Second in a series of bite-sized posts about 7″ singles I own – shameless nostalgia from the days of vinyl.
The Damned – New Rose b/w Help (Stiff Records, 1976).
Not the first ever Punk Single, but the first British Punk 7″ and still a great record. I had a friend who worked in a record shop and got this on the day of release together with a poster of the grainy black and white band photo on the back sleeve. It was produced by Nick Lowe “at Pathway for Leather Nun Productions” with a breakneck version of Help on the B side that’s done and dusted in about a minute and a half.
The plundering of the line from The Shangri-La’s ‘Leader of the Pack’ (“Is she really going out with him?”) and the less than respectful cover of The Beatles give notice of a musical changing of the guard but also showed the importance of humour in these early punk records. The past was up for grabs and the future uncertain – to borrow Nick Lowe’s album title, this was “pure pop for now people”.
I saw the band at a squalid club (Rebecca’s) in Birmingham about the time of its release and was most impressed by guitarist/songwriter Brian James. While Captain Sensible, Dave Vanian and Rat Scabies looked like cartoon cutouts, James looked super cool, aloof and immaculately wasted. He was obviously the brains behind the band and most probably the one with the best record collection – the influence of The Stooges and The New York Dolls is particularly obvious on their early tracks.
I remember buying some henna colouring shampoo to try to get the jet black look James had with pitiful results.
After he left the band, I lost interest in them but this single and the first album Damned Damned Damned still stand up.
There’s no decent footage of The Damned in their prime so to compensate here’s a clip of The Shangrilas as a great example of pre-punk – check out the hairstyles here and the motorcycle ‘rebel’ – Marlon Brando, eat your heart out!
