Sex Pistols and The Damned

Previously of the band Masters of the Backside, Dave Vanian (David Letts), Captain Sensible (Raymond Burns) and Rat Scabies (Chris Millar) joined together with Brian James (Brian Robertson) to form The Damned in 1976. They played their first show as support for The Sex Pistols during the summer of that year. On 18 February 1977 the band released their first album, “Damned Damned Damned” and went out on tour to promote the album; during the spring, they became the first British punk band to tour the United States. After the release of “Music For Pleasure” and a few lineup changes, the band decided to break up in February 1978.

While apart, the members worked on various solo and side projects; and in late 1978 with a quasi-reunion of The Damned (without Brian James or Lu) that featured Scabies, Vanian, Sensible and bassist Lemmy (of Hawkwind and Motörhead) under the name Les Punks. The band once again adopted the name The Damned in 1979 and signed a deal with Chaswick Records followed by the release of three singles “Love Song,” “Smash It Up” and “Machine Gun Etiquette.”

After experiencing a lineup change, the band released The Damned released “Strawberries” in 1982 followed shortly by a soundtrack to an imaginary 1960s movie called “Give Daddy The Knife.” In July 1985 the band signed a contract with MCA and quickly released “Phantasmagoria.” While working on another album, the material that was recorded was not released due to the dissolving of their contact with MCA; consequently the band once again disbanded in 1988.

In 1993 the band reformed with a new lineup, extensively toured for two years and released an album entitled “Not Of This Earth.” However, at the time of the release of the album, the band once again called it quits. By 2000, The Damned consisted of Vanian, Sensible, Morrison and new recruits Monty Oxymoron on keyboards and Andy (Pinch) Pinching, and in 2001 the band released “Grave Disorder,” and in October 2008, The Damned released their tenth studio album, “So, Who's Paranoid?”