The Damned

[niamhm]

As I say the band were kinda winging it the night I saw ,understandable with a new drummer and that , but I remember the guitarist ,Will Peppar I think, leading Rat back in after a lead break in a song giving it a 1 2 3 with his guitar head an on 4 Rat had the fag out his mouth and flicked it at the guitarist and was a way leaving Will to dodge the fag and miss his own cue ,real trooper the Rat,leathered me at pool before the the gig and gentleman enough to take a drink of a slightly star struck punter .

[runcible]

S`funny you bring up Rat drumming for the Thee Hypnotics, seem to remember they were involved in a road accident and lost the use of their drummer ,went to see them in Edinburgh and saw them getting out of a van and though f8ck me thats Rat Scabies ,their was maybe 50 people their that night and even though they were winging it a bit it was still a great little gig,

interesting you took the picture on Live At Newcastle Runcible ,how did that come about?

That's it - their drummer got very badly hurt in that crash so Rat took over as he liked the music. In 1982-3 I got to know Rat as the Damned's fan club 'The Flashman Society' was in a mess. Rat's dad John was managing the band at the time and I'd written to them and he'd written back and we'd talked about the fan club as it had drifted into chaos. One day I came home and there was a note outside my bedroom from my mum - 'Rat from The Damned phoned - please call him on this number'. I almost wet my pants. Went to his place, hung out a bit and tried to plan a way of sorting out the fan club. We ended up quite good mates and used to see a lot of each other - then he got me back stage at a few gigs to take pictures. One day I was at his place and some guy rang with an offer to stick a live album out and split the money and did Rat know anyone with good photos of the band. Hey presto - no money in it and I just said 'please can you give me a credit' and so, apart from the track listing, that's about all there is on both the sleeve and the picture disc. The shot of the audience - sweaty intense punk faces - on the back of the picture disc (taken at Brixton Academy, then called Ace) is probably the best photo I ever took. They used a load of my shots in the Phantasmagoria tour programme too. I did some portraits of Rat at home which I have somewhere. I speak to him occasionally but haven't seen him for ages. Lovely bloke. I met Sensible and Vanian a couple of times but the other guy I got to know well was Roman Jugg who took over on guitar when Sensible left - he was one of the nicest people I can ever remember. I also did all the stills for the 'Is It A Dream' rock video and MCA ripped me off on the photos - bastards.

The Darkside were the support that night, the only time I ever saw them. Thee Hypnotics equipment kept packing up and the bass player played a couple of songs with Pete Baine’s guitar.

Well remembered - it was that lovely blue tulip bass Pete had. At the end Thee Hypnotic's guitarist Ray Hansen (fuck me what a player that guy was) got fed up with all the technical problems and started smashing some of the gear. I remember looking at Pete's bass and thinking 'Christ - I hope they don't trash that thing!'.

[niamhm]

Sounds like some good times Runcible ,good times in deed ,after checking in a box of odds and ends ,I still have the Phantasmagoria programme,some nice shots ... s`funny that bands sold programmes ,do any bands still do that.

[heyman]

They're @ the Duchess in York in August I think, there's quite alot of folk talking about it, hopefully gonna go if my shift pattern will let me!!!

[Vindaloo]

...and playing a free gig in my town (also being their hometown) in July I discovered not 60 seconds ago!

So that must mean you're from the same place as me Who would have thought that there would be two Croydon geezers on these boards....

I'll see you there this weekend!

[Chris Barrus]

"Wait For The Blackout" was one of the first songs I learned how to play on guitar and I still love it as much now as I did back then. I just wish I got to see them live more - only time I saw them was on the 1989 "farewell tour" (the Dave, Captain, Rat, Paul lineup)

BTW, the "Rat Scabies & The Holy Grail" book is outstanding. Well worth tracking down.

[ononist]

I'll be there Vindaloo. Do we know each other?

[davedecay]

Great band, always enjoyed them. Gotta post a great painting hanging above our kitchen table, painted by a friend of ours...

in the meantime, here's some live sets for your pleasure...

http://www.eggcityradio.com/?p=454

[runcible]

All good stuff. I'd love to hear more of the Etiquette period live. Sensible's playing style was a combination of punk and psychedelia - pretty unique at that time.

[laid back in the sun]

looking forward to seeing them at solfest at the end of the month

[davedecay]

[n1alist]

Solfest you say. I'll be there too.

[olan]

Love the Peel Session Cd by The Damned. Has been a favourite for years now, one of my most regularly played bits of plastic.

I hung and operated the lights for The Damned when they played at Reading University in 1991 or 1992. Rat Scabies called me a c*nt during the soundcheck (as in "Move that f*cking ladder, you c*nt") which still makes me smile as I was 15 foot up in the air on said ladder at the time. Didn't really bother with the focus after that. Plonked shitloads of spots under the drum kit though and lit him up like an Xmas tree. He was a bit hot and bothered after the show, but really, really friendly. Even handed out beers to the impoverished students doing the load out.

Great gig though...