Fangbase - Reviews

Zodiac - Oxford

18th November 2000

 

The first date of the British leg of the tour, and my first Damned gig for three years. It was always going to be exceptional, helped on its way by free entrance to the venue (thanx Gina) and paid for petrol money (thanx Paul Pixie) I couldn't fail.

The venue was compact, the beer was adequate, the support band was irish (I think), and brothers. Bizarrely they appeared to be fronted by the now middle aged Midge Ure, but this may be slightly wrong. Anyway, they were loud and entertaining, what they didn'r realise was that we actually wanted them off stage as soon as poss.

To a racous singalong version of The Banana Splits they appeared. Pinch had already made a teaser of an appearance tinkering with his kit. Embaressingly someone had to tell me it WAS actually Pinch.

They launched into New Rose - DV - "I just got one question...is she really going out with him?". We all know and love most of the songs but we also had Absinthe, Song.com and Democracy, all of which were first time heard, by me at least. I've gotta say these tracks were not in anyway out of place with the otherwise greatest (should've been) hits set, finishing, I think, with Smash It Up. Sensible, to show what a class act he is, played much of Smash It Up Pt1 on his back with his feet up - don't strain yourself Captain. He also managed most of Eloise (big surprise but went down well) without spilling the can of Stella Artios balanced on his head. Patricia seemed to have forgotten her skirt but luckily she had a long(ish) shirt which covered her modesty. She also was too busy nattering to Pinch and missed her intro for Neat Neat Neat, cue 'Roger Moore' eyebrow action from DV. At times when DV's antics got a little extreme you could see her go into 'There he goes again, bless h! im' mode, for instance when his over zealous singing to NNN managed, quite literally, to blow away Sensible, who ended in a heap, or when he started dancing sixties go-go style with a randomly appearing scarf. I had never heard Pinch until tonight and he was shit-hot. I did miss Rat but I'm happy to have Pinch on board, he is solid on the sticks and looks to be having the time of his life. Anytime you glanced at him he looked like a little kid in the middle of a rollercoaster ride, which probably isn't that far from the truth. Monty was what Monty is. DV looked relaxed and confident, and damn stylish. When you're stood sweating slightly in a venue and someone comes on stage dressed in a coat and waistcoat you have to believe there is something seriously special about them. His voice was good tonight but the most striking thing (apart from the absence of all but a few Woah's and Yeh's) was he was having a GREAT time.

We found out why mid-evening, an unnamed record company from the US had signed them. This wan't entirely true as I found out when trying to post a message at 2am to find it repeatedly vanishing, The Damned had signed but they were waiting for the company MD to sign. (Partly true, I was awaiting confirmation that this had happened - Mark Orbit) So we waited and 24 hrs later - THE DAMNED SIGN TO NITRO. We have reason to live again.

This band I have seen a dozen times, they never looked more committed than tonight, they were enjoying it and had a reason to do it - an album. As I've said before they are artists (albeit piss artists sometimes) and artists enjoy creating, they are now creating an album FOR US GUYS!! No more touring to pay the rent, they'll be touring to show off or promote their new work of art.

They journey home was filled with speculation, excitement, debate, snoring (thanx Amber) and hope.

There is a future and its Damned.

Dickie Dunn