577 Goodbye The Damned - In Dulce Decorum

Chart  entered : 28  November  1987

Chart  peak  :  72

The  punk  pioneers  had  had  a  chequered  career  since  their  commercial  breakthrough  in  1979. The  following  year bassist  Algy  Ward  left   after  a  series  of  run-ins  with  drummer  Rat  Scabies  and  was  replaced  by  Paul  Gray, formerly  with  Eddie  and  the  Hot  Rods. At  the  end  of  that  year  their  label, Chiswick   collapsed  and  they  signed  with  Bronze.  In  1982  they  added  Welsh  keyboard  player  Roman  Jugg  to  the  line  up  then  guitarist  Captain  Sensible  scored  a  fluke  number  one  on  his  own  with  a    silly  cover  of  the  South  Pacific  number  Happy  Talk   and  began  a  parallel  solo  career. This  raised  the  band's  profile  but  not  their  sales. After  enjoying  another  big  hit  in  1984  with  Glad  It's  All  Over,  the  Captain  quit  shortly  followed  by  Gray  who  joined  UFO . Jugg  moved  over  to  guitar  and  Bryn  Merrick  who  had  been  in  punk  band  Victimize  with  Roman   came  in  on  bass. With  Sensible  gone, singer  Dave  Vanian  took  the  opportunity  to  re-shape  the  band  in  his  own  image  as  a  Goth-rock  outfit. They  signed  with  MCA. This  iteration  of  the  band  was  more  commercially  successful  and  their  cover  of  Barry  Ryan's  Eloise  reached  number  3   early  in  1986  but it's  not  remembered  with  as  much  affection  as  the  punk-era  line  ups.

"In  Dulce  Decorum"  was  the  fourth  single  taken  from  the  album  "Anything"  . Although  the  three  previous  single  releases  had  all  been  hits,  the  album  had  bombed, spending  only  two  weeks  in  the  charts  and  peaking  at  number 40. Although  it  was  given  out  that  it  was  released  to  promote  a  compilation  album  , MCA  having  acquired  the  rights  to  their  Chiswick  catalogue, I  suspect  that  the  song  was  chosen  to  try  and  cash  in  on  Remembrance  Sunday.

The  title  of  course  comes  from  Wilfred  Owen's  famous  anti-war  poem, a  long  time   schools favourite  and  the  song  opens  with  a  sample  of  Winston  Churchill's  "finest  hour"  speech. It's  all  down  hill  from  there  unfortunately.  The  music  is  listless  indie  rock  that  could  have  come  from  any  second  division  outfit  like  Danse  Society  or  The  Bolshoi   and  further  hindered by  Jon  Kelly's  murky  production. What  little  melody  there  is has  been  copped  from  The  Stranglers'  Duchess.  The  lyrics   from  the  point  of  view  of  a  young  soldier  anticipating  death  are  sound  enough  but  Dave's  delivery  is  dreadful.  Always  a  charismatic  frontman  rather  than  a  great  singer, his  booming  baritone  needed  a  strong  melody  to  keep  it  in  check. Left  to  his  own  devices  as  here, he  sounds  like an  old  drunk  at  closing  time. It  managed  a  single  week  in  the  charts.

When  the  generous  compilation  "Light  At  The  End  of  The  Tunnel"  managed  a  single  week  at  number  89,  MCA  cut  their  losses  and  dropped  them  despite  sessions  for  the  next  album  having  already  begun.

The  situation  didn't  look  hopeless.There  was  something  of  a  punk  revival  going  on  with  Sham  69  X-Ray  Spex  and  Stiff  Little  Fingers  all  reforming. Sensible  and  original  guitarist  Brian  James  came  back  on  board  for  a  short  London  tour  in  1988  where  the  old  line  up  played  on  the  punk  songs  and  Roman  and  Bryn  on  the  goth  numbers. One  concert  was  recorded  and  released  as  the  live  LP  "Final  Damnation".  It  didn't  chart  and  the  group  officially  disbanded  in  1989.

