The Damned at Komedia Bath

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“We can go on forever,” chuckles Dave Vanian, lead singer of The Damned since 1976. “I know I could never give up making music. I’m always pushing myself, always learning. And, you know what? It’s not the adulation that drives me on, it’s making music. Simple as that.”

The Damned weren’t always taken seriously. They are now, having transformed themselves into revered elder statesmen who gather a new generation of fans with each album. Now comes Darkadelic, the successor to 2018’s widely acclaimed Evil Spirits. It’s only their 12th album in all and just their fourth this century. They don’t just toss them out, you know.

“We certainly don’t,” agrees Vanian. “Being an older band need not mean being rubbish. I never subscribed to the notion than being over 30 means being over the hill, but there’s no point doing it if what you’re doing currently doesn’t stand up.”

“Oh, we should have made more,” suggests Captain Sensible, Vanian’s fellow traveller for 47 years.  “But, although I say it myself, Darkadelic is wonderful.”

With its title alluding to Vanian’s love of psychedelia and Victorian gothic, the sparkling Darkadelic musically evokes two magical Damned albums, 1982’s Strawberries and 1985’s Phantasmagoria (“it wasn’t intended,” Vanian admits, “it just happened”), while adding both a very 21st Century twist and, much to Vanian’s delight, a greater emphasis upon Captain’s often overlooked guitarwork. “Unlike Angus Young, sometimes image has got in the way of talent and that’s not right,” laments Vanian.

Tickets from £27.50