THE DAMNED @ OVO WEMBLEY ARENA, LONDON

For their 50th anniversary spectacular, The Damned headlined at Wembley Arena for the first time in their history, supported by a triple lineup of the Courettes, Peter Hook & the Light and the Loveless. The band, formed of founding members Dave Vanian (vocals) and Captain Sensible (guitar, backing vocals) alongside Paul Gray (bass) and Monty Oxymoron (keyboards) reformed in 2022 with their original drummer Rat Scabies for a 45th year+ reunion with the late Brian James, their original guitarist, to whom they dedicated this show, also following the release of a tribute covers album in January in his memory.

Opening comedically in dramatic fashion on an animated visual announcing “Ladies and gentlemen…the Damned, the Damned, the Damned!’ and old black-and-white horror film footage, the band piled into ‘Street of Dreams’ from their 1985 ‘Phantasmagoria’ album in what formed the gothic part of their set, although Vanian’s vocals were somewhat lost amongst the loud instrumentals, the song ending in Scabies’ clattering drums. Their 1980’s ‘The Black Album’ came next with ‘History of the World (Part 1)’, with a guitar solo and booming bridge, and ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’, which featured tingling guitar and walking bass in its more melodious construct. They moved onto the jazzy noise of ‘Stranger on the Town’ from their popular 1982 ‘Strawberries’ album, however, it was clear Vanian was reserved on pushing his vocals to the full range of this powerful song. ‘Eloise’ also saw similar issues but rang out with thunderous drums.

Amongst what was largely a nostalgia show, the Damned refreshingly began their psychedelic set on new song ‘Wake the Dead’ from their last studio album, ‘Darkedelic’, with a choir-like vocal solo from Oxymoron, with the rest of this segment containing staples such as ‘I Just Can’t Be Happy Today’, ‘Life Goes On’ (an excellent Sensible and Oxymoron harmony) and both parts of the 1979 ‘Machine Gun Etiquette’ album’s ‘Smash It Up’, all performed to standard perfection, the latter seeing Vanian wailing out at the start of the song, making it arguably more punk than psychedelic.

After a hilarious and very British intermission featuring visuals of adverts from the ’70s conjuring up nostalgic memories, the band returned to the stage for the final set of their classic punk songs, including from their debut thrice self-entitled debut album, with ‘Love Song / Second Time Around’, ‘Fan Club’ and ending on their second single ‘Neat Neat Neat’, with an interlude swimming in a pedal-effect guitar solo (throughout Sensible excelled in vocals and guitar playing).

The Damned returned for a final encore quite predictably (as a lot of the set had been) with nine minutes of ‘The Black Album’ goth rock anthem ‘Curtain Call’, opening on ghostly knife-on-glass slide effects via beer can. Vanian was again slightly out of tune as he had been at times throughout the set, the song finishing on a keyboard duet by Monty and Sensible with the latter churning out ethereal sounds. Scabies then delivered an awesome drum solo that descended into their 1977 debut single, ‘New Rose’, to close their near 2-hour show, with Vanian solo singing Grace Field cover ‘Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye’ as the band departed. Sensible apologised to the audience for having to perform in “a concrete shithole”, but it was understandable that they wanted to, if anything merely to send a huge “fuck you” to the establishment that had dismissed them over the last half a century. A final concrete act of defiant punk rock.

11/04/26: The Damned @ OVO Wembley Arena, London.