The Piano Plays ’til Midnight: Monty Oxymoron Plays The Songs Of The Damned – Punk77 Review August 2025
What a strange album this is. For those of you who don’t know, Monty Oxymoron has been the keyboardist in The Damned since 1996. Diminutive in size, but if you’ve ever seen the band in this time period you will never forget during songs like Neat Neat Neat or New Rose, his manic star jumps and his corkscrew hair flying all around his face. He really is a force of nature.
So I can only assume that this will appeal to Damned fans because it is literally renditions of a variety of songs on piano, done pretty faithfully. If you want to get an idea about what that may sound like, think of the start of Melody Lee from Machine Gun Etiquette and then think about whole songs like I Just Can’t Be Happy Today and Smash It Up being given that treatment. To my humble ears, these songs work the best.
I can’t say that it would be something that I myself will play regularly, but as I say, Damned fans should find it may find it fun. The CD has extra tracks and among those are four pieces Monty has composed for band members. It’s nice that Stu & Pinch (former members) get a piano piece to themselves, which is suitably manic and the Captain Sensible one stands out as a nice tribute to his character, all playful and mischievous.
I think to be honest though, I love the cover the best. It just shows all of Monty’s eccentricity like a manic punk Mrs Mills and then there’s the little touches like the safety pin punk rock motif in the promo poster that was used on those Dutch punk bubble cards in the late 70s.
I’d like to think on every station, or wherever they put those pianos for the public to play, that somewhere there’s a Monty playing Damned songs all day and night.
Here’s the PR
Not many people realise…
That The Damned have produced a fine array of songs with melodic, harmonic and rhythmic sophistication; with a depth of imagination and atmosphere. They spearheaded British punk, and yet diverse musical influences went into the crucible: UK and US psychedelia, Canterbury prog rock, and even classical and filmic musical influences abound. Now, with the return of drummer Rat Scabies the line-up is the same as that which produced many of these songs… with Monty on keys.
Monty Oxymoron has played keyboards with The Damned since 1996, has written songs for the band, and played with Captain Sensible and Dr Space Toad before that. He is a retired psychiatric nurse and trained in art psychotherapy. Monty is keen on “free improvisation”and plays in and around Brighton where he lives. Monty has an almost impossibly eclectic collation of his music on Bandcamp, his YouTube channel, and shares ideas on various subjects on his Substack page (under his “real” name: Laurence Burrow.)
For more Monty info go to https://montyoxymoron.com/
VINYL TRACKLISTING
SIDE A
1 – Beauty of the Beast
2 – Wait for the Blackout
3 – Absinthe
4 – History of the World
5 – Life Goes On
6 – Smash It Up
SIDE B
1 – I Just Can’t Be Happy Today
2 – Shadow of Love
3 – Limit Club
4 – The Dog
5 – Disco Man
6 – Nature’s Dark Passion
CD TRACKLISTING
1 – Beauty of the Beast
2 – Wait for the Blackout
3 – Absinthe
4 – History of the World
5 – Life Goes On
6 – Smash It Up
7 – I Just Can’t Be Happy Today
8 – Shadow of Love
9 – Limit Club
10 – The Dog
11 – Disco Man
12 – Nature’s Dark Passion
13 – Under the Floor
14 – Generals
15 – Black is the Night
16 – For Captain Sensible
17 – For Dave Vanian
18 – For Paul Gray
19 – For Stu and Pinch
TalkPunk
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