The forefathers of UK punk, The Damned, kicked off their short reunion on Friday, October 28. This wasn’t like any other show the band has done in decades, the original line up of Dave Vanian, Captain Sensible, Brian James, and Rat Scabies were all on stage and dug deep into their catalog for a night of nostalgia. Their current tour is in celebration of 45 years since they released their debut single “New Rose”, which is also the first punk song to be officially released in the United Kingdom. The original lineup marches on for three more dates coming up this weekend in London.
With the original lineup back together, it only made sense that the night’s setlist centered around their seminal debut album, 1977’s Damned Damned Damned. The band performed 11 of the 14 songs from the album including “Stab Yor Back”, “Born to Kill”, and “Neat Neat Neat”. The band also went on to perform songs from their sophomore album Music for Pleasure and threw in some covers like their take on The Beatles’ “Help!” and Rolling Stones’ “The Last Time”. They saved “New Rose” for their three song encore which also included their Stones’ cover and their version of Bo Diddley’s “Pills”.
The Damned will continue their anniversary tour on November 3 with two more shows that same weekend. Check out the full setlist and footage from this weekend’s shows below:
