Shocked to hear of the passing of our good mate Pete Shelley who’s fabulous songs are amongst the catchiest in all of punk rock. We will miss you Pete - love from
@damnedtwits
, X
While showing me round the pub he owned Dave Greenfield was in the process of hiding his menagerie of pet rats owing to the food hygiene inspectors coming to check the place over later that day.. “give me a hand Cap or the bastards will close me down”. RIP Dave.
The gig they said would never happen -
@thedamned
originals have kissed and made up (maybe I lied about the kissing!) & this evening play the 1st of 2 nights at
#Hammersmith
recreating that epic '76 blitzkrieg. Don't forget your earplugs playmates! 🎸🎸🎸
The Rat is back.. by immense public demand!
Thanks for knocking our heads together & making this happen.. so after far too much fart arsing about we finally got around to it. Now, if only politicians listened to THEIR audiences! Hopefully see you at
@thedamned
show next year! 😎
I won’t be able to sing ‘When I’m 64’. any more.. having reached that particular milestone today. Thankfully Mrs Sensible IS still feeding me - I even got a Palace birthday card. Eagles!!!
Thanks to all who sent birthday wishes - cheers me dears!
#CPFC
My fave stage guitar has been stolen.. heavily customised too, so instantly recognisable.. reward offered. Please share this post, many thanks. 😭
More info -
We were shocked to hear of dear old Algys passing last night.. the guy was simply immense as a player and a personality. In
@thedamned
terms Machine Gun Etiquette is his legacy.. that thunderous bass sound was never bettered. RIP. ♠️♠️♠️
It was a bit of a shocker to find out today that Sussex punk gigs will be a little less glamorous in future without the fabulous presence of
#Jordan
Mooney.. I’ll raise a glass (or two) in the great lady’s honour tonight.. there was simply nobody quite like her - cheers me dear!
IT’S BACK - thanks to your help the stolen SG became simply too hot to handle - and was found dumped in some bushes near Tipton. Guitar tech Seano says it‘s now “Carry On The Damned”.. so see y’all at a gig sometime - cheers!
TOTPs, when Sweet were on.. you sat there in awe thinking - sod the school careers adviser that's the job for me - and they wound your parents up something rotten too, which was a bonus. Steve Priest RIP.
Very sad to hear that Steve Priest of (The) Sweet has passed away. Genuinely one of my all-time pop heroes. Embodied the essence of Glam: effeminate, but menacing. The original Stormtrooper In Drag.
And had possibly the best title of any autobiography ever: Are You Ready, Steve?
T Rex and the Damned.. out on tour together. How unlikely does that sound? Well, it happened in 1977.. thanks for inviting us Marc. 👏🎸♥️🍻
#trex
#marcbolan
@damnedtwits
If you want to get ahead.. get a DOG! Look at all those pampered TikTok pooches with their megabucks sponsorships. Well, I though to myself - I'm in for some of that so ladies and gents please welcome.. Oki Sensible. He's a cutie that's for sure! 🐾
"
@thedamned
blasted through with a rackety energy and lack of finesse".. "a cacophony of amateurish noise and chaos". A bad review from
@Telegraph
.. but music to MY ears! 😆
Yes, it's yet another birthday for yours truly - if it carries on like this (I'm not complaining) I'll get EVEN OLDER!
Thanks for all the birthday greetings.. cheers me dears! 🍻🏴☠️🎉🎂😎🥃🎸🍺🎵🍰😘🍾
👍 to Suzan Moore 📸 & Allover Friend for the photo.
A few pix from
@thedamned
at Hammersmith
@EventimApollo
on day 1 (of the 2).. the gig was even more garage than I remember back in the day. So refreshing - just like Simon Cowell had never existed. 🎸🏴☠️😎🍻
Tour manager Joe, Mr Vanian and myself raise a glass to our chum Brian James, who reminds us that yesterday was the 42nd anniversary of the very first Damned live performance. Cheers BJ!!!
Without wishing to sound like an old luvvie I have to say that Janice Long and her bruv Keith were both wonderful, genuine, fun people to work with 👏👏👏. Sorry about that.. my normal sneery punk attitude will hopefully return sometime tomorrow.
RIP Geoffrey Hayes, a lovely chap who I met at a TV studio many years ago - confessing that I’d borrowed a fair few Zippy-isms for the ol’ Sensible routine over the years. How bloody great was Rainbow?
@thedamned
Whilst hoping there's still a few gigs left in the ol' carcass yours truly was today pronounced officially well past his sell by date.
So a
#happy70th
to me.. belch!
Get with it daddio.. you're stuck in squaresville if not seen out and about with the knitted Sensible eco bag by Japanese designer Amimono Horinouchi. Yeah baby!
