Brian James, the founding guitarist of UK punk pioneers the Damned, has died aged 70.
Punk rock has lost one of its original trailblazers. It was James’ electric guitar that lit the blue touch paper for punk, the Damned’s era-defining New Rose the first single to emerge from the UK scene.
A statement posted to Facebook announced that James had died peacefully, surrounded by his family – wife Minna, son Charlie and daughter-in-law Alicia – on 6 March, and it listed some of his achievements in changing the face of punk-rock and pop-culture at large.
There were many. The Damned was not the first UK punk band. The Sex Pistols were already throwing powerchords around the room by the time James founded the Damned in 1976 with former gravedigger Dave Vanian on vocals, Captain Sensible on bass guitar and Rat Scabies (to his mum) on the drums. But the Damned were the first to release a record.
New Rose – famously covered by Guns N’ Roses – perfectly articulated James’ feelings as he rode the crest of the punk wave.
“Everyone thinks New Rose’ is about a girl or a new relationship but it’s not,” explained James, speaking to Mojo in 2013. “It was about this emerging scene, this lovely buzz that you’d never dreamed could possibly happen. It was like. ‘I’d got my own Swinging ‘60s,’ that sorta vibe.”
Paying tribute to James on Instagram, Captain Sensible recalls his first impressions of James and the band he was putting together. James had served an apprenticeship, playing in Bastard, Mick Jones, later of the Clash, in London SS. This was going to be a generational change.
“When my Fairfield Halls cleaning chum and wannabe muso Chris Millar came back from an audition with freshly shorn hair I thought, ‘What kinda band has he just joined that thinks such a radical departure from the mid ‘70s hippie look might be a good idea?’” he writes. “T’was Brian James who was recruiting… he wanted attitude as well as musical ability and Chris said he was looking for a bassist next.”
It is hard to imagine the Damned without Captain Sensible on bass. But moving down an octave – and getting a haircut – was not something he took lightly. James’ powers of persuasion were manifest.
“I'd not have jumped from guitar for anyone,” says Captain Sensible.” But BJ had a blistering technique and a collection of adrenaline fuelled songs ready to go, so I had the obligatory haircut and signed up for the Damned bassist job.”
Then they got to work. The Damned’s debut album, Damned Damned Damned, was recorded under the watchful eye of Nick Lowe, whose production-style jived with the band’s energy, with the spirit of the moment. James’ songwriting would be all over the follow-up, Music For Pleasure.
Everything was done at speed. In 1977, the Damned managed to release two studio albums and by the following year they had spit up. James went onto form Tanz Der Youth, tracking one single, touring with Black Sabbath before folding.
Given the influence the Stooges had on the UK punk milieu, it was fitting that James would play with Iggy Pop. He released a solo single, Ain't That A Shame, in. 1979, before forming the US-UK punk supergroup The Lords of the New Church with Stiv Bators of Dead Boys. Three studio albums followed in as many years.
Throughout his career, James would be associated with the Gibson SG and the Fender Telecaster. Rock ’n’ roll machines.
He would remain restless in search of the next project. There was the Brian James Gang, the Dripping Lips.
There were collaborations with Wayne Kramer of the MC5 and Stewart Copeland of the Police and then, of course, there was the Damned original lineup reunion shows in 2022. Captain Sensible says the original were up for at least one more encore.
Speaking to Louder in 2022, James described forming the Damned and bringing an end to the hippy era was a “dream come true”.
“Suddenly I was able to play these songs I’d written,” he said. “Finding like-minded musicians: finding Rat was such a fucking turn-on, a drummer that wanted to play like I did.
“And then there was these guys we were getting introduced to called the Sex Pistols, and they were playing – not with the same musical flair – but with totally negative attitudes to all the hippy-dippy stuff that was still lingering about… There was a lot of attitude, bands forming and splintering and other bands forming out of that. It was a really exciting time for a while.”
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