The Damned was on the eve of a South American tour last March 6 when word came that its founding guitarist, Brian James, had passed away at the age of 74.
It was news that hit hard, not surprisingly.
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“Without Brian, there would be no Damned,” Captain Sensible, the group’s original bassist and, since 1978, guitarist tells Billboard. “He was an absolutely lovely guy. We all loved him — and I’m not just saying that. He was a spectacularly nice bloke, and we were really shocked and started trying to think of something to do, some kind of tribute.”
The result comes this week.
Coinciding with the Damned’s 50th anniversary this year, Not Like Everybody Else (earMUSIC) is a covers album on which the current incarnation of the group — Sensible and fellow co-founders Dave Vanian and Rat Scabies, plus bassist Paul Gray and keyboardist Monty Oxymoron — take on 10 songs that were some of James’ personal favorites. Recorded over five days with producer Mikal Blue at Revolver Recordings in Westlake Village, Calif., the list includes the Kinks’ “I’m Not Like Everybody Else” and R. Dean Taylor’s “There’s a Ghost in My House,” the album’s first single, as well as songs originally done by the Rolling Stones (“The Last Time,” which features James via an archival recording), Pink Floyd (“See Emily Play”), the Yardbirds (“Heart Full of Soul”), the Animals (“When I Was Young”), Iggy and the Stooges (“Gimme Danger”) and more.
“We just thought that since Brian was such a big influence on pretty much a whole generation, and us in particular, wouldn’t it be good to do an album that was an homage to the people that influenced him,” says drummer Scabies, whose participation marks his first time in the studio with the Damned in 30 years. “We chose a set of songs that were specifically by people that influenced Brian, and in turn influenced us.”
Sensible adds that, “These were the songs that grabbed (James) when he was a kid buying records, saving up his pocket money to buy a record every couple of months. We knew some of them, because he would play this music in the dressing rooms and stuff. His wife told us some other titles, so we put together a list.” He and Scabies acknowledge some of those choices came as surprises to them as well as to fans who consider James — who formed other bands, including Lords of the New Church after leaving the Damned in 1977 — strictly a punk artist.
“‘See Emily Play,’ the Kinks song…a lot of them, really, surprised me, but there you go,” Sensible says. “Brian was two or three years older than the rest of us, and he had seen some of these bands. I think he saw Hendrix, even.
“It was quite funny because when I joined the band, I had thought I’d maybe end up joining a glam rock band, because that’s what was preeminent at the time. But when I met Brian and we got on so great…to get me into his vision he sat me down in front of a record player in his flat and over and over again he played me the Stooges, the MC5 and New York Dolls, to get this glam rock out of my brain. He reprogrammed me — and he did a bloody good job.”
Scabies points out that, “One of the things (James) showed us all was there’s not really much difference between John Coltrane and the Stooges. It’s about attitude and it’s about playing what you want to play and what you can’t play, and there aren’t any rules. It’s a free-for-all…I don’t think there’s an artist on the album that didn’t have that kind of attitude.”
The Damned’s “New Rose,” released Oct. 22, 1976, is credited as the first British punk rock single, coming out just over a month in front of the Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy in the U.K.” Damned Damned Damned, which came out Feb. 18, 1977, is considered the first British punk album. “We were making the music we wanted to hear, ’cause nobody else was,” Sensible recalls. “We wanted to really blast the audience with this sensational blitzkrieg of noise we were so capable of making, which was so unusual in 1976 in Britain, when all the glam and prog was what people were listening to. They came around, but it took awhile. We didn’t think it would be popular. We thought we were gonna kick British music up the ass, but we never for a moment thought we’d still be doing it 50 years later.”
“It was a bit daunting after all these years to be back in the same room together,” Scabies says of making his first album with the Damned since 1994’s Not of This Earth. He rejoined during 2022 for some original lineup reunion dates in the U.K., and then came back permanently during late 2023. “It could’ve been very tough,” he quips, “but I think we’ve all learned to play a bit in the last 50 years.
“I didn’t really think of it as a Damned album,” Scabies continues. “It was easier just to be like, ‘I’m working with these guys….’ We were pretty relaxed about it, no high pressure, but everybody rose to it, bit by bit. The Damned has always had a thing where not one of us wanted to be the worst one in the band, and I think that sort of stays; ‘Yeah, OK, I’m not gonna f–k this up.’”
As Not Like Everybody Else comes out, the Damned has lined up a handful of Q&A and signing sessions starting Friday (Jan. 23) in London, as well as shows around Europe and the U.K. surrounding an April 11 50th Anniversary concert at OVO Arena Wembley in London, with Peter Hook & the Light, the Loveless and Marc Almond also on the bill. Scabies and Sensible won’t rule out the possibility of some new Damned music, either.
“We’re all gathering up what we’ve got,” the drummer says. “The Not Like Everybody Else album has been good to get us used to the idea of working together and being back in the same room at the same time. It’s all about the creativity, really. But it’s very early days, so we’re all still kind of feeling it out.”
Sensible is hoping more will come sooner than later.
“This is like the golden period at the end of a career that lasted far longer than any of us thought it would — I know that sounds corny, but that’s the way I see it, really,” he says. “We won’t be doing it for much longer, for obvious reasons. It’s just a really nice vibe in the band now. We don’t get ridiculously drunk. We’ve stopped the arguments. We just really enjoy playing the songs and recreating that sound to the best of our ability, despite being considerably older.”