Thank you
#Japan
.. 🇯🇵 we had a fab time, met some fun people, went sightseeing & enjoyed interesting foods that we can't get in the UK.
#natto
#daikon
#burdocksalad
Next..
@thedamned
/
#Australia
🇦🇺
20 - Brisbane
21 - Newtown
22 - Melbourne
24- Adelaide
26 - Perth
It’s celebration time - and I was right up for a birthtastic pop pickers kinda day when Mrs Sensible announces we are gonna recreate the 1st Damned album cover. Blimey..
I'm in Japan where I found this interesting brown sculpture.. Rat &
@thedamned
arrive later, I told em to bring some warm clothes! 🥶
13 - Osaka
14 - Nagoya
16 - Yokohama
17 - Punkspring, Chiba
20 - Brisbane 🇦🇺
21 - Newtown 🇦🇺
22 - Melbourne 🇦🇺
24 - Adelaide 🇦🇺
26 - Perth 🇦🇺
Met that nice chap Jimmy Page at Wembley Arena the other day - wished him luck with the planning scrap with Robbie Williams, my contribution being “he’s not even a proper musician”. Marginally better than that monumental bore Gary Barlow though… blah blah.
Off to Paris with
@thedamned
for the start of a brief Euro trip to launch Darkadelic, our new album.🎵🎉🎸🍻😎
3, PARIS
4, ST NIKLAAS
5, HAARLEM
7, HAMBURG
8, BERLIN
9, DRESDEN
11, MILAN
12, MUNICH
13, ZURICH
15, VIENNA
16, PRAGUE
18, BUDAPEST
Wandering around Lille showing off my fancy new earring - completely unaware that a huge carnivorous triffid plant is about to burst out of an upstairs window.
Amidst the paucity of gritty rock n roll in mid 70s Britain most of what we had, incredibly was coming straight out of Canvey Island - you gotta love the Hot Rods.. and never was the word ‘trooper’ more deserved - Barrie Masters take a bow!
#BarrieMasters
#RIP
#eddieandthehotrods
Thanks for all the birthday greetings. And yes, I did manage to force down a few quality bevs - at
@SignatureBrew
.. with whom your
@damnedtwits
are plotting something pretty special (no prizes!!)
Once apon a time there were many wonderful cafes on British station platforms (a la Brief Encounter!) serving up home made cakes and reviving tea from giant steaming urns -
@bringbackBR
!
#Japan
still has theirs - tskimi sansai udon on Chushojima station? Don’t mind if I do!
Yes, the Rat's back.. and there's now a solid bunch of UK dates to look forward to - but with the Black Album, Strawberries, Darkadelic along with a wide range of other essential material to choose from what would YOU put in a 90min setlist? Serious question! ❓❓❓
Hello you Damned lot!
Tickets for the UK tour are on sale now. Thanks for all the messages - it’s been a brilliant response to Rat’s return. Now I wonder what songs we’re going to play?
Yours truly is in Rome doing a live TV performance this evening. The show is called 'I Migliori Anni' on Rai 1 and amongst the other artists is George McRae who'll be singing his own insanely catchy hit.
Anyway, if someone can record my bit and share that'd be fab. Cheers!
Pop music has gone from the magnificence of the Kinks, Supremes & Small Faces et al to become autotuned, airhead, manufactured plastic surgery pap. I feel sorry for the young being spoon fed this absolute dross..
For me Brian Jones WAS the Stones - so I took advantage of
@damnedtwits
day off in Cheltenham to pay my respects to the great man. However, something tells me I might just have been beaten to it by some Argentinian fans!
Wow.. the
@FairfieldHalls
(where I used to work!) is once again open for business.. what fantastic news for
#Croydon
Would love to play there again.. (hint hint)
@ourfairfield
Sad to say the great Tony McPhee has just departed the stage of life.. what a guitarist he was, a lovely bloke and a huge inspiration for myself as a young wannabe muso when I'd plonk myself right in front of the stage at Groundhogs gigs. Brilliant! 🎸
They always return to the scene of the crime.. not that the Black Album is in any way a criminal record! Yes, this week we were back at Rockfield Studios - 30 years on. The place hasn’t changed a bit - which is more than you can say for
@damnedtwits
!
#Monmouth
#Wales
Shame ‘Fluff’ Freeman isn’t around…. I can hear it now - “straight in at no7 pop pickers - those irascible punksters the Damned with their Evil Spirits.. I’ve knocked back a few of them over the years.”
I'd not been to Sidmouth Donkey Sanctuary since
#antiquesroadshow
's Arthur Negas drove us both down to
#Devon
in his Morris Minor back in the 80s.