Dave, Roman  and  Bryn  re-constituted  themselves  as  Dave  Vanian  and  the  Phantom  Chords  and  released  a  reasonable  cover  of  John  Leyton's  death  disc  classic  "Johnny  Remember  Me"  in  1990.  They  recorded  an  album  but  couldn't  find  anyone  to  release  it.

There  were  two  Damned  singles  in  1990. The  first, "Fun  Factory"  dated  from  1982  and  had  been  held  up  by  the  record  company's  collapse. It's  a  pretty  good  garage  punk  effort  but  no  one  was  interested. Dave,  Rat  and  James  recorded  a  new  song  "Prokofiev"  , a  dismal  meandering  effort  and  ended  up  giving  most  of  the  copies  away  on  tour  in  1991.

In  1992  The  Phantom  Chords  released  another  early  sixties  cover, this  time  Gene  Pitney's  "Town  Without  Pity" in  the  style  of  Chris  Isaak. After  that, Bryn  departed  the  project.

Dave  and  Rat  re-formed  The  Damned  with  some  new  players  in  1993  and  toiled  away  on  the  road  for  a  couple  of  years  before  releasing  a  new  album   "Not  of  this  Earth"  in  Japan. It  didn't  come  out  in  the  UK  until  1996  under  the  title  "I'm  Alright  Jack  and  the  Beanstalk". Apart  from  "Prokofiev"  the  songs  were  entirely  written  by  Rat  and  his  friend  Alan   Lee  Shaw  before  the  group  re-formed. It's  a  listenable  effort  , heavily  influenced  by  U.S. Nuggets  -style   garage  punk  ( although  "Tailspin"  rips  off  The  The's  The  Mercy  Seat  )  and  Nick  Cave, but  not  of  interest  to  the  Britpop  crowd.

Dave  and  Rat  then  fell  out  big  time. Dave  hadn't  felt  the  album  was  ready  for  release. He also  wanted  to  keep  touring  to  cover  the  costs  of  his  divorce  while  Rat  wanted  a  break.  The group  fell  apart  and  Rat  hasn't  been  involved  since.

Dave  also  released  an  eponymous   Phantom  Chords  album  in  1995.Although  two  thirds   of the  songs  are  covers ,  it's   actually  pretty  good,  a  lighter  take  on  the  spooky  rockabilly  of Nick  Cave.  Shortly  afterwards  Roman  quit  the  band  later  saying  "I  got  fed  up  relying  on  someone  who  was  unreliable" , Dave  did  some  gigs  as  The  Phantom  Chords  up  to  1999  but  they've  not  recorded  anything  since.

In  1996  Dave  married  ex-Sisters  of  Mercy  bassist  Patricia  Morrison. He  also  got  back  together  with  Captain  Sensible whose  solo  career  had  long  since  ground  to  a  halt  and  re-launched  The  Damned. Both  partnerships  are  still  going  strong. Initially  Paul  was  the  bassist  in  the  new  line  up  but  he  soon  dropped  out  and  Morrison  took  his  place.

After  five  years  as  a  touring  act  they  released  a  new  single  "Democracy"  in  2001. Written  by  Sensible,  it's  an  energetic  punk  workout  although  his  guitar  solo  is  distinctly  metal. The  song  carries  the  same  message  as  Won't  Get  Fooled  Again. The  other  point  of  interest  is  how  much  Dave  now  sounds  like  Spandau's  Tony  Hadley.

