reflecting on it all – the music, touring and more.
“If I kick the bucket tomorrow, I’ve really enjoyed every minute of this wacky old life.
“But I might have chosen a better name than Captain Sensible… I should be an admiral at least!”
The Damned’s new album Darkadelic is out now on earMUSIC.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here