Those
of you that hang on to every word of the literary masterpieces (you
want to get out more!) will know that it's traditional for me to stuck
on the M25 for hours and arrive just as the support are finishing
their set. Well, by way of a change and despite it being rush hour
on a Friday night there was a miraculous lack of traffic and I arrived
on time. I thought this might have been an omen for a good night.
It was a really great gig up to a point but, sadly, things came to
a disastrous end but more of that later.
When I sauntered in the first support band (didn't catch their name)
were into their stride doing decent versions of some punk tunes including
ANWL's So What and more bizarrely a Soft Cell tune which
might have been Tainted Love but I've typically gone and forgotten.
Then came 4ft Fingers, veterans of many a Damned support turn.
Pretty good they were too - seemed to enjoy themselves and got the
crowd on their side. Especially when a cry of "We want The Damned"
went up. The singer replied with a brilliantly effective "Shut
the fuck up and give us a chance". Or words very much to that
effect.
Then on to The Damned and straight into the songs that have become
a part of this tour. For reasons that escaped me Captain came on with
a spring onion between his lips.
I thought Edinburgh would be a hard gig to top but this one ran things
very, very close indeed (and if it hadn't been ruined by someone in
the crowd would have been declared the winner in a photo finish I
think). The band were in great form and looked like they were really
up for a good gig. Great sound too - Pinch's drums nice and up in
the mix. He's an outstandingly good drummer you know - he was up on
a drum riser this time and not tucked out of sight for a change so
you could see him in action.
By the time the band were in full flight I think you could have run
a small town's electricity supply for week with the energy coming
off the stage. Song after song came with a drive that you had to see
and hear to believe. Think the highlights were Magic Potion
(again) , I Just Can't Be Happy (with Dave changing the words
of his "demonic" bit completely and Captain casually laying
on top of the monitors for the guitar part), History of the World,
a stormingly good Looking At You, Ignite, Eloise
and (to begin with anyway) Neat Neat Neat.
I was just thinking that the way things were going, the encores were
going to be something special when, as Captain was laying on the monitors
doing some splendid guitar during the middle part of Neat Neat
Neat, someone thought it would be funny to throw a beer glass
(plastic only thankfully but that's really not the point). The offending
article hit the guitar right by Captain's hand. To say he wasn't happy
would be an understatement. The guitar was thrown to the ground with
some force, mic stands went flying and off he went followed by the
rest of the band. Pinch thanked the miscreant for ensuring that the
gig was over.
Scott the roadie restored some order and warned that if anything else
was thrown the show was over. After a tense wait, the crowd cheered
the band back on. "That applause is for you Captain"
said Dave. It was too.
To my surprise Dave announced the next song as Disco Man, which
hasn't been in the set for a bit. Then things took a turn for the
worse - about three bars into the song another glass came from the
same part of the crowd and caught Scott on the back of the neck. Bit
of a punch up in the crowd ensued. Pinch sounded incredulous "are
they throwing things again after that warning?". With that
the band left the stage and it was left to poor old Scott to announce
that the gig was over.
As Scott said "it ain't 1977 anymore". Come to think of
it the last time the band played Salisbury there was a similar incident
and Captain walked off then. I bet they won't play there again and
who would blame them.
Still there were some brighter moments earlier including an impromptu
rendition of the Stingray theme song from Dave and Captain prompting
to Pinch to interject "Meanwhile, back at the rock concert".
"Is there a rock concert tonight?" said Dave "who's
playing?". Captain also made me laugh when he discovered
he was drinking from a can of Tesco Value Bitter. He grimaced and
uttered the immortal line "Fucking hell. Has it come to this?"
Shame it all had to end on such a sour note.
Froggy