The Damned / Naz Nomad And The Nightmares review - watch videos

Did you hear the one about the band who was actually two bands? Yeah, now I've been a Damned fan ever since I could spell my own name. Yes, I can remember the arguments about "New Rose" being the first ever punk single - or not - and when they split up and reformed. All this and it still wasn't even the 80's yet. I can recall seeing The Damned in many different places with various different members.

Then it was 1984 and I was sifting through the albums in Subway Records in Portsmouth underneath The Tricorn and I found this album. It was like a 1960's soundtrack to some B movie, on the sleeve it said Naz Nomad And The Nightmares - 'Give Daddy The Knife Cindy'. Well at that time in my life I was buying albums just out of interest, I mean if the cover looked good I would buy it and if I didn't like it I could always take it back and change it.

But this album grabbed my imagination, so I bought it and took it home. After one play of the first track ("Nobody But Me" a Human Beinz cover) I knew straight away that this was The Damned being a bit cheeky again.

Yes, this album sparked a lot of conversation over late night beers around the country. You see on the actual record sleeve there was no mention of the band, Mr. Vanian or Mr. Scabbies or indeed Roman Jugg. They all had aliases. Like Dave was Naz Nomad and Roman Jugg was Sphinx Svenson etc. You could tell that this was The Damned by Dave Vanian's trademark voice straight away, but it didn't stop the arguments as to if it was just some session musicians who could sound like The Damned and where was Captain Sensible in all of this?

I Can't Stand This Love Goodbye clip:

They even took this out on to the road and toured Naz Nomad & The Nightmares around the country starting on Saturday 30th April at The Greyhound in Fulham. I am gutted that I missed their live shows but here is a clip of them playing "Action Woman" back in 1989:

Action Woman video:

Buy Music:

The Damned on amazon.co.uk

The Damned Official Website

By: Dave Tommo

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