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| Brian James Gang at The Troubadour - Photo by Retro Man Blog |
Punk Rock introduced me to some extremely original, talented and often unorthodox Guitar geniuses - Keith Levene of Public Image Ltd, Paul Fox of The Ruts, Andy Gill of Gang of Four, Rob Symmons of Subway Sect and Stuart Adamson of The Skids spring to mind for instance and
Brian James of The Damned should never be overlooked. After all it's his instantly memorable riff to "New Rose" - the first ever U.K. "Punk" single and his crazed wig-out solo over that famous bass intro to "Neat Neat Neat". It's his splintered, almost Post-Punk sound on "Feel The Pain" and not forgetting the snake-hipped groove to the sublime "Fan Club". He wrote those songs too, not bad eh? In fact, The Damned's debut album "Damned Damned Damned" is all his own songwriting, bar Rat Scabies' "Stab Your Back" and a cover of Brian's beloved Stooges classic "1970 (I Feel Alright)" of course. Brian also had to carry most of the song-writing burden of the rush-job follow-up album "Music For Pleasure", which was slated at the time but it's evolved over the years into one of those records that's often described as a 'hidden gem'. Indeed there are some treasures on there, "One Way Love" and "Your Eyes" for example have become two of my all-time favourite Damned songs. Brian James is also the subject of an excellent new book by
John Wombat entitled,
"Bastard, The Damned, The Lords of The New Church & More: The Authorised Biography of Brian James".
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| Brian James Gang at The Troubadour - Photo by Retro Man Blog |
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| Brian James Gang at The Troubadour - Photo by Retro Man Blog |
With a foreward by Henry Rollins and contributions from many of Brian's musical colleagues from his time in pre-Punk band Bastard right up to date with his often revolving Brian James Gang. There's snippets of information on his collaborations with Jean Jacques Burnel of The Stranglers and his time spent touring with his hero, Iggy Pop and many other side-projects and attempts at new bands along the way such as Tanz Der Youth and The Hellions. There's light shed on his dealings with the music business, signing to Stiff Records and the underhand dealings of Miles Copeland's I.R.S. label. However, it's the stories of Brian's time spent in his two most high profile outfits,
The Damned and Lords of The New Church that will probably be of most interest and fans of both bands will not be disappointed. Damned drummer Rat Scabies is an entertaining contributor, as is former Sham 69 and Lords of The New Church bassist, Dave Treganna and they both add their own insights and perspectives to the tale. The gig at the legendary
Troubadour in Earl's Court also doubles as the official launch party for the biography and both Brian and author John are there early to personally sign copies. Brian then takes the stage with his "Gang" who feature long time musical colleague Malcolm Mortimore on drums who's relationship with Brian goes back to the pre-Damned years and Mark Taylor on keyboards, who once played with Lords of The New Church. Austen Gayton is on bass and I recognise him from when I saw Brian, Rat Scabies and TexasTerri perform "Damned Damned Damned" at the Retro Bar a few years back, which you can read about in the Blog archive
here.
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| Brian James Gang at The Troubadour - Photo by Retro Man Blog |
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| Brian James Gang at The Troubadour - Photo by Retro Man Blog |
The show starts off with Brian handling lead vocals on the first few numbers including the Stooges inflenced "Alone" an early song that was to appear on "Music For Pleasure" and "Walkin' Around Naked" from the excellent solo LP "The Guitar That Dripped Blood". Then, The Damned's "Born To Kill" raises the temperature in the packed out Troubadour quite a few degrees higher. The band are then joined by singer Alan Clayton from
The Dirty Strangers and they treat us to a selection of songs from throughout Brian's career including a couple of covers, "Route 66" and "The Last Time" and a raucous run through of The Damned's version of The Stooges "1970 (I Feel Alright)". They played "Method To My Madness" by Lords of The New Church and I spotted LOTN bassist Dave Treganna smiling away at the front of the stage. I was hoping he was going to get up and play but instead he contented himself with a tambourine and backing vocals from his place in the crowd. "Neat Neat Neat" gets the full audience participation treatment and for the encore, John Wombat gets his chance to plug in a guitar and join in on "New Rose", why not, it's also his night!
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| Brian James Gang at The Troubadour - Photo by Retro Man Blog |
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| Brian James Gang at The Troubadour - Photo by Retro Man Blog |
The Kult 45's rounded things off with a set of down and dirty good time Rock'n'Roll, it's probably the best of frontman Dale Senior's many and varied line-ups that I have seen so far, and I've seen a few! The band ooze cool, all decked out in black and leopardskin and songs like "Law of The Jungle" and "Where D'ya Get Your Love" fuse The Cramps, Glam and The Stooges/Heartbreakers into an enjoyable Primal Rock 'n' Roll mash-up. I'd recommend checking them out if you get chance.
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| The Kult 45's at The Troubadour - Photo by Retro Man Blog |
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| The Kult 45's at The Troubadour - Photo by Retro Man Blog |
You can order the book from Amazon
here and check out John Wombat's web-site
here for more details on his other books which include biographies of Bryan Gregory of The Cramps, The Stooges' guitarist Ron Asheton and Johnny Thunders. Brian James official Facebook page is
here.
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| Brian James Biography by John Wombat |
You can see some videos of the Brian James Gang and The Kult 45's from the launch party at our Retro Man Blog YouTube channel
here and more photos over at our official Facebook page
here.
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