The Damned, along with the Sex Pistols and The Clash, formed the vanguard of the early UK punk scene.
Recorded on 13 June 1988 at the Town and Country Club, London, this concert brings together the members of The Damned for a one-night-only performance. The first eight songs feature the original line-up of Dave Vanian (vocals), Captain Sensible (bass and lead guitar, and backup vocals), Brian James (lead guitar) and founding member Rat Scabies (drums). The last half of the set has Brian Merrick (guitar) and Roman Jugg (keyboards) mounting the stage for what seemed to be the gothic phase of The Damned's career, circa 1982.
Running for 71 minutes, the concert itself is indicative of the genre, with sloppy playing and high energy levels. Like Glen Danzig, Dave Vanian delivers his vocals with an annoying Elvis Presley twang. Captain Sensible – the clown of the band – enjoys insulting the audience between songs. His tedious banter threatens to drain the life out of the gig (the body language of his band mates suggests that they too have limited patience for his editorials). I suspect that the edits from one track to the next serve to abbreviate some of these detours. Also to this end, a review of the show is read by a mock radio announcer especially for the DVD between songs. This works well, except that the voice-over runs into parts of band playing.
Coverage of the band and the crowd is good, switching between wide angle shots, medium shots, and sweaty close-ups. The audience appears to enjoy the show: the whole mosh pit was thrashing about, not just the section near the stage. Of course, for a revival concert like this one, you would expect most of the punters to be rabid fans. Note that there are no end credits after the concert.
With a few caveats, Final Damnation is recommended to students of punk and certainly to "children of The Damned" itself. As far as punk goes, I personally prefer later bands like The Dwarves, The Dead Kennedys, The Exploited and Bad Religion. Watching Final Damnation provided a neat history lesson in the origins of the species.
Track Listing
1. See Her Tonight
2. Neat Neat Neat
3. Born To Kill
4. I Fall
5. Fan Club
6. Fish
7. Help
8. New Rose
9. I Feel Alright
10. I Just Can't Be Happy Today
11. Wait For The Blackout
12. Melody Lee
13. Noise Noise Noise
14. Love Song
15. Smash It Up
16. Looking At You
17. The Last Time
http://rapidshare.com/files/5392913/damned.part1.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/5396869/damned.part2.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/5396870/damned.part3.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/5415406/damned.part4.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/5428787/damned.part5.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/5428753/damned.part6.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/5445101/damned.part7.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/5445794/damned.part8.rar.html
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