The  single  was  a  trailer  for  a  new  album  "Grave  Disorder". With  Sensible  as  the  main  songwriter, it  tries  to  bridge  the  gap  between  the  band's  two  musical  phases. It's  a  bit  schizophrenic  but  always  listenable.  As  well  as  writing  some  Goth  pieces  for  Dave  to  sink his  teeth  into  ("Til  the  End  of  Time ", "Beauty  and  the  Beast " )  Sensible  offers  some  wry  commentary  on  modern  culture  in  "song.com" and  "Would  You  Be  So  Hot  ( If  You  Weren't  Dead  )". Unfortunately  no  one  was  much  interested  in  new  material  from  veteran  punks  in  the  new  millennium.

In  2004,  Morrison  gave  birth  to  her  and  Dave's  daughter  Emily  and  retired  from  performing  being  replaced  by  Stu  West.  She  became  the  band's  manager.A  year  later  they  released  a  new  single  "Little  Miss  Disaster",  a  synth-laced  modern  rocker  which  suggests  that  someone  had  been  listening  to  The  Killers  recently.

Fans  had  to  wait  until  2008  for  the  next  album, "So  Who's  Paranoid ?", again  written  mainly  by  Sensible. This  time  around  Inspiral  Carpets  seem  to  be  the  main  inspiration  with  a  number  of  energetic  organ- driven  numbers, none  of  them  bad  but  unlikely  to  get  them  back  in  the  charts. The  less  said  about  keyboardist  Monty  Oxymoron's  overblown  contributions  ( "Since  I  Met  You", "Nature's  Dark  Passion"  )  the  better.

The  band  played  a  fortieth  anniversary  gig  at  the  Royal  Albert  Hall  last  year  and  are  currently  working  on  a  new  album  funded  by  Pledgemusic.

Algy  got  involved  in  the  New  Wave  of  British  Heavy  Metal  and  formed  his  own  band  Tank with  him  on  lead  vocals . Algy  was  flanked  by  two  brothers  called  Brabbs  and  the  band  was  often  compared  to  Motorhead. "Fast"  Eddie  Clarke  produced  their  first  album, "Filth  Hounds  of  Hades "  which  was  very  well  received  in  the  metal  community  but  made  no  commercial  waves. The  Brabbs   brothers  left   after  the  third  album  and  were  replaced  by  a  couple  of  guys  called  Tucker  and  Evans. The  band  eventually  called  it  a  day  in  1989  but  in  1997  Tucker  and  Evans  resurrected  it  without  Algy. He  racted  by  forming  his  own  version  of  Tank  with  him  as  sole  member   so  you  currently  have  two  Tanks  out  on  the  road.

Paul  had  also  gone  metal  and  played  with  UFO  for  four  years  until  they  split  in  1987. After  that  he  did  session  work  including  playing  on  Andrew  Ridgeley's  ill-fated  solo  album. He  also  played  on  Eddie  and  the  Hot  Rods'  comeback  album  "Gasoline  Days"  in  1996  before  rejoining  The  Damned. After  leaving  once  more,  he  worked  for  the  charity  Community  Music  Wales  until  coming  down  with  tinnitus. He  currently  works  for  the  British  Musicians  Union  in  Cardiff  and  occasionally  appears  on  stage  with  both  The  Damned  and  the  Hot  Rods. He  has  battled  cancer  in  recent  years.

After  leaving  The  Phantom  Chords  Bryn  dropped  out  of  sight  for a  number  of years  until  he  joined  a  Ramones  tribute  band, the  Shamones  in  2010. In  2015  he  was  struck  down  with  throat  cancer, ending  up  in  the same  ward  as  Paul !  He  died  that  September.

Roman  also  laid  low  for  a  number  of  years  before  re-emerging  with  a  solo  album  "Papa  Loco"  in  2004  comprising  under-powered  Goth  tunes  with  his  own  weedy  singing. Since  then  he  has  played  with  an  Irish  folk  band, Dirty  Water  and   produced  new  punk  songwriter  Andy  Gallagher.

Rat  is  a  drummer  for  hire  and  has  toured or  recorded  with  Donovan, Neville  Staple  and  other  names  that  mean  nothing  to  me. He 's  also  done  some  production  work.