@SidmouthDonkeys
were recipients of royalties for my track on this album. Anyway, revisited recently.. wonderful place! 👏
For his dedication to punk rock.. all those bloody gigs it's amazing the great man's not completely deaf - but plaques and gongs and stuff don't really go with the spirit of rock n roll, which is 2 fingers to the establishment & normality in general I'd say. Well done Chas! 👏
Lovely to see our old mate Lu Edmonds again when
@damnedtwits
&
@pilofficial
crossed paths in San Francisco the other day. Lu’s a fine guitarist.. played on Music For Pleasure, our 2nd album. Maybe I should give it another listen!?
Criminal record.. do they mean Happy Talk? 😜
BRISTOL 2nite
Then the tour visits..
15 Norwich
17 Brighton
18 So'tn
20 London
21 "
MAY 20 SF
21 LA
23 Ventura
24 Anaheim
25 San Diego
26 Vegas
JUN 2 Auckland
3 Wellington
5 Adelaide
7 Brisbane
8 Sydney
9 Melbourne
AUG 3 B'pool
Regardless of
#Brexit
- Europe will STILL be open tomorrow morning for weissbier, pastel de nada, moussaka, friet met mayonaise, Bleu d'Auvergne, Rioja, fettuccine al burro.. amongst other delights.
#Portugal
#Lisbon
#dontpanic
Wikipedia says Jayne County & the Electric Chairs are "known for their campy, foul-mouthed glam punk".. and isn't that just the way we like it playmates!! 👏👏👏
@jaynecounty27
@jaynecounty
“
@PopSpotsNYC
: THE DAMNED - MACHINE GUN ETIQUETTE (1979, Chiswick). . .46th St. and 7th Ave - Times Square, NYC. For more see: ”
A very happy 40th to
#MachineGunEtiquette
I would save for weeks to buy an album.. proudly carrying it home tucked under my arm.. first play was a thrill. Downloads and streaming has cheapened music to such an extent that many people under the age of 50 have never bought a real record - sad but true. 😭 Moan over.
A cry goes out.. bring back the Damned to save the world from crap modern music! So.. back by public demand we are indeed dusting off our own particular concoction of punk, psych and goth and heading back out on the road again.. check the dates here:
While it hadn’t really crossed my mind to think about starting a religion Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Jimmy Swaggart and L Ron Hubbard seemed to do alright out of theirs. But to give mine a competetive edge any Sensible churches will contain attractively priced bars. Belch!
Try to find positives in crap situations.. so although
@thedamned
couldn't make Luna Fest I had already booked travel and went anyway - and was glad I did too cos
@therutsdc
were playing and we cobbled together a fun mash up of Love Song / In A Rut. 🎸
#coimbra
#lunafestcoimbra
This nice chap is explaining to me the importance of today's date.. as
#Portugal
's carnation revolution happened back on April 25th 1974 making it the 50th anniversary of the dumping of their crap authoritarian dictator. 🎉
Viva a Liberdade! 25 de abril sempre!
#50anos25abril
Ahoy! Landlubbers may be afeared of a spot of rain but it don't bother seafaring types like Oki and meself.. hey ho - and don't spare the rum! 🌴😎⚓🏴☠️🎸
"Lend us a fiver.." a suitably cheeky end to a fabulous
@O2AcademyLeeds
@thedamned
show in which I whacked on the jolly old
#CPFC
shirt in the last song for the punch line. You need a sense of humour to be a footie fan, eh! 🦅🔴🔵😂🤣👍
#LUFC
Quaffing a pint of Ruddles Best for my illustrious possible ancestor Rabbie Burns 🏴 at
#wetherspoons
. I dinnae ken why they weren't offering a free pint for anyone with my particular surname.. maybe next year - nudge nudge! 🍻 Cheers me dears!
#notapaidadvertisment
😂
Was given this lovely gift just now.. I'm a 'Buses' fan too. Of course, some of the show's dialog may be a tad dated for these more sensative times - despite that I may well use Arthur's legendary put down next time Monty freaks out.. waddya reckon to 'you stupid great lump'?? 😜
A man after my own heart…
@thedarkness
bassist Frankie Poullaine and myself discuss the subtle art of hijacking the audience’s attention from the singer.
At
#Newcastle
@graingermarket1
where I went for the Maharaja special at
@snackwallah
😋 washed down by a taster tray of fab
@firebrickbrew
ales 🍻 then stopping at the Weigh House where the scales were obviously faulty cos had me at 85 sodding kilos. Cheek!
Fun in
#Glasgow
yesterday.. Mr Vanian even managing to sneak a quick 'Donald, where's your troosers' into the proceedings at one point. B4 the show I had visited this snappily named (especially appropriate for this afternoon) 'Spoons pub.. 🍻
#CPFC
Leeds O2 Academy 2moro 👍