I saw The Damned at BC on the last go around. Dave Vanian and Captain Sensible were the only original members. Monty Oxy Moron has been on keys for them for almost 20 years though. They were really awesome live though, great show. How is TSOL doing these days would be my question!?!
The Damned are still one of my favorite bands to see live. They're always great. I saw them in Chicago in 1998 and it was one of the wildest, most disorganized spectacles I've ever seen but in all the right ways. Girls ripping off their tops and stage diving, an amp falling over onto the drummer, Captain Sensible in a tutu with no underwear, drunken audience fist fights, a guy jumping on stage and proposing to his girlfriend...it was better than any circus I've ever been to. The following week I saw them in Boston and Captain Sensible leaned over and kissed my sister. Dave Vanian asked what he was doing and he said "OH, I was just helping her find her earring" and Dave Vanian dedicated "Shadow of Love" to "all the girls that have lost their earrings tonight". I used to miss Rat Scabies but their current drummer is great, and to be honest Dave and the Captain are pretty much the core of the Damned anyway. They never disappoint.
On another note, one of my favorite rock star stories is that Brian James killed some guy who wrote all the original songs for the first album, then stole them and claimed them as his own. So when it came time to write the second LP he used his own songs, which is why it's not as good and that's why they had to break up.
