Black And Blue UMC/POLYDOR

74-75: Night Life / Fighting UMR

Rat City Rockers TEE PEE

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This month’s dug-up screamer: as grunge waned, a North Carolina power trio channel Live At Leeds .

Fifty years on from their explosive debut single “New Rose”, THE DAMNED have evolved from punk pioneers to national treasures. But as a new album pays tribute to Brian James, their fallen co-founder, bandmates Dave Vanian, Captain Sensible and Rat Scabies – along with sundry eyewitnesses and ne’erdo-wells – recall the volatile beginnings, creative vision and incorrigible spirit of The Damned’s groundbreaking first act. “It was CID, villains and the Captain in a nurse’s outfit,” hears Peter Watts