After decades of infamous fallouts, chaotic tours, and a revolving door of members, the original heart of punk legends The Damned has reunited for their 50th anniversary. Dave Vanian, Captain Sensible, and Rat Scabies are releasing their first album together in nearly three decades and will mark the milestone with a major show at London's Wembley Arena in April.
A chaotic history of breakups and makeups
The band's story is one of the most convoluted in rock. As the group that released the UK's first punk single, New Rose, they have been through three major breakups—in the late 70s, late 80s, and early 90s. Sensible and Scabies have had repeated spells out of the line-up, with the drummer only returning in 2022 after a 27-year absence following a rift over the 1995 album 'Not of This Earth'.
"The rift was really between him and Captain," says frontman Dave Vanian, the band's sole constant member. Yet now, the old enmities have been set aside. "I didn't want us standing around a grave saying, 'We should have done that while we had the chance,'" Scabies explains. "Life's too short. And it was quite a relief to be able to say, 'You know what? It's all water under the bridge.'"
Defining a sound beyond punk
While forever labelled a punk band, The Damned swiftly evolved. After founding guitarist Brian James left in 1978, they ventured into psychedelic pop and became definitive goth hitmakers in the mid-80s with tracks like Grimly Fiendish and Eloise. Their 13 studio albums are spread across nine different labels, a testament to their turbulent career and self-destructive tendencies.
"There were several incidents when we were invited to go to see record companies," recalls Captain Sensible. "Once we were left for about an hour in this bloke's swanky office... By the time he got back, we'd demolished the place. Needless to say, we didn't get signed." This appetite for chaos left them hugely influential but financially insecure compared to peers like Billy Idol or John Lydon.
The new chapter: 'Not Like Everybody Else'
The forthcoming album, 'Not Like Everybody Else', is dedicated to the late Brian James, who died in March 2025. It consists entirely of covers of 60s garage and rock songs that united the original quartet. "The one thing we all agree on musically is 60s garage bands," Sensible says. The tracklist is a whistle-stop tour of their formative tastes, featuring songs by The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, The Stooges, and Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd.
Reflecting on their enduring, if messy, appeal, Sensible notes, "We wouldn't still be playing if we'd got stinking rich." Scabies agrees: "I want to go out having a good time on a full belly." For his part, the enigmatic Vanian, whose vampiric image essentially invented goth style, vows to continue "as long as he can still swoop across the stage like a vampire."
The Damned play their 50th-anniversary show at Wembley Arena on 11 April. The album Not Like Everybody Else is released on 23 January via earMusic.
