The UK punk pioneers started their 2024 European tour in the Netherlands - Herman de Tollenaere was there!
Kicking off a short tour of the European continent before their UK tour, punk pioneers The Damned appeared at Amsterdam’s Melkweg on 26th November 2024.
Founded by Brian James, Captain Sensible, Rat Scabies and Dave Vanian, The Damned released the first recorded UK punk song, ‘New Rose‘, followed by the first UK punk album, ‘Damned Damned Damned‘. They were the only real punk band at the world´s first punk festival in 1976, at Mont-de-Marsan in France, and became the first British punk band to tour the USA. They also played the first ever punk concert in the Melkweg, on 17 October 1977.
Captain Sensible played with the band the Softies in the Netherlands. In 1981, he also played drums with Cheap ´n´ Nasty. Soon after, he recorded his solo EP ‘This Is Your Captain Speaking‘ for Crass Records in England. Rat Scabies played drums with the Members, the Mutants, and in supergroup The Spammed which recorded a cover of the Clash‘s ‘Tommy Gun‘, and many others.
Dave Vanian has also sung in Dishonorable Discharge aka Masters of the Backside, the predecessors of the Damned, together with the Captain, Rat and Chrissie Hynde. He was in Dave Vanian and the Phantom Chords, and Naz Nomad and the Nightmares. In 1980, Paul Gray left Eddie and the Hot Rods and became The Damned’s bassist for the first time. In 1989 and 2017, he rejoined. Among his other bands: the Sensible Gray Cells, UFO and the Wingmen.
The band, including Monty Oxymoron on keyboards, arrived in Amsterdam a few days earlier to rehearse. Come Tuesday night, in a jampacked Melkweg big hall, were many veteran Dutch punks from bands and audiences from the 1970s and 1980s. The Damned are also popular among the latest Dutch punk generation – young Amsterdam band the Covids play a cover of ‘Antipope‘.
In the Melkweg audience, young people were underrepresented. Although the average age may have been a bit high, that did not detract from the wave of enthusiasm in the hall, from the pogoing and crowd surfing. The Damned made the Melkweg crowd look like the ‘stormy sea’ in the lyrics of their song ‘New Rose‘. They very clearly enjoyed themselves, with much ‘happy talk’ between the Captain and Dave.
At 8pm, The Damned started the concert with “Ladies and gentlemen, ‘ow do”, then burst into ‘Love Song‘. Immediately, there were strong mutual electrical currents between the band and the audience, which lasted throughout the whole 90-minute + set.
Seven songs from their 1979 album ‘Machine Gun Etiquette‘ were played, including my favourite ‘Melody Lee’. Three songs from the 1980 ‘Black Album‘. Two from ‘Strawberries‘. Two from ‘Damned Damned Damned‘. Two from ‘Darkadelic‘ from 2023. And two covers from singles: ‘Eloise‘. And ‘Jet Boy Jet Girl‘, recorded in 1978 by the Softies, then by Captain Sensible’s band.
Captain Sensible wore a ‘Neat Neat Neat’ T-shirt. He introduced ‘Beware Of The Clown‘ with sarcastic remarks about its subject; British politicians!
Dave wore a leather jacket, only during the first songs. Monty wore black trousers with white skull pictures. ‘Neat Neat Neat’ was the last song of the official set:
However, the audience very audibly wanted to hear more Damned, so of course they came back on stage. “What will we play? ‘Jet Boy, Jet Girl’? But we have not rehearsed it!” They played it anyway, to big enthusiasm of the whole Melkweg. Further big enthusiasm, when a Rat Scabies drum solo transitioned seamlessly into ‘New Rose‘:
The audience wanted one last encore, and the band came back again for ‘Smash It Up‘:
The Damned will continue touring in December 2024, in the UK – dates below. As anyone at the great Damned gig in the Melkweg will advise you: Don’t miss them!
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In 1978 Herman co-founded Dutch Rock Against Racism and was a founder of Pin punkzine. He’s vocals/saxophone for Cheap ‘n’ Nasty and in 2021 co-founded the Punk Scholars Network, Netherlands.
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