The Damned v The Dead Boys
Who’s the best? UK punk or American punk? (yawn) . We’ll never know as it’s all a matter of taste but there was a time when two of the leading lights from both scenes played on the same bill. First up The Damned played on the Dead Boys adopted home turf CBGBS. The Dead Boys then returned the compliment by playing with The Damned on a UK tour. It’ll make a good comparison so let’s see what happened. Let’s meet the teams and play a celebrity punk match.
The Dead Boys came out of Cleveland Ohio, out of a band called Rocket From The Tombs. The Dead Boys were led by Stiv Bators. Stiv himself was an Iggy lovin’ livewire frontman who copied him right down to self-mutilation adding his own twists of hanging himself with his belt, vomiting and receiving blowjobs on stage! The other main man was Cheetah Chrome, a ginger nut (ter) who objected physically when Devo sang “Cheetah is a mongoloid”!
Originally with long hair, flares and swastikas, they punked up after playing CBGB’S. They impressed The Ramones enough to recommend them to Sire by Stiv mooning them on the roof of a car traveling at high speed. They quickly became CBGB’S favourites.
The Damned came from that infamous band that never was; the London SS. The nucleus was Rat Scabies and Brian James. Rat was a manic drummer. (check out his audition in the Hazel O’Connor film ‘Breaking Glass’ where he demolishes the drum kit!) Brian James was the songwriter and guitarist. Dave Vanian on vocals was an ex-grave digger who had never sung before but looked good.
Captain Sensible (lover of wearing tutus and nurse’s uniforms) was an ex toilet cleaner and who had played with Johnny Moped. Formed after the Sex Pistols, they beat them to the first punk single New Rose. They also had the first album out and were the first to visit America. Dismissed as vaudeville by some punks, The Damned were without a doubt a top-class act, who were either likely to be chaotic or shit hot.
The vanguard of the UK punk scene arrived in New York to find that previous rebels, The Rolling Stones, had left them a welcome present in the rock’n’roll tradition; a supply of cream cakes, prostitutes, and drugs. We know what happened to the first. As to the rest … guess!
So, armed with pies, drugged, and relieved of sexual tension (what’s that then?!) The Damned took to the stage as the headline act after The Dead Boys had finished. They had a lot to live up and they didn’t disappoint. Here is what Roberta Bayley remembers of the gig.
The Damned came over and did a weekend with the Dead Boys – a sort of battle of the bands. The Dead Boys were doing like ‘Anarchy In The UK’. They were goofing on the English bands and stuff. The Dead Boys were just rock, they weren’t really punk rock when they came out of Cleveland. They quickly adapted to what the scene needed – which was their own punk band doing Iggy stuff on stage and throw (ing) themselves around and be (ing) outrageous and bleed (ing).
But to me The Damned were really original. They were just so weird. They were also very fast and very manic and they had really good songs. Clinton Heylin, From The Velvets To The Voivoids
Basically, the Damned were faster, cleverer, funnier and had the best tunes. To cap it all the cream pies they had been given were re-distributed around CBGB’S audience wall and performers. Round one to The Damned.
Having played that initial gig together, the bands sort of agreed that if the Dead Boys came over they would tour together. Bit like when you meet someone on holiday invite them over not expecting them to and then they turn up out of the blue! So The Dead Boys arrived and a tour was hastily put together. So how did The Dead Boys fare on foreign soil?
Here are Ross Galloway’s memories of the gig in Edinburgh 1977. Photos are by Ronnie McGuigan.
The Damned/Dead Boys gig was in December of 1977 and I had actually just turned 16. All I can remember was the pace at which The Damned played and the sea of gob that was flying towards them. It was just pure crazy …The Dead Boys didn’t go down as well as the Damned as far as I can remember, I thought personally they were just pseudo-heavy yank rockers that jumped on to the bandwagon. I have got most of their stuff on vinyl but Young Loud And Snotty at the time just didn’t cut the same as the Damned, Pistols etc at the time. That’s my opinion now but at the time the image and certainly the live performance was a big part of what was going on in the UK. But Stiv Bators was certainly a cracking front man (R.I.P.) The photos are from Clouds Edinburgh I978 “
A conclusive 2 – 0 victory for the UK. Let’s hear it for The Damned!
TalkPunk
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