Fangbase - Reviews

Concorde - Brighton

28th November 2000

The Damned made it on stage here at 11.15pm to the strains of the "Banana Splits" theme. They had to follow an excellent performance by The Sus-Sex Pistols (a sort of perverted Bootleg Beatles) who put on a highly entertaining set of Pistols covers complete with a vocalist who looked worryingly like a demented Frank Spencer. Would The Damned be able to follow that? The answer was, er, yes they they would.

The Damned looked very good, were very tight, very loud and, oh yeah, they were bloody good too. Dave Vanian (surely the best frontman around) was his usual well turned out self, moving confidently around the stage and in good voice too. I know it's been said before but how does the guy show no visible signs of ageing after all but 25 years with the band? The Captain was clad in what can only be described as a purple see through number complete with silver thong(!) Still never mind-the boy can play. He didn't miss a note when he tripped and landed in the drums. Patricia looked good too, dressed all in black and moved around the stage much more than she used to, adding to the visual spectacle of The Damned in full flight. I couldn't see too much of Pinch as his drum kit seemed very low slung but he's a fine drummer (Mr. Miller ain't missed by me). Monty fleshed out the sounnd nicely and his wild cavorting behind the keyboards has to be seen to be believed.

The set kicked off with "new Rose", then careered through (amongst others) "Wait For The Blackout", "I Just Can't Be Happy Today", "Disco Man", "Nasty", "Neat, Neat, Neat", "The Shadow Of Love", "Democracy" and "Song.com". All were poured out with such a verve that you'd never guess how many times the band had ripped thorugh these numbers before (and which for my money makes The Damned the most exciting live band going). During a real foot to the floor "Looking At You" the bass notes were so loud the legs of my jeans started to vibrate alarmingly!

The audience were pretty excited too-much so than when the band played the same venue in April this year. The front six rows (most of whom appeared to be under 25) were a mass of pogoing lunatics. The guy who who overdid things and then collapsed on his hands and knees in front of me was definitely well over 25! Dave risked a rather athletic leap from the stage into this seething mass to deal with a beer flinging idiot (blows might have been thrown), which was a warning of things to come.

Two songs into the encore ("Love Song" and then a real belter of a number "Eloise") things were brought an abrupt halt when Dave took a direct hit from a thrown beer glass-plastic luckily. It could have easily been a bottle as there were plenty around the place. A warning glower over the shades didn't work and more glasses followed. Understandably enough, Dave left the stage followed by the rest of the band. No "Smash It Up" (my favourite, which just has to be experienced live) thanks to the actions of a moronic few. Still there's always next time (I hope). Thanks for a great show guys. Hurry back.