The Damned

Back in Black

Should it be Radiohead or the Damned? There was no chance of catching a bit of both. One was on the Pyramid stage and the other on the Avalon stage –too far apart. It had to be the Damned. I last saw them in 1982 in Bristol and I figured that was so long ago they might all be dead soon so it could be now or never. And Radiohead are fantastic but I had just stumbled across John Ottoway in the theatre field and he had put me in the mood for something a bit more-er lively. And the Damned –bless them, were nothing if not lively. They opened with something I didn’t recognise but it didn’t matter because the noise, the sheer blissful crash crash crash of that unbeatable punk blueprint was there from the off and it steadily grew louder, faster, louder, faster, harder, faster, louder and I was 16 again. The Avalon stage was full, brimming over, it was rocking. I managed to get back stage where the security guards were bent double over the railings trying to keep them upright, keep the pogo-ing crowd upright. There were crowd surfers, plastic bottles spinning towards the stage, Captain Sensible being terribly rude as usual and gobbing –lots of gobbing. It was the best transportation back to the vomit era of punk that I have witnessed for at least 10 years.

They played them all: Neat neat neat (so fast the neat neat neat bit sounded like neeeeeeeeet), History of the world part 1 or was it 2 I can’t remember, a tribute to John Lennon called “Would you be so hot if you weren’t dead?” then went off stage after ”Eloise” to booming applause. But they were never going to get away with it and to be fair they didn’t make their adoring audience hang on long. When they came back on and played New Rose I knew I was having a precious moment. I lost all my inhibitions, put my camera away and started pogoing myself, by myself, backstage. We waited patiently for the finale, knowing what was coming, writhing in delightful anticipation. The security crew braced themselves. They could feel the lull before the onslaught, taste it in the air like me then hear it coming through that gentle single guitar intro.

I thought I would never hear The Damned play Smash It Up ever again. I looked around the audience; it was full of us thirty and forty-somethings, all coming home.

SF

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