THE DAMNED

I've always tried to be pretty open about my relationship with the classics. With the traditional starter bands. Part of it was geography and general exposure, but really I just started down some different rabbit holes in a pre-internet world and I knew about punk for a good five years before I really had anyone to bounce ideas and discoveries off of or network with - and by the time I met those people, many had moved on from punk and were more interested in the burgeoning grunge and college indie scene/s. They wanted to talk about the new SPACEMEN 3 record, not the Legless Bull EP they hadn't pulled out since they were a teenager. As a result, I missed some shit along the way - but I really missed the UK standards. Aside from the SEX PISTOLS album my cousin bought me on a visit in '86 I didn't know shit about UK SUBS, SHAM 69, EDDIE & THE HOT RODS, CRASS (or any anarcho punk for that matter), 999, CHELSEA....none of it. I copped the first Punk And Disorderly on a trip to Tulsa because it had mohawks on it, but I wouldn't find out until years later that DISORDER and BLITZ and VICE SQUAD were connected to larger scenes (and had volumes of material that would have blown my mind). I don't think that kind of 'discovery" (or lack of discovery) is even possible in a post-internet punk reality, but the relics of The Breadcrumb Era are still lurking, and I still get excited when I come across one...like this. 

THE DAMNED - PEEL SESSIONS (1976/77) // LIVE 1977

These tapes changed the game for the creators and the recipients and I feel like I'm discovering THE DAMNED all over again as an average middle aged man when I listen. Tracks from the Dodgy Demo, live from the London Roundhouse and both CBGB's sets in April 1977, plus Peel Sessions recording in November 1976  and May 1977. This band was absolutely screaming...but most of you already knew that. I was just a little late to the party, and that's okay.