Grave Disorder - Damned

As many of you will know I love THE DAMNED with a passion lasting over 20 years now so this opinion is going to be favourably biased. I also saw them play live again for the thirty-somethingth time just before Christmas and they seemed so tight, together and fresh, especially with this new material on the set-list, it was like seeing them for the first time again. "Grave Disorder", released in August 2001, is The Damned's first new studio album for umpteen years, there have been numerous live and best of compilations in the intervening years but very little fresh material. Before getting hold of this album I was a little dubious - were they ...  Read the complete review

25 years on and the banner of the punk phenomenon is in the hands of a few teen bands along with the odd survivor from headier days. Rising like a phoenix from the ashes is The Damned. It's the late 70's and punk rock comes to town. 1976 and New Rose enters the top 100. It's one of the earliest mainstream punk hits (yeah, I know Lou Read and his Velvet Underground were doing their stuff even earlier but The Damned, Pistols, Clash etc are accepted by most observers as the pioneers of PR) and sets in motion a meteoric rise to stardom of one of the most original and innovative bands of their day. Conditions in the 70's were such that a ...  Read the complete review