Fangbase - Reviews

Shepherds Bush Empire, London

Friday 12th July 2002

After much speculation on the Message Board, Brian James did indeed act as support. I got all confused, but I think it was The Brian James Gang to start with and then (with a midsong change of drummer) turned into Flatpig.

Short set, but ending with their take on "New Rose" and "Neat Neat Neat"- including the singer banging his head on the bass drum.

Then onto the main business of the evening. I thought the turn out was a shade disappointing. Although the downstairs standing bit seemed packed, the balcony where I was looked only just over half full. Mind you it didn't stop The Damned from putting on a real tight, hard and loud show.

The curtains opened to reveal Dave sitting in a wicker chair hidden behind a large mask thingy and the stage decked out to reflect the evening's tropical theme. A rather good backdrop of a tropical island dominated, with some effective Easter Island type carvings and flaming torches scattered about. The whole thing looked very professional and I thought the lighting was really good too.

Things kicked off with a fine "Street Of Dreams" and then the usual Froggy trick of me forgetting the exact running order. We had (not necessarily in this order) "Amen", "Democracy", "Song.com", "Under The Floor Again" (which I thought sounded really good), "Wait For The Blackout", "She", "New Rose", a perfect, rocking "Disco Man", "Would You Be So Hot", "I Just Can't Be Happy Today", "Ignite" and "Neat, Neat , Neat" with a dead good improvised middle bit. Shame "Absinthe" wasn't there. All of these were performed with a real verve and the band looked like they really were enjoying themselves. The large stage gave Dave plenty of room to move about too.

Captain and Monty then returned for a burst of "Happy Talk" complete with Dave doing a quick bit of backing vocals.

The first encore featured an excellent "Eloise" and then Pinch (purple hair this time) (Turns out it was actually blue - Ed) left the stage - I thought to have a smoke but then he returned dressed (honest) as a gorilla and proceeded to provide a truly surreal sight behind the drums as he started on a superb "Smash It Up". Dave provided suitable monkey sound effects. The Captain recklessly let the crowd have a go on his guitar at the climax of "Smash It Up" and it took a rather worried looking roadie some time to get it back.

Second encore started with "I Feel Alright" and the show concluded with "Love Song" (with the Captain laying on the stage for the start and Dave leaning nonchantly on the mike stand without singing for a bit to leave Captain to provide the vocals).

Off they went after yet another fine evening's entertainment. Hope the DVD works out - as Dave said words to the effect of "our record company are too tight to do it, so we've done it ourselves". Must have cost a bit too, what with three hand held cameras, another swooping over the crowd and yet another fixed over the drums. There certainly seemed to be some slick camera work going on - especially the guy on the right of the stage who was doing some real fast spins while filming.

There was plenty of amusing on stage banter too, including:

"What's the matter with this bloody thing" - Captain to a misbehaving mike stand;
"This song was as much a nightmare for me as it was for you" Captain on "Happy Talk";
"Conclusive proof , ladies and gentlemen, that even a monkey can do it - Dave;
"Better than Westlife isn't it" - Captain;
"You can clone me from that" - Captain after returning a thrown on stage tie that had he had just shoved down his shorts;
"I think I'm going mad" - Dave during the Smash It Up intro (see above);
"Anyone seen a gorilla that can play the drums? " - Dave after Pinch left again;
"Some fucker's wrecked me drum kit" - Pinch on returning to the drums without costume.

Froggy

Another...

We arrived at the venue a bit later than planned so only managed to catch the tail end of The Brian James Gang. The place was already very full. As we'd entered the building we were all handed a lei to wear to get into the spirit of the Tiki-themed night.

Trying to get to the front at the barrier proved to be a bit of a struggle. We could only manage to squeeze an arm to the front to hold on. This wasn't the best position as we were stuck behind some people who were much taller than us. So instead we decided to go upstairs to the balcony. It was a good view - not as good as being at the barrier, but still good.

Shortly after, the curtains went back to reveal Dave Vanian sitting in a wicker chair with a big mask type thing in front of him. The backdrop was amazing! It was the image of a volcano (like the old Butlins ballroom backdrop) complete with large fake palm trees at the sides of the stage.

Captain looked great in his 'Happy Talk' garb (Captain peak-hat, shorts and Hawaiian shirt). The rest of the band were wearing their lei's which added to the theme.

The set was much the same as the other dates on the tour. The sound was perfect, all the band on top form, and Monty's organ was in good working order!

Can't remember the exact order of events, but Brian James came on at one point (for the encore I think), joined Captain, and introduced the Damned onstage.

Pinch ran off and came back onstage dressed in a gorilla suit to play 'Smash It Up'. This marked, as we thought, the end of a great night. However, we were treated to a second encore where 'I Feel Alright' was played!

It was an amazing night! I'm glad that it was being filmed - can't wait for the DVD to come out!

ML & Ma. M

And another...

Went to Shepherds Bush on Friday and I'd just like to say what a great gig it was.

A real treat to hear "Street of Dreams" and "Under the Floor Again". It's cool that Captain is not so pompous that playing someone else's song is beneath him.

It was definately one of the best Damned gigs I've seen. The atmosphere all around the venue was excellent, and the band just get better and better. A real bonus was finding out it was being filmed - being away from the MB I'd missed the news on that, and the theme of the night (wondered what the hell was going on when i saw what some people were wearing).

Went to O'neills before the gig, but thought I would feel like a real plank going up to people and blurting out "are you on the message board?" so I didn't bother (wish I had now). Next time maybe.

Here's to the next one, (Salisbury hopefully)!

Steve Final