The Damned are – yes! - 50 years old with three of the originals still onboard. And just starting a world tour. In this immensely funny and touching podcast, Rat Scabies (who’s smoking!) points up the repercussions of life in a band. He looks back at their first shows, their devoted audience, “old-fashioned rules”, highlights, regrets, the value of friendship, “putting on the black suit again” and how it felt to rejoin after 30 years on the outside. And all this too …

… playing drums in an Essex panto while pelted with boiled sweets

… Dave Vanian when he was a grave-digger

… punk rock strongholds the world over – “South America was like being in the Beatles”

… Mexico and other places you can still torch a drumkit

… Mr Scabies, aged 70. “Even my mother calls me Rat. The name’s done me well over the years”

… going to the Isle Of Wight aged 14 (with the Danish nanny) and running a hot-dog stand during Hendrix

… supporting the Pistols at the 100 Club: “like letting a greyhound out of a trap”

… Tim Burton, the Goth revival, the Young Ones, steampunk and other factors that keeps the Damned in motion

… “One band’s an oddity, two’s a fashion, three’s a movement”

… rejoining the Damned after 30 years – “like a great stain had been lifted”

… Green Day, algorithms and how they acquired a whole new following.

Order Damned tickets here: aegp.uk/the-damned

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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A whole new age of psychedelia kicked off in the mid-‘80s, of dream-weavers and glorious underachievers, a complete rejection of the standard rock approach to stagecraft, sound and self-promotion. Simon Reynolds was at the heart of it, writing for Melody Maker and piping aboard the pioneering noise-mongers aiming to entrance and disorientate, as recalled in his new book ‘Still In A Dream: Shoegaze, Slackers and the Reinvention of Rock 1984-1994’. He looks back with us here from his home in Los Angeles at its key bands, events and spiritual godfathers, these among them …

… the return to childhood via Syd Barrett and Jonathan Richman to Sarah Records

… is ‘feeble little horse’ the most Shoegaze band name ever?

... what it was about Morrissey that made Smiths singles sink after Top Of The Pops

… the reason Bowie formed a band

… charming/infuriating interviews with the Cocteau Twins: “words only have any meaning when they’re sung”

… how Britpop brought down the curtain of the wall of sound

… Shoegaze, Dreampop, Lovelynoise, Wide-Brimmed Hat Music and the rock press attempt to impose order: “if a band was on the cover they could double their fee”

... the divine arrogance of Lawrence of Felt who “didn’t want ordinary people buying my records”

… the ever-extending “noise chasms” of My Bloody Valentine

… “shattering quartz”: reviewing music that’s about sound not words

… Shoegaze DNA in the 21st Century

... and the greatest album of that decade, “each track like a session beer”.

Order copies of ‘Still In a Dream’ here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/still-in-a-dream/simon-reynolds/9781399618373

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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This week’s news gets a thorough shake-down to see what falls out of its pockets. Which includes …

… cupcakes, mobiles, rubber ducks, a dead swan: weird things thown at rock stars

… “polka-dotted micro-tonal space-rock from the planet Zog”: Alex gets the Angine de Poitrine live experience!

… is Shoegaze the Adrian Mole of pop?

… “Hands off my Husker Du!” Joint record collections and who gets what when you split

… Sun Studios, the Albert Hall stage, the Savile Row roof: places where we’ve shivered with excitement

… why don’t they put an old phonebox back in Heddon Street so Bowie fans can take pictures?

… Ocean Blue, Washed Out, Skimming Stones, Pelt: Dreampop band or Farrow & Ball paint colour?

… Physical Graffiti, Anticipation, New Boots and Panties: album sleeve tourist locations

… plus burning wedding photos, when uncles gave you cash and the house Jackson Browne’s grandpa built.

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.