Love Song / Suicide / Noise, Noise, Noise
Chiswick April 1979

Who would have thought the love child of New Rose and Neat Neat Neat would have provided The Damned with a hit yet here it is. Love Song rushes at breakneck pace and is sheer genius. The Captain can sure handle a guitar. Suicide is good too.

Smash It Up / Burglar
Chiswick 28 September 1979

After the fireworks of Love Song you would expect a song called Smash It Up to be as equally noisy yet this was the new Damned. Smash It Up Part 1 is an instrumental affair showing a softer more melodic Damned complete with keyboards. Part 2 continues with a keyboard dominated riff thats bloody catchy. Safer ground for Burglar as Rat Scabies sings a cautionary punkyb tale.

I Just Can't Be Happy Today / Ballroom Blitz.
Chiswick November 1979

Proof that the Damned could produce sensitive thoughtful tunes. The b side emanates from the Doomed with Lemmy on bass for the Sweet's old chestnut. There was originally going to be a split single between Motorhead & The Damned but for whatever reason it didn't come off.

Machine Gun Etiquette
Chiswick 1979

And so we arrive at their third album and its a corker. The Damned could write some fine tunes between them and here they produce the album we all knew they could make. Some great tracks and well produced and a mixture of heavier and lighter songs complete with keyboards . Look out for Melody Lee,  a cover version of MC5's Lookin At You, The White Cats' Second Time Around renamed as Machine Gun Etiquette and King's Antipope. 

Click picture above to view larger image.

John Peel Radio Sessions.

8.1.79
Melody Lee, Love Song, Burglar, Looking At You

29.10.79
Smash It Up, Liar, I Just Can't be Happy Today, I'm So Bored (piss take of Cream turns into Gangsters)

11.12.79
I Just Can't be Happy Today, Noise, Noise, Noise, Plan 9 Channel 7, Drinking About My Baby

 Roger Armstrong Interview -  Chiswick Records 

"The band had the Dodgy Demo ( Love Song given away free) out and so we re-recorded Love Song. The late Eddie Hollis (manager of Eddie & the Hot Rods) produced a version, but the vocal and the mix were not happening, so I took Dave into the studio – did the vocal again and mixed it. We certainly used the fan base to manipulate it into the charts. As regards Top of The Pops, it should have been amazing. On the the first appearance Captain discovered that he could use the BBC costume dept. So at the rehearsal he turned up in a full wedding gown and Doc Martens. Everyone in the studio just stood and applauded when he walked in – looked amazing. Then the producer told him that he could not go on in the wedding dress. They had an exclusive on Bowie’s ‘Boys keep Swinging’ video that featured the grande Dame in drag and they thought that he might think that the Capt was taking the piss – bollocks! So what could have been one of the great television events of all time was still pretty good, but not as good as it would have been with Vanian in full bow tie and tails singing Love Song to Capt in a wedding dress !!!!! "

And on the single getting in the charts... a little insight into how record companies work tho I think we all suspected this to be the case with the some of the atrocities foisted on us over the years !!!

We were among the first to use coloured vinyl and invented the multiple picture sleeve with the four Damned shots on Love Song. Basically you had to give records away to the chart return shops to make sure that they had them in stock. Then a team of housewives would go in and buy them up. Friendly dealers might be encouraged to put in the extra sales in exchange for a consideration. It was all dreadfully corrupt, but at least everyone was being dreadfully corrupt. It was viewed as a bit of a game. I would say however that you couldn’t hype an absolute turkey and make it stick. The record had to have some appeal to some section of the populace or the act had to have a genuine following. It was not unknown to co-opt fan clubs into buying up singles from chart shops.