The Latest Breaking News from Captain Sensible

"We stopped playing for 10 minutes and ate pizza on-stage while the crowd watched." The Damned were the first UK punk band to tour America and it was an unforgettable experience for all involved

"We’d see Joey Ramone in the street and say hi"

Louder · Jul 21

“It could hardly have been more in tune with the gothic scene’s aesthetic preferences if it had come with free bat wings”: The pioneering British punk band who embraced the darkness to make a classic 80s goth album

With 1985’s Phanasmagoria, The Damned made one of the great goth-punk albums

Louder · Jul 19

"There were more people there than they had ever cumulatively played to in their career at that point." The story behind the Ramones first ever UK show, on Independence Day 1976

It's now 50 years since Ramones brought their blitzkrieg bops to Britain

Louder · Jul 4

Brian James obituary

Guitarist with the punk band the Damned who wrote many of their songs, including their first single, New Rose

The Guardian - UK · Mar 9, 2025

"He built a campfire in the middle of his hotel room. It was kinda cute…" The mad, bad and dangerously daft story of The Damned

A fast history of punk legends The Damned. Includes: spit, vomit, cider, sulphate, haunted mansions, and "serious amounts of lunacy".

Louder · Mar 7, 2025

“Brian’s vision of a music revolution had been absolutely spot on”: Punk icon Brian James, founder and former guitarist of the Damned, dies aged 70

James electrified the nascent UK punk-rock scene and fired its first salvo with the Damned's era-defining single, New Rose

MusicRadar · Mar 7, 2025

Brian James, founding guitarist of the Damned, dies aged 70

James was the lead songwriter for the trailblazing British punks’ first album Damned Damned Damned and went on to collaborate with artists such as Iggy Pop

The Guardian - UK · Mar 7, 2025

“Posh tossers singing about nothing because they had nothing to protest about… it was part of the job to destroy Genesis and Yes”: Punk pioneer Captain Sensible loved plenty of prog – but had to hide it

The Damned guitarist on spending years ripping off the genre he professed to hate, and the obscure tracks he’d play on Desert Island Discs – if they’d ever let him appear

Louder · Feb 19, 2025

"We didn't have a clue what we were doing, but the first playback was one of those moments you never forget": How The Damned took four days and lots of cider to kickstart a revolution

The Sex Pistols may have got all the headlines and The Clash the critical acclaim, but The Damned trumped them all

Louder · Jun 18, 2024

"Be careful what you wish for!" Rat Scabies returns to The Damned, as the punk legends announce UK tour with their early '80s line-up

Rat Scabies is back in The Damned alongside Dave Vanian, Captain Sensible and Paul Gray, reuniting the line-up who last played together in 1989

Louder · Nov 21, 2023