The Damned

A bit early isn’t it? I know the weather’s lovely for this time of year so to be crammed into the small venue that is Fibbers is not what I normally would have planned on a sunny Sunday afternoon at 4pm. Even Captain Sensible keeps quoting that it is too early and he should be in bed.

The Damned are playing early in York; who knows why; as a band is booked in for the evening slot. As it turns out they are doing a run of small club shows, and you don’t get much smaller than Fibbers. The gig has sold out to see the veterans of British goth punk.



Whether it’s the attire they choose to wear or all the beauty sleep they get from going to bed early after playing in the afternoons, the London band are looking fit and well. Wearing his trademark red beret and sunglasses (indoors, I know), Captain Sensible has his usual smart comments that only someone who takes a seemingly boring word and turns it into his superhero name would say.

As an introduction to ‘Anti-Pope’, CS encourages us all to go and burn down York Minster as all vicars there are paedophiles (a bit weird when it is a gothic cathedral). And then run riot throughout little old York. Dave Vanian tries to look un-amused but accomplishes the opposite, cracking a smile that can only come with working for these sorts of people for around thirty years.

Kitted out all in black with sunglasses, gloves and the unmistakeable 1950’s style microphone, Vanian still looks cool today. He lets CS do a lot of the yapping (as that’s what it is, that and his drawn out guitar solos).


‘Love Song’ and ‘Smash It Up’ are a couple of good songs played from album ‘Machine Gun Etiquette’, and the quite old crowd are going for it straight from the beginning of the set. It is true however that the harder they stand the harder they fall, as a couple of audience members continually prove!

Monty Oxy Moron on the keyboards looks like a dark haired Noddy Holder tucked away at the back, while Pinch (drums) and Stu West (bass) are pretty reserved and just get on with it.


On the way into the venue we were told that the band did not want any smoking during the set; no reason just that they had requested it. It turns out that Captain Sensible wants another rant about the “bastard fag companies”, and this leads up to the song ‘Ignite’. Seeing as the smoking ban is not yet in place and I don’t care much for his ramblings, myself and a few others ignored this request. At the back where they couldn’t see us. Like the punk outcasts we are!

The set ends after an hour and a quarter, and I am quite glad to get outside into the tea time sunshine. I could not see any of the stage for the majority of the gig so I resorted to standing under the TV screens that the venue had kindly put up for us short-arses at the back. The pit looked fun from there, but I didn’t fancy getting crushed this early in the day.

FUTURE GIGS

sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.