Though the Clash and the Sex Pistols tended to hog all the limelight when punk rock arrived in the mid-1970s, it was the Damned who could claim several memorable firsts. In October 1976 they were the first UK punk band to release a single, New Rose, and in February 1977 Damned Damned Damned was the first full-length album released by a British punk band (it reached 34 on the UK chart). The group’s guitarist Brian James, who has died aged 74, wrote New Rose and most of the material on the album. In the spring of 1977 the Damned also became the first British punk act to tour the US, where they would be credited with inspiring the hardcore punk subculture that swept the US west coast.
With members named Rat Scabies and Captain Sensible and a singer, Dave Vanian, who looked like Count Dracula, the Damned had a cartoon-like aura about them and never exuded the anarchic malevolence of the Pistols or the politicised rage of the Clash. James himself also defied the primitive, DIY ethos of punk by being an excellent guitarist who earned the praise of Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, the kind of rock aristocrat the punks wanted to overthrow. Page even had the Damned’s records on his home jukebox.
