A sensational celebration supported by The Loveless, Peter Hook & The Light and The Courettes!
Promising us something spectacular, legendary Punk pioneers The Damned lined up an impressive show to celebrate their 50th Anniversary as a band at London’s Wembley Arena, on Saturday 11th April 2026. Fans flocked to West London from all across the globe, eager to witness the line-up famous for ‘Strawberries‘, ‘The Black Album‘ and the ‘Friday 13th‘ EP – Dave Vanian, Captain Sensible, Rat Scabies and Paul Gray – plus of course the indubitably indispensible keyboard whizz Monty Oxymoron.
Launching the first UK Punk single ‘New Rose‘ on October 22, 1976, The Damned forever changed the face of music, and influenced the careers of every musician who listened to a copy, as we were to hear from all three of the support acts…
A vast stage with the largest array of drum kits, amps, mic and guitar stands I’ve ever seen greeted us at one end of the aircraft hanger-like Arena. Opening band The Courettes squeezed through the clutter of equipment to the front of the stage, receiving a warm welcome from those of us there at early doors. Yet again proving that a duo can completely fill a large venue with sound, Danish native Flavia Couri (guitar, lead vocals) and her Brazilian partner Martin Couri (drums, backing vocals) brought their lively blend of 60s garage rock and modern punk roll to warm us up joyously!
The video above is of The Courettes‘ 2021 song ‘Misfits & Freaks‘, which was dedicated to, well, the whole audience by Flavia! The pair were clearly delighted to be performing on this exciting occasion, thanking The Damned profusely for the opportunity. ‘Keep Dancing‘ from 2024 was concluded by Martin encouraging us to “Keep dancing and enjoy The Damned!” before they finished with the rousing ‘Shake!‘, also from their 2024 album ‘The Soul Of… The Fabulous Courettes‘. Those of you who didn’t drag yourselves out of the pubs in time missed an absolute blinder of a set!
Peter Hook and The Light heralded their arrival to the stage with Kraftwerk‘s ‘Trans-Europe Express‘, before giving us what was for me the best performance of the night, with a spine-tingling, heartfelt and utterly brilliant set of Joy Division songs. Hooky dedicated the whole set to Ian Curtis “God rest his soul” and he and his bandmates most decisively meant it – the late Joy Division frontman would have been impressed.
Hooky began with an introduction in his usual deadpan manner; “50 years ago I asked for a punk record in a Manchester record shop, and I was given ‘New Rose‘ by The Damned. Barney and I listened to it over and over, and of course ripped it off… this is the result” – followed by a blistering ‘Dead Souls‘.
Without a doubt we were getting something special tonight – the bass in ‘Isolation‘ just about made our ears bleed. Hooky’s vocals channelled the full angst and menace of Curtis as the crowd swelled, Peter Hook and The Light raising their already excellent game to even greater heights. ‘Disorder‘ was followed by a raw and emotional ‘She’s Lost Control‘, and set closer ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart‘ was dedicated to the late Damned founder and guitarist Brian James. That’s the best I’ve ever seen Peter Hook and The Light play – the venue walls shook and the music was so good it made me shiver!
Penultimate band were the garage rock ‘supergroup’ The Loveless, consisting of Marc Almond (Soft Cell) on lead vocals, Neal X (Sigue Sigue Sputnik) on guitar, Iggy Pop‘s bassist Ben Ellis, Tim Weller on drums (standing in for regular drummer Mat Hector), with James Beaumont on keys, and a saxophonist I frustratingly didn’t catch the name of. Drawing material from Marc’s immense back catalogue with nods to T. Rex, Iggy, David Bowie, 60s R & B and garage rock, the band tore through a set of covers, plus a couple of cheeky Loveless originals – ‘Wild in the Streets‘ and ‘Nothing At All‘ – thrown in for good measure.
I’m not convinced that the 1960s covers at the start of the set went down too well with the Damned audience, but ‘Love Missile F1-11‘ sung by Neal X stirred a bit more of a reaction! Marc returned to lead vocals for a rocking cover of Sweet‘s ‘Hell Raiser‘ which went down much better. The set closed with the inevitable ‘Tainted Love‘, Marc encouraging the crowd to sing along, and Soft Cell’s ‘Heat‘ before The Loveless made way for our headliners.
