[Photo: Steve Gullick]

Hear UK punks the Damned's first new music in nearly a decade

January 23, 2018

[Photo: Steve Gullick]

[Photo by: Steve Gullick]

Iconic and enduring first-wave British punks the Damned have shared their first new music in nearly 10 years. “Standing On The Edge Of Tomorrow” is the first track released from the band's forthcoming new album, Evil Spirits, slated for release April 13 by Search And Destroy/Spinefarm. The 2018 model Damned includes original founding members Dave Vanian (vocals) and Captain Sensible (guitar) alongside returning bassist Paul Gray (who first joined the band in the early '80s), keyboardist Monty Oxy Moron and drummer Pinch.

Regarding the sci-fi optimism of “Standing On The Edge Of Tomorrow,” Vanian described the song as “very optimistic, even though it’s about a dark subject. As an artist, you can’t help but reflect the times, because that’s what art does. I think we always do it, but in a slightly different way. So a song like ‘Standing…’ may seem quite joyous and uplifting musically, but some of the lyrics might be about quite dark things. That’s what I’d like to think Evil Spirits is: an uplifting album, not a moaning old album—not ‘this is terrible, and that’s terrible’, and then not offering any answers. It’s more a case of, ‘If we get it together, maybe we could change things a bit.’

“At first, I’d said in an interview before we started writing that the album would be psychedelic, and maybe a trip through the historical side of the Damned, as in what we like,” he continues. “It didn’t happen in the way I thought it would, but it still does the same thing. It still has all that in there, but it’s not as obvious as it could’ve been, which is good. It’s not like pastiches of songs you remember, it’s more a case of, what was great about something you loved as a kid has somehow influenced a guitar sound, or the way the drums are. You might not even know it if you’re one of our younger fans, but if you’re a little older, you’ll hear it, which is kinda cool.”

Teaming up with noted David Bowie producer/collaborator Tony Visconti, the band recorded Evil Spirits over a period of nine days in Brooklyn, New York, this past October. The band have enjoyed a resurgence of late, playing plenty of sold-out shows both here and abroad in the last two years. Guitarist/wiseguy Sensible shocked (and schooled) the punk-rock community when he fell off a stage during a show in Toronto in early May and broke a rib. After postponing three shows, he was back onstage, playing while sitting on a toilet the band's crew procured for him from a home improvement center.

The Damned commence a British tour this Friday, Jan. 26. You can preorder Evil Spirits here.

TRACKLISTING:
1. Standing On The Edge Of Tomorrow
2. Devil In Disguise
3. We’re So Nice
4. Look Left
5. Evil Spirits
6. Shadow Evocation
7. Sonar Deceit
8. Procrastination
9. Daily Liar
10. I Don’t Care

See The Damned on their Evil Spirits tour this year.
January 26- Newcastle, O2 Academy
January 27- Dundee, Caird Hall
January 28 – Glasgow, O2 Academy
January 30 – Leeds, O2 Academy Leeds
January 31- Manchester, Academy 1
February 1 – Birmingham, O2 Academy
February 3 – Leicester, O2 Academy
February 4 – Nottingham, Rock City
February 6 – Folkestone, Leas Cliff Hall
February 7 – Southend, Cliffs Pavilion
February 9 – Cardiff, Great Hall
February 10 – Bristol O2, Academy Bristol
February 11 – Bournemouth, O2 Academy
February 13 – Southampton, O2 Guildhall
February 14 – Bexhill De La Warr Pavilion
February 16 – Koko, London*
February 17 – London, O2 Forum