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THE DAMNED
+ Hard-Ons
@ Hindley Street Music Hall, Adelaide,
24th March 2024
(Live Review)

Review and photos by Colin Reid (@cdrimagery)

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THE DAMNED / Photo – @cdrimagery

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Up until 2023 UK punk legends The Damned had skipped Adelaide for the whole of the 21st century but on Sunday night they went a long way to rectifying their absence by returning for a second gig in nine months.  Last time out it was a tour heavily focused on promoting their ‘Darkadelic’ album, this time it was a farewell to Australia tour and saw original drummer Rat Scabies returned to the line-up.  Scabies together with guitarist Captain Sensible, vocalist Dave Vanian and Paul Gray on bass were responsible for ‘The Black Album’ and ‘Strawberries’ two classic Damned albums of the early 1980s and it was appropriate that tonight’s 25 song set list drew heavily from those two records.

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HARD-ONS / Photo – @cdrimagery

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Opening up the gig were Australia’s own veterans of the punk scene the Hard-Ons.  It is rumoured that when The Damned announced their farewell to Australia tour that the band specifically requested the Hard-Ons as their support for all dates across the country.  If that’s true then I’m bloody glad that they did because they were fantastic!   Peter ‘Blackie’ Black, Ray Ahn and Murray Ruse have been joined by You Am I frontman Tim Rogers and the result is electrifying. It is a loud and raucous, relentlessly battering no mercy hardcore punk rock sound that they make yet still full of melody.  Tim, freed from the constraints of his guitar, is able to unleash the spirit of all the great front men of the world. Snake limbed he channels the spirit of rock and roll to bring forth elements of Mick Jagger, Iggy Pop and Lux Interior and at one point he called out “what would Stiv Bators do?”.  The band soon strip down, bare chested tattooed punk rock warlords raining down a barrage of high intensity power thrash punk. While Tim is pulling the shapes, Blackie and Ray are immense their heads shaking and their hair whipping this way and that.  In between songs there is banter with the crowd as Blackie jokes about the risk the audience is taking standing underneath the venue’s giant chandelier, Ray jokes about never having seen so many goths looking happy and Tim thanks us for giving the band a chance.  As a side note it was nice to see the close-knit camaraderie within the Aussie punk community as the drum kit that Murray was playing was sporting the logo of local outfit The Meatbeaters who appear to have supplied the drums to help with touring logistics and costs.

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HARD-ONS / Photo – @cdrimagery

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Sadly, I have to report that the venue wasn’t sold out. The upper tiers were closed but this meant that the lower level was packed and still made for a great atmosphere.  The lights dimmed and expectation built in the crowd as The Damned took to the stage to the theme from the classic British TV show Dr Who.  Rat was first out acknowledging a very warm welcome and waiving to a fan on the front row who was holding up a sign saying she’d seen him with The Doomed in 1978! If this is really going to be the last time that the band tour Australia then it is great to have Rat back for their swansong.  The rest of the band take up their places. They are in their traditional stage clothing. Sensible in red beret and a Neat Neat Neat red and black stripped t-shirt, Vanian in black suit, gloves and fedora hat as though he had stepped out of film noir black and white movie, Gray in the black beret and mirrored sunglasses and keyboard player Monty Oxymoron wearing a suitably odd black and white print skull suit. Sensible jokingly thanks us for having them back before they die before informing us that if we like the Black Album and Strawberries that we’ll enjoy this.  It is great to hear the genuine warmth in his voice and see the smile on his face as he addresses the crowd.

The set starts with ‘Ignite’ and as the lyrics say we’re gonna have some fun tonight! It is a great song to open with and a bar is set for the night as we move on to ‘Wait for the Blackout’ and then ‘History of the World’.  As is normal at a Damned concert Sensible pokes gentle fun at Monty’s expense “c’mon fatso!” before the piano intro to Melody Lee and then musing to the audience as to whether there is a place for keyboards in punk rock. 

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THE DAMNED / Photo – @cdrimagery

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There is incredible energy and the band sound so loud, louder than I can ever remember hearing them before.  It is great to hear the rhythm section of Scabies and Gray together again after all these years complimenting each other’s sound brilliantly.

‘Stranger On the Town’ is brilliant and ‘Plan 9 Channel 7’ is even better. This is a really great set list.  The Captain gets is moment on lead vocals with ‘Life Goes On’ and clearly loved his chance to shine sounding brilliant. “I wrote that when I was depressed” he shared “and it cheered me up immensely”.

Next up was “Beware of the Clown” from last years Darkadelic album.  Vanian sporting a red clown nose and hounding Sensible around the stage until a roadie provided another nose for Sensible too.  Personally I like this new song but many fans don’t seem so keen as me. It is followed by the equally divisive “Eloise” seen by some as the toilet brake song but loved by others. Tonight, it definitely was loved with a sea of camera phones being produced to record the moment.

‘Dozen Girls’ was immense. Paul Gray strutting the stage Rickenbacker bass held aloft, Vanian delivering ‘he’s got style’ lyric to Sensible and the ‘he’s got charm’ refrain returned to him. It is nice to see the camaraderie in the band although I have say I did feel at times that they seemed a little flat, It is a punishing tour with little time to recover between shows and flying to the next city and possibly the schedule was caching up with them. ‘I’m cream crackered’ confesses Sensible using cockney rhyming slang for knackered ‘touring used to be about beers and birds and drugs and now it is about swapping hospital admission stories and a cup of ovalteen’.

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THE DAMNED / Photo – @cdrimagery

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It wouldn’t be a Damned tour without something going wrong with Monty’s keyboards or kit and this time he rails and swears about his earpiece not staying in his ear, ‘your not supposed to stick your butt plug there’ quips Sensible to wind Monty up further!

An absolute highlight for me was hearing ‘Noise, Noise, Noise’ restored to the set list.  It went down a storm with chorus lyrics screamed back and fists pumping the air. If only there was room for ‘Problem Child’ and their cover of ‘Hippy, Hippy Shake’ in the set then it really would feel like 1981 again.

The classics ‘Neat Neat Neat’ and ‘Smash it up’ close the regular set before they return with a spell binding version of ‘Curtain Call’ that enchants and delights before Rat’s drumming links it into ‘New Rose’ their very first single from 48 years ago and the crowd goes absolutely nuts. The band are having fun and Monty comes out from behind the keys to perform his trademark crazy man dance. 

The crowd demands one more and we are rewarded their version of the MC5s ‘Looking at you’. A top night of 25 classics, all killer. If that really was the last time touring, and I hope that it isn’t, then they went out on a high.

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THE DAMNED / Photo – @cdrimagery

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Check out Colin Reid’s (@cdrimagery) full gallery of this event HERE

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THE DAMNED / Photo – @cdrimagery

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Follow THE DAMNED
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THE DAMNED / Photo – @cdrimagery

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Press Release 20th March 2024 (below) HERE

THE HARD ONS
join
THE DAMNED
on their final Australian Tour

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AMNPLIFY – DB