Phantasmagoria

Product Information

In February 2023, the band's next studio album was announced with the title Darkadelic and was released on 28 April 2023. The album was preceded by the singles and music videos for "The Invisible Man" on 3 February 2023, "Beware of the Clown" on 10 March 2023 and "You're Gonna Realise" on 21 April 2023. All three music videos were directed by Martin Gooch. [68]

From the beginnings of the band, Vanian had adopted a vampire-like appearance onstage, with chalk-white makeup and formal dress. [48] With Sensible gone, Vanian's image became more characteristic of the band as a whole. The Damned signed a recording contract with major label MCA Records, and the Phantasmagoria album followed in July 1985, preceded by the UK No.21 single " Grimly Fiendish". Other hits from the same album were " The Shadow of Love" [49] with its gloomy gothic sound, and the lighter " Is It A Dream?". [50] Tabb, George (16 September 2001). "Q&A with the Damned's Captain Sensible". NYPress.com. Archived from the original on 9 August 2014 . Retrieved 4 July 2015. The former members of the band worked on a series of brief side projects and solo recordings, all making little commercial impact. Scabies formed a one-off band called "Les Punks" for a late 1978 gig. Les Punks was a quasi-reunion of the Damned (without Brian James or Edmonds) that featured Scabies, Vanian, Sensible and bassist Lemmy of Hawkwind and Motörhead. The Damned tentatively reformed with the "Les Punks" line-up in early 1979, but originally performed as "The Doomed" to avoid potential trademark problems. Captain Sensible switched to guitar and keyboards, and after a brief period with Lemmy on bass for studio demos and a handful of live appearances, [39] and a slightly longer period with Henry Badowski on bass, the bassist position was filled by Algy Ward, formerly of The Saints. During a December 1978 tour of Scotland, Gary Holton filled in for Vanian. [40]The Damned’s Dave Vanian on what 40 years of punk has taught him. GQ. 23 November 2019. Retrieved 14 February 2023.

Let There Be Rats" and "Wiped Out" were originally released as a Rat Scabies 7" solo single in 1984; produced by Will Birch. On 22 October, five weeks before the release of the Sex Pistols' " Anarchy in the U.K.", Stiff Records put out the Damned's first single, " New Rose", thus making them the first UK punk band to release a single. The single's B-side was a fast-paced cover of the Beatles' " Help!". [29] "New Rose" was described by critic Ned Raggett as a "deathless anthem of nuclear-strength romantic angst". [30] The Damned played their first show on 6 July 1976, supporting the Sex Pistols at the 100 Club. A lo-fi recording of the show was later released as Live at the 100 Club (2007). [27] As part of London's burgeoning punk scene, The Damned again played the club on 20 September, for the 100 Club Punk Festival. [28] This is a band who wear their years on the road on their battered and sweat-stained sleeves with pride. They know what they are good at, and they do it. There are no frills, and they’re a hard-working band that knows what the people want.Anything, on the other hand, is abysmal. The success of Phantasmagoria allowed the band the time and expense to decamp to Denmark to a state-of-the-art digital studio to record their follow-up with producer Jon Kelly again in tow. While the digital reverb and flat production on Phantasmagoria created an interesting contrast between the band’s gothic sound and the expressive theatricality of their songs, on Anything, the actual sound of the band is gone, hidden beneath layers of bleeps and cheesy synths. a b "DAMNED | full Official Chart History | Official Charts Company". Officialcharts.com . Retrieved 24 July 2019. Although officially on hiatus, the band issued two singles in 1990. The first, " Fun Factory", was a song recorded in 1982 by the Sensible/Vanian/Scabies/Gray line-up; intended for single release at the time, the bankruptcy of their record company prevented the issue of the record for 9 years. The year's second single, " Prokofiev", was recorded by Scabies, Vanian and Brian James, and was sold on a 1991 reunion tour of the US. [ citation needed] Photography: Robert Sutton The Damned – Brighton Dome – 17 April 2023. Photo: Robert Sutton/MetalTalk

With a new album, Darkadelic, their 12th to be released on 28 April, The Damned hit the road for a 14-date UK tour. MetalTalk caught up with them at the Brighton Dome. So, what did we learn? The Damned are still one helluva band, and despite the years under their belts, they are more than capable of holding their own with the young up-and-coming bands. The Damned Moore, Sam (22 January 2018). "Listen to The Damned's new single as they announce first new album in 10 years". NME . Retrieved 24 July 2019. Morrison and Vanian married and had a daughter, Emily, born on 9 February 2004. Around this time, Morrison 'retired' from performing with the band, though she remained involved with the Damned as the band's manager. Her replacement on bass was Stu West. [ citation needed] The sad truth is that for a great majority of tastemakers, vintage punk is very cool and vintage Goth is very uncool, so this album will never be embraced like Machine Gun Ettiquette is. Also, it may be the fact I don't have the deluxe version, but the sound is pretty dreadful; the vocals have a nice echo and there's some clarity in the guitars and the bass is at least audible, but the drum sound is just plain bad - it's got that old mid-80s drum sound, and I bet even when it came out it sounded dated as hell. Those things sabotage it a bit. Add to this the fact that even if I'm being generous, I'd describe only half the songs as good ('The Eighth Day' is filler, 'Trojans' is an instrumental, 'Sanctum Santorum' gets weighed down under itself, and even 'Grimly Fiendish' is often a chore for me to get through). So why don't we have a hated disaster on our hands? Hanna, Robert (31 October 2011). "THE DAMNED, THE CUTE LEPERS AT SHOWBOX MARKET". SSGMusic . Retrieved 26 May 2021.These scene/emo people are very hard to figure out -- they will often flaunt their alleged depression for attention. Does this work? Sure, but are they lying solely for said attention? The truth is: probably. Behind this tainted facade of self-harm and drug use is someone who likes cats and rainbows, often very happy, in strong contrast to their assumed persona. This concept, unfortunately, is strongly present in The Damned's sixth album, 'Phantasmagoria.'