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THE DAMNED Thirty years ago I stood nervously waiting to enter a
punk club in Cardiff that was located above a porn cinema, ready to
see one of my favourite bands in the still relatively new music genre
that was punk rock. Little did I know that three decades on I would
be entering a converted church in Cardiff, considerably wider of girth,
greyer of hair, but nonetheless still as immature and once again going
to see the same band-The Damned.
With a new album to promote – the first in seven
years – they launch into new track “Maid for Pleasure”
and the night is off and running. The sizeable crowd, of varying ages,
lap it all up, but these old pros are also clever enough to intersperse
tried and tested favourites, from virtually all of their ten albums,
into the long and enjoyable set. Without the benefit of a set list I
have had to rely on a Strongbow addled memory, but over the course of
the next 100 minutes we are treated to new songs “Natures Dark
Passions”, “Shallow Diamonds”, “Perfect Sunday”
“Nothing” and a spine tingling “Dr Woofenstien”,
a song that would have quite comfortably have sat on one of their earliest
releases “The Black Album”.
Special mention should be made of their version of “Neat,
Neat, Neat” and for the fact that for one night only this track
had 4 (yes count ‘em) bass players. Some of you may be aware that
Captain Sensible originally played bass with the group, but moved to
lead guitar when Brian James jumped ship, and obviously the incumbent
bassist Stu West was present. However in the long and varied history
of the group there have actually been two Welsh bass players, both of
whom were present tonight – Paul Gray and Bryn Merrick. The former
left the band after suffering tinnitus, but I was pleased to see that
he did not appear to have any adverse reaction tonight. Bryn Merrick
looked like he had come just as an audience member, and I would suggest
that he had sampled more than one pint of the local brew, before the
Captain’s invitation coaked him in rather a wobbly manner, up onto
stage. And so a multiple orgasm of bass players provided a unique intro
to the song, with time being given mid song for each to show their considerable
fret related talents. As The Captain stated at the songs conclusion,
it was like Prog Rock had never gone away. Bones |
