THE DAMNED: ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN

Ahead of their Adelaide show this month, we chat with The Damned bassist Paul Gray about his first rehearsal with the band on a barge, the return of Rat Scabies and if this really is their final tour.

Words by Tyler Jenke

When The Damned first burst onto the scene in late 1976 with ‘New Rose’, they made history by releasing the first single by a British punk group. Now, almost 50 years later, they’re looking to close that chapter of the history books with one final Australian tour with their classic 80s lineup.

“We’re certainly not sick of the place,” assures bassist Paul Gray over Zoom. “We’re in our late 60s now, and things get finite. But we’re really living for the moment from day to day, and this could be the last year that we play.”

Originally formed in London in 1976, The Damned have a complicated history. Initially consisting of vocalist Dave Vanian, guitarist Brian James, bassist and guitarist Captain Sensible, and drummer Rat Scabies, their debut album, Damned Damned Damned, became a staple of late-70s punk rock, with the group showcasing their frenetic energy and unique sense of humour.

As the years continued, records such as Machine Gun Etiquette, The Black Album, and Strawberries continued to increase their profile, though tension existed behind the scenes. A revolving door of members came and went (with more than 25 individuals counting themselves as part of the band), and numerous breakups and reformations took place across the decades.  

Current bassist Gray joined in 1980, replacing Algy Ward, who was previously a member of Australian punk icons The Saints. While Gray’s tenure would be punctuated by periods away from the band, his presence would be enough to be considered part of The Damned’s classic 80s lineup, alongside Vanian, Sensible, and Scabies.

When Gray first joined the group over 40 years ago, he’d been performing with pub rock outfit Eddie And The Hot Rods, who had experienced some chart success in their time. With The Damned and The Stranglers being heralded as the pioneering punk bands, he’d go and see the latter, being stunned by their dangerous antics on and off the stage.

“I’d see them and they’d see my band, and I got friendly with The Captain,” Gray recalls. “When Algy left, they started sending me telegrams saying, ‘Join our band, you bastard, and we’ll double your wages’.”

After a few good years spent in Eddie And The Hot Rods, Gray decided to take the plunge and officially joined The Damned. His first week was spent in a barge on an English canal where rehearsals were due to take place, complemented by some light refreshments. Ultimately, he was told to leave his bass behind, with no room for it owing to how much beer had been brought aboard.

“We spent a week having an awful lot of fun, and not learning a lot of songs,” he recalls. “The very first show was absolutely jumping in the deep end, but that's what starting in The Damned was like, and it's continued pretty much the same way ever since.”

Gray would stay with the band until 1983, before rejoining again from 1989 until 1992. A brief reunion in 1996 was his last with the group until 2017, when he returned to The Damned full-time. For Gray though, he looks at his time with the band as emblematic of his decision to simply “live in the here and now.”

“Band relationships are always complicated, like any relationship, and sometimes they work really well and sometimes they don’t,” he admits. So you go off and do something else, or somebody goes off and does something else or you get another opportunity. 

“You've got to take your chances while you can. Sometimes you make the right decision, and sometimes you make the wrong decision. Everything is finite in this world; nothing's infinite, so you just go with the flow.”

Indeed, this ‘going with the flow’ resulted in the return of Scabies, who rejoined the band after 26 years for a handful of reunion shows in 2022. Following their success, he was announced to be returning as a full time member in late 2023. As Paul speaks though, the group are on the final day of a three-day rehearsal – their first with Scabies since his rejoining.

“Rat has been back in a band since, well, two days ago, really,” he notes. “It's strange, but not unexpected. I played with Pinch when I came back to the band, and I played with Will, who was our last drummer, and both were phenomenal. 

“When Rat gets behind the kit, he's Rat. Nobody plays like Rat, and that sparks a slightly different way of playing and reacting with the rest of us. It instantly takes you back to that period of Strawberries, The Black Album, and the earlier songs like ‘Neat Neat Neat’.”

The result of Scabies’ return to the band is the completion of a lineup of musicians who are playing as passionately as they ever have. For Gray, it feels just like the last time this lineup performed together back in 1989.

“As far as I’m concerned, absolutely nothing's changed,” he says. “Maybe the song's a little bit slower and less frenetic than back in the day, which is a good thing. It is a classic lineup and I'm dead lucky to have been part of it. We're all dead lucky to be able to come and do it again.”

This gracious approach to music is not one that fans may have expected from a group such as The Damned, who have been visiting Australia sporadically since 1987. Oddly, his varied times spent as a member of the group meant that of the band’s six tours to this country, he’s only been involved in their most recent jaunts – in 2019 and 2023.

Though The Damned’s 2019 tour skipped Adelaide, their 2023 return allowed him to play in South Australia for the first time, resulting in a strong affinity for The Gov, and an eagerness to return to the city once again.

Sadly, this 2024 tour may indeed be the very last time the Australians get a chance to see The Damned. Billed as their final Australian tour, and joined by The Hard-Ons, Gray assures fans that they’ll be taken care of, with a full “musical journey” planned for their set.

“It’ll be a whole range of music, and a whole range of emotions,” he admits. “It will go from the complete chromatic amethyst blast of ‘New Rose’ through all the psychedelic stuff that we did, all the goth stuff that we did, some stuff in the last album – we're not going to leave that out as well.

“But you’ll be getting a good smashing of The Black Album and Strawberries, while we’re also focusing on more of the explorative stuff that we did back in the early 80s.”

Once their tour wraps up though, Gray admits he’s unsure what will be happening within the band, again pointing to his desire to live in the moment, and an aversion to making plans, as the reason their future is unwritten.

“We've got a full agenda this year, and there's no plans yet to do any recording with this lineup, so It could be that this is the last year that we play,” he says. “But as it’s The Damned, it could well be that it's not the last year that we play, and we go on to do more.

“It's one of those plans that nothing is preconceived; nothing's pre-worked out. With The Damned, anything can happen.” 

Tickets for The Damned’s final Adelaide show at Hindley Street Music Hall on Sunday 24 March are on sale now via Moshtix.