Monday, February 17, 2025

Quintessence of New Wave (1 of ??) (Rockstars in the Nuddy - slight unsightly return's return)


It wasn't just an Old Wave thing, clearly - getting the kit off - it was  a New Wave thing too

Or perhaps just a Sounds  thing. 

I don't remember NME or Melody Maker ever going in for this. 

Jape continued on the inside spread with this Two Virgins parody I'm assuming.


 



The Damned's career is quintessentially New Wave through and through -  entertaining second-rank punk, utterly unthreatening 





This one's my favorite (not the lyrical first bit so much as the single version proper, the jolly punk-it-up part) (although the lyrical first section is wonderfully unexpected)


Harmless fun innit. 

Rebranded as Sixties-epigones



Vanian's look - which comes out of Rocky Horror Show - is said by some to be antecedent to Goth.


Meanwhile Captain Sensible dwarfs the parent band's success


Allied with the mimsy Dolly Mixtures.



Capn Sensi should have formed his own political party, a la Monster Raving Loony and Screaming Lord Sutch. Stood as an MP. 

Maybe he did? 

Altern-8  - who belong in this lineage assuredly - did.  A platform of free raves for the under-10s, subsidized Vicks - something along those lines. It's in E-Flash, I can't be bothered to look it up.



He looks a bit like Harpo Marx. 




I should do Max Splodge next. (Bushell placed them at the head of a phenom he called La Punk Pathetique).

Then Tenpole Tudor.


9 comments:

  1. Apparently, Captain Sensible did form his own political party in 2006, called the Blah! Party. Essentially an irreverent party of protest against Blairism and the Iraq War. He also did the theme tune to Big Break.

    This is partly thinking out loud, but the Damned rather unusually seem a band diminished by eclecticism. Of course, eclecticism is not a virtue in itself, but their genre-hopping strikes one as chaotic and senseless (they got Pink Floyd's Nick Mason to produce their ill-fated second album, after failing to obtain Syd Barrett's services). Is this perhaps why you call them second-rank? I mean, I much prefer the Damned's debut album to the Ramones' debut. But the Ramones at least had some consistency.

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    1. Despite being among the first batch of Britpunk, they're not Pistols / Clash / X Ray Spex / Buzzcocks / Banshees level.

      But nor are they Slaughter and the Dogs / Eater / Lurkers / Chelsea level.

      They're in the second rank along with The Adverts.

      They are a bit lightweight, there's no real danger.

      I haven't listened to the Damned's albums - I never got the impression they were eclectic, though. There's no stabs at reggae like The Members or The Ruts had. At least judging by the singles. What are the genres they hop between?

      The Ramones are certainly consistent. That's one of way of putting it. Fixated and invariant is another way.

      I knew Sensible had to have done the political party thing! I wonder how many other examples there are of rockers doing joke candidacies? Or serious candidacies for that matter.

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    2. Would personally class the Ruts as first rank - an excellent band. Shame they were prematurely decapitated.

      The Damned had three great early singles but that is pretty much it for me. They just didn't have anything to say, no world view beyond 'avin a larf. They are a bit like Grebo and Psychobilly in that they appeal to people with a superfluity of physical energy, and an aversion to depth and complexity.

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    3. The Damned moved from straight-ahead punk to garage psychedelia and even prog. A punk band releasing the 20-minute "Curtain Call" in 1980 was gutsy. If one can make a case for their greatness, MACHINE GUN ETIQUETTE, THE BLACK ALBUM and their singles of that period would be the best evidence.

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    4. Love the Ruts but really mainly for two songs - "Babylon's Burning" and "In A Rut". "Something That I Said" is quite muscular. I've aired this before here but I love the fact that they were bleedin' ippies right up to the moment punk broke - some of them were in a prog band called Aslan. I think some of them were in a commune in Wales when they caught wind of the new convulsion!

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    5. I'm listening to Machine Gun Etiquette - finally! - as I type. It's quite.... epic and blustery. Reminds me a bit of The Dictators. They do seem like an American band. Some members clearly can play better than others and are not afraid to show it. Like a lot of British punk, the rhythm section lets the side down.

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  2. If you did something daft as a child my Dad would say, "Are we Captain Sensible this morning?" and variants of. It always made me laugh, but for many years I really thought he was some kind of fairy tale character.

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  3. In any discussion of The Damned, I think a distinction needs to be drawn between FIRST ALBUM era, with Brian James in the drivers seat (which is pretty damn threatening in the context of its time, with plenty of legit Stoogoid aggro & proto-hardcore racket), and everything which happened subsequently, after The Cap took charge (for which, Simon's thoughts are spot on).

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  4. I had assumed for years that the Big Break theme was specially written for the show, only recently had the revelation that it’s from the musical of Hunting Of The Snark by Mike Batt

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Quintessence of New Wave (1 of ??) (Rockstars in the Nuddy - slight unsightly return's return)

It wasn't just an Old Wave thing, clearly - getting the kit off - it was  a New Wave thing too Or perhaps just a Sounds   thing.  I don...