The Damned/Penetration/TV Smith And The Bored Teenagers – Manchester Apollo 3/11/2022

Words: Diamond Dave

This whole tour from the classic line up of The Damned was due to take place a couple of years ago but due to covid it has been postponed a couple of times and the anticipation of it has grown and grown over that time. The night starts in fine form with TV Smith playing a set of material from his days with The Adverts,  the singer covering every inch of the Apollo stage playing in this wonderful venue for the first time since The Adverts supported Iggy Pop here back in 1977.  I have to say the years have been very kind to Mr Smith who speaks to the audience only twice, before and after the set concentrating on his rocking rather than telling stories and with songs like Gary Gilmore’s Eyes and closing the set with Bored Teenagers. Well who could blame him?

Penetration are a band that I did not know a great deal about, other than Pauline Murray being one of the powerful women that separated the punk ideals along with other positive female role models such as Debbie Harry, Siouxsie Sioux or Chrissie Hynde. Again, with Murray covering most of the stage, she cuts quite a mysterious figure, often prowling the very front with very little light on her. Penetration finish their brief 30 minute set with Beat Goes On and I really wish it could have.

And finally to The Damned. So much anticipation for this tour, it was always going to be interesting to see if I would be looking back on the time that this original line up of the band had played and how it would compare to the many times I have seen the band with various line ups, I wasn’t disappointed.

The band come on stage to the theme tune from Dr Who and, as loveable rogue Captain Sensible reminded us, it was time to travel in time. The thing that is often too quickly forgotten about The Damned is just what great musicians they are and the fact that they never took themselves too seriously (and of course that they continued through the years) makes me feel that they never get the recognition they deserve in the same way the Sex Pistols, The Clash or The Jam do.

As soon as set opener “I Feel Alrite” comes pounding in, all my worries of how the years could have affected how The Damned vanished. With Rat Scabies thrashing his kit, Dave Vanian looking the audience straight in the eye and Captain Sensible with a smile on his face throughout, the band play classics and lesser known gems from The Damned’s first two albums “Damned Damned Damned” and “Music For Pleasure”. The third song, introduced by Vanian, is Help by “those lads up the road in Liverpool” receives boos from this Manc crowd and is followed by lesser known songs “I Fall”, “Fan Club” and “Fish” all of which sound like lost gems. The Damned first played Manchester Apollo supporting Marc Bolan and came here in support of Motorhead too and there was a lovely moment when !Neat Neat Neat” was dedicated to the one and only Lemmy as it was his favourite song.

We see just how we are blessed to see this line up of The Damned as guitarist Brian James needs to helped from the stage and the crowd are told how the band left the stage not for drugs or groupies but a much needed toilet break (it happens to us all ha ha) but when that classic “New Rose” strikes up, the energy levels are back! Another classic from the Sixties is aired with The Rolling Stones “The Last Time” and I just wonder if this will be the case. Could it really could be the last time I get to see The Damned? But Scabies sets fire to his drum kit and Sensible trashes his bass, well…I hope not!!!