onto the penultimate live Paranoid Squirrel Rock Show of 2015. Long-time

listeners are aware that I am a Triple X L fan of The Damned, so having missed

out on seeing them at The Roundhouse in the Summer as soon as I heard the band

were playing in London just before Christmas a ticket was secured. Safe in the

knowledge that as One Direction were now on a break I wouldn’t be required to

escort my teenage Daughter to one of their gigs. I might moan about lack of new

material or even songs from the last three Damned albums being conspectus by

their absence from the set-list, but as soon as Captain surfs onto the Islington

Academy stage saying “Hello, My name’s Captain Sensible, Merry Fucking

Christmas. We’re The Damned and we sound something like this” and then launches

into “Wait For The Blackout” nothing else matters. It’s a fan friendly set

nothing post “Anything”. Obviously “Sanity Clause” and “The Turkey Song” with

accompaniment on the latter from Charlie Harper and Gaye Advert are aired as it

is the season. Captain has guitar issues throughout the set, changing his

Gibson SG nearly after ever song and sometime during. The biggest light bulb

moment of the gig was Captain implying “Neat, Neat, Neat” was more than just a

nod to the style Eddie Cochran. “Smash It Up” finishes the set off with Captain

trying to outstaying his welcome by giving us a vocal rendition of “Happy

Talk”. The Damned don’t seem to have anything lined up until the Royal Albert

Hall Concert in May, which obviously is something to really look forward to. I

have heard that Graham Humphreys, the artist who did the Artwork for The Evil

Dead, The Lords of The New Church and Brian James’ “Guitar That Dripped Blood”

album, is involved in some way over the 40th Anniversary and he was

spotted at the gig......