Fangbase - Reviews

Plinston Hall, Letchworth

Sunday 26th May 2002

What a night! We only made it with 20 minutes to spare due to a sick baby who wouldn’t settle. It would have been criminal to have missed this gig, for this was the Damned at their explosive and talented finest.

Plinston Hall is a great venue, even the bouncers smile! Obviously others felt the same as the crowd seemed a bit bigger than at Hemel, though still with room for a few more. Down at the front the good natured moshing started in earnest as the band exploded into Street of Dreams, an inspired opening number.

Captain’s guitar work and sense of humour were on top form; the solo during Under the Floor Again was nothing short of brilliant and sent shivers up my spine. Why does he not get the recognition he deserves, he’s a bleedin’ genius?!

The band worked bloody hard, particularly Monty who struggled on with only one keyboard, cue several jokes about only having half an organ from Dave and the Captain!

Most of the favourites were in the set, some changes having to be made because of the broken keyboard. Wait for the Blackout made a welcome reappearance and there were storming renditions of Democracy, Song.com, She, Disco Man, Plan 9 and Neat Neat Neat, where the mike was handed to a guy who actually did a pretty good job of it!

After an excellent encore including Eloise, Captain introduced Smash It Up with a side swipe at a certain ex-drummer and as the cry of SMASH IT UP! went up, the crowd went wild.

Verdict; what a night. Anyone who seriously doubts the brilliance of this line must be mad. They were so tight and rehearsed and above all their looks say it all….they enjoy what they do and do it bloody well. The flyer was right, the Damned are “punk rock legends”. Shepherd’s Bush Empire here I come!

Sniper

Another...

As I had not seen The Damned live since the 10th Anniversary Concert in Finsbury Park and also think that Grave Disorder is an excellent album, I was looking forward to the Letchworth concert.

When I arrived, I tried not to let the small crowd dampen my enthusiasm although the idiotic lead singer of the support band soon began to grate on me. I always wondered what had happened to Jim Diamond.

The Damned arrived on stage and proceeded to play a well balanced set although there were several notable omissions such as New Rose.

However, what destroyed the evening was the sound quality. Captain Sensibles guitar was constantly drowned out by a distorted bass and Monty's piano was inaudible.

£14 is expensive for a local concert and for this price I expect to be able to hear a guitar solo or a particular lyric and not to go home with just a fuzzy sound in my ears.

I hope to see The Damned live again in the future, but next time if the sound is as bad during the first two songs as it was in Letchworth, I will save my time and eardrums by simply asking for a refund.

Elizabeth

And another...

I saw the Damned at the same venue last year just before the release of Grave Disorder, it was the first time I'd seen the band for several years and it was a memorable occasion.

However this year was a bit of a disappointment in comparison, the audiance was smaller probably due to it being a Sunday and the cost of the tickets, the support group appeared to be an awful oi revival band.

The Damned played a good mixture of of old favorites and new material. After a livley start things started to go wrong with the sound equipment and by the end I think the band had lost heart. They toughed it out and came back for the traditional encore.

I hope this experience does not put them off coming back next year as I still think they are a great band as Grave Disorder proves.

Neil