Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
04:27 - First gig
07:39 - Puss In Boots and London SS
10:24 - The first Damned gig
12:25 - Rejoining the Damned
17:37 - Conditioning for drummers
19:13 - Compiling the set list
21:30 - Hotbeds of Damned enthusiasm
25:01 - Hollywood Vampires
27:04 - Hiatus
29:47 - Dave Vanian
31:58 - 50 years as Rat Scabies
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Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: patreon.com/wordinyourear
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The Damned are – yes! - 50 years old with three of the originals still onboard. And just starting a world tour. In this immensely funny and touching podcast, Rat Scabies (who’s smoking!) points up the repercussions of life in a band. He looks back at their first shows, their devoted audience, “old-fashioned rules”, highlights, regrets, the value of friendship, “putting on the black suit again” and how it felt to rejoin after 30 years on the outside. And all this too …
… playing drums in an Essex panto while pelted with boiled sweets
… Dave Vanian when he was a grave-digger
… punk rock strongholds the world over – “South America was like being in the Beatles”
… Mexico and other places you can still torch a drumkit
… Mr Scabies, aged 70. “Even my mother calls me Rat. The name’s done me well over the years”
… going to the Isle Of Wight aged 14 (with the Danish nanny) and running a hot-dog stand during Hendrix
… supporting the Pistols at the 100 Club: “like letting a greyhound out of a trap”
… Tim Burton, the Goth revival, the Young Ones, steampunk and other factors that keeps the Damned in motion
… “One band’s an oddity, two’s a fashion, three’s a movement”
… rejoining the Damned after 30 years – “like a great stain had been lifted”
… Green Day, algorithms and how they acquired a whole new following.
Order Damned tickets here: aegp.uk/the-damned
Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
04:27 - First gig
07:39 - Puss In Boots and London SS
10:24 - The first Damned gig
12:25 - Rejoining the Damned
17:37 - Conditioning for drummers
19:13 - Compiling the set list
21:30 - Hotbeds of Damned enthusiasm
25:01 - Hollywood Vampires
27:04 - Hiatus
29:47 - Dave Vanian
31:58 - 50 years as Rat Scabies
----
Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: patreon.com/wordinyourear
----
The Damned are – yes! - 50 years old with three of the originals still onboard. And just starting a world tour. In this immensely funny and touching podcast, Rat Scabies (who’s smoking!) points up the repercussions of life in a band. He looks back at their first shows, their devoted audience, “old-fashioned rules”, highlights, regrets, the value of friendship, “putting on the black suit again” and how it felt to rejoin after 30 years on the outside. And all this too …
… playing drums in an Essex panto while pelted with boiled sweets
… Dave Vanian when he was a grave-digger
… punk rock strongholds the world over – “South America was like being in the Beatles”
… Mexico and other places you can still torch a drumkit
… Mr Scabies, aged 70. “Even my mother calls me Rat. The name’s done me well over the years”
… going to the Isle Of Wight aged 14 (with the Danish nanny) and running a hot-dog stand during Hendrix
… supporting the Pistols at the 100 Club: “like letting a greyhound out of a trap”
… Tim Burton, the Goth revival, the Young Ones, steampunk and other factors that keeps the Damned in motion
… “One band’s an oddity, two’s a fashion, three’s a movement”
… rejoining the Damned after 30 years – “like a great stain had been lifted”
… Green Day, algorithms and how they acquired a whole new following.
Order Damned tickets here: aegp.uk/the-damned
