How The Damned started a revolution in four days: “Everything that punk should be”
When they were first starting out, The Damned didn’t really have any clue as to what they were doing.
Most bands claim to have experienced the same thing, especially ones on the brink of exploding onto a scene that was just as rocky and uncertain. At the time, culture was being pulled into several different directions, and The Damned weren’t privy to the kind of hindsight that would tell them they’d eventually pioneer as a punk force during the disco boom.
But it was all because of the fire they maintained in those early days, even when, as drummer Rat Scabies said, they had no idea what they were doing. This was the general feeling they all had during the creation of their debut single, ‘New Rose’. They were a little tentative at first, but as soon as they heard it back, they knew they’d captured the spirit of an entire generation.
There’s a reason why ‘New Rose’ is often credited with being the first punk song to kick off the entire era, beating all other major players to the punch, and it was because it embodied everything the movement sought to represent: rawness, defiance, and unstoppable energy. When their debut album, Damned Damned Damned, was released, they well and truly cemented their position as leaders of the charge.
The band had already played a few gigs with Sex Pistols and The Clash, meaning that by the time they entered the studio to work on Damned Damned Damned, they were already filled with the same blood-pumping level of fast-paced aggression that spurred them on with the material, and much of it was blasted through in what seemed like no time at all.
In fact, the entire record was reportedly done within ten days, but according to Captain Sensible, they’d done everything to could in just four. It wasn’t time that was of the essence, but being as fast as possible, sonically and practically. “It was done in four,” Sensible told Louder. “The music was boshed down onto tape in two, and the mixing lasted another two days. I didn’t actually see Nick do anything, other than send out for bottles of cider. But he had the right idea. The way to produce The Damned was not to fucking produce us!”
He added, “That was the masterstroke. The guitars don’t sound good at all; they’re in your face and distorted to fuck. For me, it encapsulates everything that punk should be. It’s raw and lo-fi, but also gloriously exuberant and fun and exciting. It’s just a succession of great riffs.”
They did hardly any repeated takes for most tracks on the record, and in the studio, there was a keen sense of chaos and destruction – in the punk way and in switching up an entire genre – that made the dynamic soar. It was less like it was rushed out and more that they were riding the wave they’d already embarked on in the moments before, with producer Nick Lowe capturing the magic and rawness of their live sets, which, in essence, hinged a lot on them simply having fun.
This ended up guiding the initial stages of the punk movement, where the ethos centred around fun, anarchy, and leading with the quintessential devil-may-care attitude. There wasn’t room to deliberate or second-guess yourself; it was all about simply doing, no matter the consequences. And in this scenario, the consequences ended up sparking an entire revolution.
