Traveling north on a cold night of December 4th in England towards the spire town of Chesterfield, I couldn’t help but hark back to the last time I saw these two punk relics paired on the same bill. It was 16th of June 1979, at Leicester University and both bands were at the peak of their game. The Ruts were touring the soon to be released classic The Crack and The Damned were a rejuvenated unit with the Captain (Sensible, Raymond Burns) now on guitar and a young Motörhead fan called Algy Ward on bass duties.
The day before travelling to see the current line-ups at Chesterfield Winding Wheel, I had spent a couple of gloriously retrospective hours listening to the The Damned Anthology (1976-1987) and The Crack. What struck me was not the attitude or the punk ethic but the sheer quality of the tunes, from “New Rose” to “Something That I Said” and from “Smash It Up” to “It Was Cold”, stone wall classics all of them.
But what to expect over 34 years later? Both bands are only a shadow of their former line-ups. A lead singer had failed to take his own advice (“H-Eyes”). The dreaded cancer taking the life of another Rut and a couple of The Damned members gone permanently AWOL.
First up was The Ruts D.C., looking sharp and sounding as vibrant and energetic as they always have. John ‘Segs’ Jennings is now assisted by a female backing vocalist, providing a more dub/Jamaican feel to the more recent material primarily from their Rhythm Collision Volume 2 album. A spacey “It Was Cold” was dedicated to the late great Malcolm Owen and a fusion of “Love In Vain” and “Police and Thieves” paid tribute to the recently departed Junior Murvin (who wrote the latter). They finished with a trio of classics, “West One (Shine On Me)”, “Babylon’s Burning” and an astonishing extended version of “In a Rut” closing the set.
The venue was now full to capacity as a Wakemen-esque keyboard introduction welcomed The Damned on stage. Dave Vanian looking like a cross between Lee van Cleef and a funeral director and The Captain with the obligatory red beret should have stolen the show. Unfortunately that honour went to the aforementioned keyboardist, Monty Oxy Moron. Not content with smothering the old favourites such as “Neat Neat Neat” and “New Rose” with his Roland synthesiser, he preceded to dance around like a crazed Muppet, producing looks of bewilderment in the crowds ageing faces. An hour and a half of this was about eighty minutes too long and I left vowing not to leave it another 34 years before I catch the Ruts D.C. again but, alas, on this showing The Damned are closer to being doomed.
