Thurs. Oct. 20 

The Damned, forever led by singer Dave Vanian and guitarist Captain Sensible, were the first English punk band to make it to record: In 1976 they released the double-A side “Neat Neat Neat” / “New Rose.” A volatile group – they used to scam opening gigs at shows by telling promoters they played folk, or heavy rock, anything but punk – they’ve gone through numerous players over the years. Styles, too: Goth, Pyschedelic, garage rock, even pseudo-cabaret.  Now it's the 35 anniversary tour ... They're at the Middle East Downstairs Thursday Oct. 20. They'll be playing their two best known albums, their thrashing debut, "Damned Damned Damned" and their neo-psychedelic "The Black Album."

    I've  talked to Sensible several times over the years. We exchanged e-mails this summer. I aksed what they were up to. "I believe Mr Vanian is on his summer holiday," emailed the Captain. "and I will be away camping for a week or so too. It all sounds frightfully civilised doesn't it..... the Damned off on vacation, etc. I suppose we should really be getting up to no good like the bad old days? I'll see what I can manage though - maybe when I get to the caravan park I'll attempt to steal a choc ice or something."

Once, at the Channel, after the show – somewhere in the ‘80s – I asked him about the Damned’s longevity, implying it was sort of amazing. “What else can I do?” he responded. “Clean toilets?” I asked him about that quote and found out, well, that is what he did pre-Damned (along with playing in the band Johnny Moped and an Oasis, not the one you know).

     “Heh, heh,” Sensible laughed, when it's recalled. “I have no talents whatsoever. The funny thing was I worked for the local council cleaning 14 toilets a day and when I left to join the Damned, they said they’d hold the job open for me if it ever fell through, which was pretty nice of them. I must have been pretty good at my job. We were in a big concert hall, local council’s own place. It had three floors, ten toilets out front and four backstage. When the show’s on in the evening, they’re not being used, so you finish by ten o’clock and practice guitar for the rest of the day. So practice doesn’t necessarily make perfect in my case, but it helped.”

     Now, what about the Brit-pop Oasis? Did Sensible sue them?
“We should have done. The funny thing is Noel Gallagher said the first band he ever saw was the Damned when he was 14, and just after than Pete Frame did a rock family tree and did one of the Damned. At the top of the tree is Oasis, the first one, and I like to think Noel Gallagher saw Pete Frame’s family tree, saw the name and said “Maybe I’ll steal that.’ He stole most of his songs from the Beatles, why shouldn’t he steal his band’s name as well?”

This edition of the band has been together five years. It includes keyboardist Monty Oxymoron (who changed his nom-de-punque from Moron), bassist Stuart West and drummer Pinch. (Former bassist Patricia Morrison left the band after she married singer Vanian. They have a kid and Sensible says she’s happier at home more than ever.)

Of the Damned, he says, “It’s a very happy lineup.  I don’t know if the audience want to hear that; they probably want to think the Damned is constantly boozing and squabbling and you go on stage with black eyes occasionally, but no, we’re really happy and I think you can tell when you listen to the record. It’s a band playing well together, enjoying each other’s company. All five of us are writing in the band now.”
    Is England as in poor as shape as America, financially?
“England is possibly worse,” says Sensible. “Britain doesn’t make anything any more and hasn’t done since Mrs. Thatcher was in power and we’re now suffering for it. The pound is sinking like a stone, it’s level with the Euro at the moment. It’s all pretty grim. There’s capitalism for you.”

     The Damned were on “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” for two shows in last year doing “Neat Neat Neat” one night and then the new one, “Shallow Diamonds” the next. Clear suggestion: The Damned of old exist nicely with the Damned of new.

“Basically,” says Sensible, “Craig requested us to do ‘Neat Neat Neat,’ ‘cause  it was the favorite songs of his that we do. Once again, after Noel Gallagher, I think Craig Ferguson saw us as a teenager in Scotland and he was inspired to buy a drum kit and form a punk group. If it wasn’t for seeing us, he wouldn’t be doing what he does now. When his band had run its course, he’d been doing announcements and telling jokes between songs and he found that he had obvious talents in those directions. He ended up with the swanky job he has now. He was very nice to us backstage and that’s unheard of two nights running on his show.”

When the Damned play the Middle East expect at least 90 minutes of mayhem, maybe more.  Sensible admits that Vanian and he have had strife in the past – over 30 years, mind you – and admits, “I can’t be the easiest person to work with. Once I get up on stage I’m only thinking about one person and that’s me. I like more than my share of the spotlight.” But things are happy in Damned-land. It’s nothing anyone could predict. The Ramones, mostly dead. The Clash, long broken to pieces, one dead. Sex Pistols, one dead, blown up, occasionally reforming for the bucks. And here the Damned are, still in your face.

Parting thought from Sensible: “I wonder what it’s going to be like at 70 with that name [Captain Sensible].  Doors at 7:30. Tix: $24.

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