RIP Brian James

On March 6, 2025, legendary punk guitarist Brian James passed away. 

The original four piece of the Damned are truly one of those iconic groups. One of the few where every member stands out and would dominate the personality of any other band. Dave Vanian, the vampiric former gravedigger out front, the goofy beret and sunglasses wearing bassist Captain Sensible, the bonzo drummer Rat Scabies and Brian James driving it along at a million miles an hour on guitar. The video for “New Rose” may be rock’s most epic moment. 

James is well loved so much that every time he would reunite with the band it was a big deal as if it was the Fan Four, but he only really played on the first two albums. 

But what records they are. Damned Damned Damned may be perfect- somehow catching lightning in the bottle by the efforts (or lack of efforts, possibly) of producer Nick Lowe. It’s pretty much all killer, no filler- the band sounding like they are falling out of your speakers. 

Everyone knows New Rose and Neat Neat Neat but there are songs too like See Her Tonite and So Messed Up that are among punks finest. Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason famously produced the disappointing second album Music for Pleasure which was largely written by James (Syd Barrett was the band’s first choice of producer). That said, Stretcher Case Baby, Sick of Being Sick, and Problem Child are songs from those sessions that could have fit on the debut. 

The band broke up though it was short lived. They never stopped for long and were an amazing live band when I saw them a couple of time in the 90s. But Sensible moved to guitar and numerous lineup changes would occur. James would form a bit of a supergroup with Dead Boys vocalist Stiv Bators. 

Lords of the New Church would have some success on the mid 1980s though in retrospect their goth rock sound was perhaps too early to truly have the success they could have. Though they didn’t write their biggest hit “Russian Roulette” (written by Tony James of Generation X and Terry Chimes of the Clash), most everything else was credited to James and Bators. 

 In the 90s, I searched the bins for Damned cutouts which were numerable. 1989s Final Damnation was seventeen live songs - the first half with James as part of a reunion. It shows how great the live band sounded. 1994s The Sessions of the Damned is a compilation of BBC and Peel songs and is a good overview of the bands material with James on the early stuff. I would recommend both albums heavily to fans of the Damned.