The now clearer and considerably more spacious stage was illuminated in the most theatrical way – something The Damnned are renowned for – with a video backdrop playing a black and white horror movie classic. Their “Dark Set” opened with ‘Street of Dreams‘, red lighting throwing the stage into spooky contrast, whilst vast swathes of smoke billowed across the floor and onto the heads of the photographers in the press pit below… Continuing the monochrome theme, live footage of the band playing was displayed on the backdrop as they tore through next number ‘Wait for the Blackout‘.
The ever cheery and always cheeky Captain Sensible shouted “Come on Beethoven, get on with it!” at Monty Oxymoron behind the keys, to introduce ‘History of the World (Part 1)‘. The backdrop also took an amusing twist, as cartoon bats appeared to fly from each featured musician’s face periodically! Dave Vanian was at his creepy crooner best on ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde‘, while Paul Gray‘s bass totally thundered through the upbeat ‘Stranger on the Town‘.
It was wonderful to hear the rarely played live ‘Under the Floor Again‘, also from the aforementioned ‘Strawberries‘ album. Sensible took on lead vocals for another ‘Strawberries‘ track, ‘Life Goes On‘, quipping “I know you all want to hear ‘Happy Talk‘!” Monty let loose with a demonic keyboard solo in ‘I Just Can’t Be Happy Today‘, then Sensible gave us his critique of the architecture – “I’d rather play at the Hope & Anchor than in this concrete shit hole, but tonight, t’s OUR concrete shit hole!” Set one ended with a riotous ‘Smash It Up‘ (Parts 1 & 2) with the crowd going predictably mental!
An ‘intermission’ saw the video backdrop showing TV ads from the 70s and early 80s – which encouraged some of the crowd to do the ‘Shake ‘n’ Vac’ – concluding with a snippet from the classic episode of The Young Ones introducing The Damned as their guests. Right on cue, the band returned to take us through a rousing set of their livelier material. Archive TV footage of a much younger Damned accompanied ‘Nasty‘, then the guitars and the crowd went totally wild during ‘Love Song‘ which skilfully segued straight into ‘Machine Gun Etiquette‘.
Bringing in a more sombre tone, Vanian dedicated ‘Fan Club‘ to the memory of Brian James and former Damned bassists Bryn Merrick and Algy Ward, as well as others who had gone before their time. The considerably more cheerful (and a personal favourite) ‘Disco Man‘ brightened things up again, Vanian explaining it was written because disco music was so huge in 1977!
A lengthy ‘Ignite‘ had its airing next, Vanian heading out into the crowd with his mic to pick up assorted ‘Woa-oh-oh-ohs’; some were tuneful, others sounded like they were being killed, before at last the whole audience joined in. There was literally no pause before the bass kicked in with the first notes of ‘Neat Neat Neat‘, and the place erupted again. One daring crowd surfer got his reward – a fist bump from Vanian!
Monty was given another opportunity to shine in ‘Curtain Call‘, which ended with a somewhat proggy, joint keyboard wigout beween himself and Sensible. Rat Scabies got his turn next, playing a most excellent, exciting, extended drum sol,o while the rest of the band took a break / swig of their beverage… There was only one choice for the finale – the song that started it all, ‘New Rose‘ – accompanied by the audience, naturally! Vanian decided to sing himself off stage with ‘Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye‘, Sensible stripped off the last of his costume changes (a furry turquoise pullover), Rat thanked us for coming along, and then headed off to join his band mates in celebrating a highly successful 50th Anniversary Concert!
An impressive event for sure, but the venue let itself down by refusing to allow any concert goers using walking sticks into the standing area… a bit harsh, as there was nothing about this on their website, nor was it communicated in advance to any ticket holders. Considering the age range of the attendees, this really should have been explained at point of purchase!
Main Photo Credit: IAN LADLOW
All Other Photos: LOUISE PHILLIPS
All Videos: RUTH RAE
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