The Damned, Dublin, 14.12.2007

The Button Factory is the new name of The Temple Bar Music Centre following the TBMC's refurbishment over the Summer. Once the doors opened for the gig the place was packed with a coalition of Punks, Goths, Skinheads, Poseurs, the Mentally Ill (myself) and general dodgy sorts of all kinds.

Since Dublin has no punk heritage to speak of it usually would take a band like The Damned to bring the various tribal elements together in one venue. I was talking to one of my friends who frequented the record shop, years ago, and he was saying that the Button Factory was the best venue for this band and that the promoter normally puts these sort of bands on in The Voodoo Lounge (Dublin's premier Garage Punk venue), but the Voodoo was simply too small to put a band of The DAMNED's size on there(€€€).

Anyway I want to talk to you about the meat not the salad. I never saw The DAMNED before and was eagerly awaiting this gig over the past couple of weeks and they were a thrill. Just prior to the DAMNED taking to the stage there was a support slot and this was filled by a caberet act which consisted of an,in my opinion, ugly model making base humour that even a fan of Roy "Chubby" Brown would've been disapointed with.You know what I mean: Phallus jokes and basically bawdy stuff. As I was saying to someone, only The DAMNED could have got away with that sort of act opening for them! She even had the nerve to do a shite monologue of "I Wanna Be Sedated" by the Ramones with a mandolin that she clearly couldn't play and I thought to myself that if Johnny Ramone was present he would probably have had her shot or sent to Guantanamo bay.

Following the burlesque opening act the DAMNED took to the stage. Captain Sensible jumped up and wished us a good evening and wasted no time telling us that if the Sex Pistols were playing we'd have had to fork out probably over E60 (Just for the record the tickets for this one cost about E25 each from Tommy Tighe's Sound Cellar, Nassau St).

The other only original member of the band (1976-2007) was Dave Vanian. He looked really cool and was wearing what looked like, to me, a three piece suit and by the end of the night he had stripped it down to an open necked shirt. He looked like he had just come straight from a funeral.He even had a pair of black gloves on for some reason.

There were three others in the band last night: Monty Oxymoron (keyboards, who was mysteriously surrounded by a plastic screen),Stu West (bass) and Pinch (drums) and they all contributed their bit to the occasion.

The band opened their set with "I Just Can't Be Happy Today" followed by some great rocking tunes such as "Dozen Girls" and "Love Song". I kept yelling for them to play "Discoman" and they duly played it and I nearly needed mouth to mouth resusitation afterwards, it was ACE!! I went so mad that I felt a cold shiver down my back, it was some beer from someone behind me, but it was only a small drop so there was no problem. A girl beside me kept shouting to the Captain that she wanted him covered in spit, she was probably a glint in her parent's eyes (or maybe their saliva) back in 1976!

An odd version of the band's 80's hit "Eloise" was followed for a short period by no more than a couple of dull tunes but they soon hit back with a ballsy "New Rose" and everyone was reeling. For the encore they played "Smash It Up" and by that stage I had retrieved my digital camera from the cloak room and I managed to take some shots but they were crap - the only dissapointment on the night.

I thought the Captain was terrific on guitar and he made some of their weaker tunes sound good.I love fast riffing and he wasn't found wanting, someone who I met in the chill out room later was agog at Sensible's speed and energy and we were both amazed to think what he must have been like in his twenties!

All in all a great night's entertainment and I left the venue and entered the cold Dublin night with warm ears and a pumping heart. This is what proper Punk Rock should be like. Earlier in the week I thought that the gig might be dull and lifeless - I couldn't have been more wrong. For me it was gig of the year and the DAMNED have shown they can still come up with the goods after over 30 years on the go. For me it was an early Christmas prez, as the Captain said at the end: " The Damned aren't only for Christmas, we're a life sentence"!!!