Let’s get one thing out of the way – I’m a massive Damned fan. They were the first band I got into as a fifteen year old and I have followed them ever since. However, I was only six when ‘New Rose’ came out and so I missed the original line up perform. I’ve seen them all playing live either in later versions of the band or other projects (The Space Toad Experience/Lords of the New Church), so to see them all on the same stage at the same time was a dream I never thought would happen (especially given the amount of bad water between various members in recent decades).

Since announcing the reunion back in 2020 we have had various date changes as the pandemic decimated touring schedules. As it happens, the final rescheduled date turns out to be exactly three years after the epic Palladium gig where the band and the Circus of Horrors brought Dave Vanian’s gothic vision to life (including his extreme makeover during the interval). This time was going to be a much stripped back show playing the songs that appeared on the first two Brian James penned albums.

First up we have Smalltown Tigers opening the night to a reasonably sized crowd given their early start. The three piece from Italy play a nice line in Joan Jett / Runaways like power pop and are going down well. ‘Darling Please!’ has a nice twangy guitar feel to it whilst bassist/singer Valli growls through the vocals. I’ve made a note to investigate them further.

Smalltown Tigers - Oct 22 By the time TV Smith enters the stage, the venue is starting to get busy. Pausing only to tell the crowd that he was going to go breakneck speed into a load of songs from the Adverts, he launches into ‘No Time To Be 21’, only for two mikes to instantly fail on him. Unperturbed he bounds over to his bass player’s mike until another working one is found. Mike issue sorted we are treated to a frantic set culminating with the triple headed monster that is ‘Gary Gilmore’s Eyes’, ‘Bored Teenagers’ and ‘One Chord Wonders’. I’ve never seen TV Smith do a bad set and this ranks highly amongst them.

TV Smith - Oct 22 I’ve not seen the Skids before and have never really listened to them outside of their most well- known songs, although I have a lot of time for the sole album from the Jobson/McGeoch project, The Armoury Show. Opening with ‘Of One Skin’, Richard Jobson proves that he still has stage presence and his familiar voice has not diminished with age. ‘The Saints are Coming’ is brilliant and ‘Working for the Yankee Dollar’ has the crowd bouncing around. With Jobson introducing ‘Out of Town’ with a humorous put down of his home town of Fife, the swirling guitars that would later dominate late guitarist Stuart Adamson’s output with Big Country take centre stage to great effect.

‘Circus Games’ goes down a treat before the band surge through a raucous ‘Into The Valley’. Introducing ‘TV Stars’ as the worst song ever written doesn’t stop the crowd going crazy for it. Finishing with a faithful version of the Clash’s ‘Complete Control’, the band leave the stage after a thoroughly enjoyable set.

Skids - Oct 22 Taking us back to 1976, the old Dr Who theme plays and into the light walks Brian James, closely followed by Captain Sensible and a remarkably match fit looking Rat Scabies. Dave Vanian suitably overdressed in a flamboyant trench coat and slick black hair comes on and the Damned launch into the Stooges ‘I Feel Alright’. It’s a magnificent slice of garage rock and sounds as gnarly as it did when the band used it to close their debut album.

Brian James may not be so mobile nowadays but that doesn’t stop his fingers playing the hell out his guitar. The Captain is back on bass duties on a beautiful Epiphone viola bass playing whilst Ratty pounds those drums as he always did. Vanian’s voice has matured into that of a fine crooner over the years and he approaches the old material with a renewed gusto whilst shaking those snake like hips like a man half his age.

The Damned - Oct 22 ‘You Take My Money’ from the band’s undervalued second album sounds great in the live arena whilst the cover of ‘Help’ is still as glorious as ever. ‘Born to Lose’ brings some great basslines from the Captain and Brian’s fingers go into overdrive. Rat’s frenetic drumming intro takes us into ‘Stretcher Case Baby’ and my favourite song from ‘Music for Pleasure’.

The sinister ‘Feel the Pain’ demonstrates why the band were not just a one trick pony back in 1976 with its altogether slower pace and Dave’s sinister delivery. You wonder what would have happened if the Captain had got his way and ‘I Fall’ had been chosen as the band ‘s first single rather than ‘New Rose’. It’s still a great song but it does lack that incredible opening salvo.

The Damned - Oct 22 ‘Fan Club’ lets Brian go all out with his guitar’s aural assault before the MC5 feel of ‘Alone’. All this time, the crowd has been constantly jumping around and there is no let up for ‘Fish’ and ‘1 of the 2’. ‘Problem Child’ follows and then the place erupts for the opening bass line of ‘Neat Neat Neat’. One of the greatest punk singles of all time, the band keep in as tight as possible without the usual mid song jam, instead Brian demonstrates why he was considered to be one of the most inventive guitarists of the time.

The Damned - Oct 22 A rare outing for ‘Stab Yor Back’ is disappointing for not following up with ‘Singalongascabies’ which could have doubled its length to two minutes. There’s more of Brian’s kinetic guitar for ‘See Her Tonite’ and then the band are joined by a saxophonist for ‘You Know’. I’d never really cared for the closing number on ‘Music For Pleasure’ but this was turned into a six minute beast of a song with chugging guitar and sax building up to a crazed ending. ‘So Messed Up’ follows and that’s it – the band leave the stage, but not for too long.

The Damned - Oct 22 They’re back and Ratty starts pounding the drums before Brian’s guitar kicks in and we have the greatest punk single of all time, ‘New Rose’. No matter how many times I see the Damned play this song and no matter which line up, it has always been a fantastic piece of garage rock. Tonight, it caps off an incredible trawl through the first line up’s recorded output.

A version of Bo Diddley’s ‘Pills’ is welcome and fun whilst ‘The Last Time’ reminds us how lucky we have been to finally see the original line up back in action.

Having seen the Damned many, many times over the years, this was an experience well worth waiting for and is in my top 5 Damned gigs. Some of the songs might not be a touch on the material that followed a few years later but this was where it started and without Brian James’ vision, we wouldn’t have been here at all.

The Damned - Oct 22