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Having
spent three years sleeping on Robert's sofa I finally had a home of my own
(well, technically I shared it with my girlfriend of the time, and we were
illegally sub-letting from a council tenant, but whatever...) in London,
and I still had a few contacts. I spent a couple of years doing stage crew
work around London, played a few sessions, produced a few bands. I joined
a band called Atom Heart Mother, made a record, got a deal, toured and
went nowhere. Then in 1992 the phone rang, it was Rat Scabies. Would I
fancy touring with
The Damned?
Yes I bloody would, what's the money like and who was doing it? The
money was good, it wasn't to be another of their reunion things, but a bit
of new blood and new songs. Captain wasn't doing it, but Kris Dollimore
from the Godfathers was, and Dave Vanian was too, although this wasn't
entirely true at the time. We rehearsed, then we auditioned singers, then
Dave came. Then Dave went. Then Dave came back again, but went again soon
after. I went and came back twice, leaving room for a Strangler and an
Ex-Pistol on either occasion, neither of whom stayed. Ratty made me
musical director for a while, because nobody else knew the songs. Dolli
was great, you just had to give him the general idea and he was away, but
for our aging rhythm guitarist, things didn't come so easily. The writing
was on the wall for Alan Lee Shaw, and I've always preferred Hammond
players. So Dave Grunfeld came, doubling the Dave quotient overnight, and
leaving us very light in the Alan department. Dolli came and went as he
pleased, sessioning with Adam Ant and others along the way. Rat stayed, as
he always did, it was Rat's band. We toured, did telly and made a record,
which was released in many formats around the world. It wasn't the best
Damned record ever, not by a long way. In June '95 I did my last gig with
the band. It had been creatively stifling but lots of fun, then Rat and
Dave fell out big time. Rat owned the name, Dave wanted the band. Rat let
him have it. Rat's like that, a good guy. In 1996 I got a call from Dave,
Paul Gray and Captain had rejoined with some new drummer, but Paul had
left again. A tour was waiting in Japan, was I interested? I was, but
Japan wasn't. It fell apart. Dave recruited his future wife on bass and
the Damned started playing Butlin's with a rolling line up of Rat Scabies
wannabes. Game over.
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