The Damned beat the Sex Pistols and the Clash to nearly every milestone: first UK punk single ('New Rose'), first UK punk album (Damned Damned Damned), first UK punk band to tour the US. Dave Vanian's vampiric image, Captain Sensible's manic guitar, and Rat Scabies's ferocious drumming made them punk's most entertaining and musically accomplished band, even if they never got the respect afforded to their more "serious" peers.
Their evolution from breakneck punk to gothic rock on Machine Gun Etiquette and The Black Album anticipated goth and post-punk while maintaining a sense of humor that set them apart from Joy Division's solemnity. They were punks who could actually play, which was both their strength and, in some purist circles, their sin.
Key Albums
The first UK punk album. Fast, sloppy, and gloriously fun.
The reinvention. Tighter, darker, and pointing toward goth.
A double album of ambitious post-punk with a 17-minute closing track.
Why They Matter
The Damned were punk's first movers and its most musically adventurous band. Their transition from punk to goth pioneered a path that Bauhaus and Siouxsie would follow, and their sense of humor kept them human in a scene that took itself increasingly seriously.