the damned

2024 was quite year for me. I attended some amazing gigs, met some amazing people, resigned from my day job, and completed a year of service with Majestic XI, along with increasing the profile of Balkan Grill.

Spring of 2024 was when I got the news that my all-time favourite Ex YU band Električni Orgazam (aka Electric Orgasm/El Org) would be touring Australia in Jan 2025, and that Balkan Grill would be one of the support acts for their Sydney show on 25 January. The show went off, by the way. But as this list is for 2024 events, you can see and read all about it on my Facebook profile as well as the Balkan Grill band page. On with the list (in no particular order). 

1. Dinosaur Jr – Enmore Theatre – 21/02/24
It was my birthday, so I got a ticket as a present to myself. They didn't disappoint, plowing through the album "Where You Been?" from start to finish. They followed this with a few songs from different eras, the obligatory "Freak Scene" and "Feel The Pain" of course, and The Cure's "Just Like Heaven". J Mascis has the best Neil Young distortion tone ever, and his shredding is just superb.

2. Kim Salmon solo – Enmore Hotel – 09/03/24 & 18/05/24
Totally amazing performance on both nights. Powerful. Great dynamics. Loud and dirty at one end, gentle and tender at the other. Many memorable moments. At one point on both nights Kim dedicated a song to his old friend Ron Peno RIP. To my surprise and delight it was "ETI (Extraterrestrial Intelligence)" by Blue Öyster Cult.

It was a very sweet moment. I'm kicking myself for not recording it, but I was just so caught up in the moment having a great old time singing along. Being a BÖC nerd, it was such a perfect moment, surreal and celebratory. Life affirming even! Although, I think I ended up annoying Kim by the end of the second show. Oh well, I was pretty high at the time. Fuck it. Kim Salmon is a genius regardless.

_{With Toyozo of The Fadeaways and a copy of Rob's memoir.}

Top 10 Gigs for 2024 in No Particular Order

Calexico @ the Melbourne Recital Centre
Not that Americana is my favourite type of music, but ever since hearing “Ring of Fire” by Johnny Cash, I’ve been a sucker for Mariachi horns. Not that that is all Calexico do but it’s what pulled me into their orbit at first through the album “Feast Of Wire”. Which they played this night. And it was sublime. And sometimes you don’t want it loud! Especially with a lot of bands testing out my hearing lately. Oh and they covered “Alone Again Or” by Love. Sublime.

Jenny Jenny @The UFO Club in Tokyo. Japan
The Fiction played our second tour of Japan this year and one of the absolute highlights of these tours are the bands who support us. And we loved Jenny Jenny. 4 girls in matching outfits like cosmic airline hostesses playing garage rock. What is not to love? And the fact Suzu from the High Marts was DJing in between was even sweeter because if anything  we should get Jenny Jenny and the Highmarts down to Australia. In fact bring all the Japanese garage bands down for a tour.

Last Bite b/w You Take My Money -Black Bombers  (Easy Action Records) 

So, Black Bombers are on tour through UK, which to many of us may seem bizarre as the place is far more riddled with the stupidvirus than we are in Australia. However, almost everyone's been vaccinated and boosted, and the latest major variant, BA.2 doesn't wallow in the lungs like a family of grumpy hippos like the Delta and Co did. 

Now: there's only 300 copies of this single and I can't imagine there'd be that many left. Get on it while you can.

Why? well, first, the BBs are freaking awesome (as the young folk used to say) live and if you only have what they've released so far - a self-titled LP, a seven-inch “'Rush” b/w “Raw Ramp” (a Bolan cover), and the mini-LP “Volume 4”, then you know what you're in for, and any and every release from the BBs is greasy dark manna from Purgatory.

The Dammed
The Factory Theatre, Marrickville
Thursday, August 20 2019
Photos: Monique Simmons

Culturally, Britain was so different to the USA in so many ways in the ‘70s, and that had much to do with distance.  The US is a vast place with all sorts of cultures and entrainment influences. The south was different to the west coast and out was again different to the east. And that really showed in the disparate pockets of music that sprang up everywhere.

On the other hand, England was more centralised. Long before the ‘70s dawned, it had the ingrained tradtiion of music halls as its historical DNA.

Music halls were everywhere. At one time there were more than 200 theatres in London alone. They hosted events running for four hours and ranging from comedy, clowning, horror to serious drama. For more than a century, popular theatre was a staple for the working man and middle class alike. 

Well, you may ask, what has this got to do with The Damned appearing live in Sydney on a Thursday night? I say, everything. A Dammed gig is like a trip through classic British pantomime and theatre, full of drama and packed with wit and slapstick. 

Long term denizens of this scurvy establishment will need no introduction to the names Captain Sensible(nee Ray Burns) and Paul Gray.  If there was such a thing as punk rock royalty (and I’m against it on general principle), these guys would at least be Grand Dukes or Princes or some such.   

For those of you who are slumming it, Captain Sensible is the more fluorescent face of The Damned.  His beret and toilet mat jumper has besmirched the covers of a good many picture covers of hit singles, including a surprise run as a solo star. 

Paul Gray came to the world’s attention with fellow graduates of the class of ’76 Eddie and the HotRods.  Paul has also had three runs as bass player in the Damned and the kind of resume that would have you blushing with jealousy. He played on Johnny Thunders’ “So Alone” so don’t you go comparing resumes.  He’s Paul Gray and you’re not.