The Tim “Napalm” Stegall Substack Interview: The Damned’s Captain Sensible (Part Two)
The conclusion (finally!), in which the Britpunk pioneer discusses the real reason he couldn’t play last year’s US Damned dates, and the importance of Gibson SGs and Carlos Santana!
Greetings, dear reader. Welcome to my birthday month. Yes, in 11 days, on the 12th, I turn 58. But I suspect you are more concerned with why the hell I have not been updating The ‘Stack for a few weeks now.
You might have guessed that things have heated up with The Book, so pronounced has been my absence. We are in the last days on it – editing, rewriting, trying to piece together the bibliography and all that. Then I move on to the next book! Rest assured, my role on this one will be finished shortly, and we should make an announcement soon what this mystery tome will be, and where you can pre-order it and all that. Please sit tight!
Meanwhile, the HVAC has broken down, in the middle of an Austin summer that has proven all the climate change deniers are absolute flat-Earthers. Without variation, Austin has routinely climbed to 107 degrees daily all summer long, starting in June. No, it’s not anything a simple shot of freon can fix. The big loud box outside – the compressor, is it? – is shot. It has to be replaced, which the landlord is doing. But I still have to live and work under these conditions. And no, I am not used to this. These circumstances are unusual for Central Texas. Seriously.
But you don’t want to know all that, do ya? You’re actually wondering what the bejeezus happened to Part 2 of the Captain Sensible interview begun here at The ‘Stack on May 31. The good Captain contacted me via Zoom on May 6th, from backstage before soundchecking for a Damned European road date. The purpose: Discussing their new Darkadelic album.
Following 2018’s keyboard-heavy, Tony Visconti-produced Evil Spirits, Sensible indicated in Part One he wanted to allow his guitar to roar more this time around. Darkadelic continues exploring The Damned’s love of ‘60s garage psych, ala 1980’s The Black Album or the Sensible-less alter ego Naz Nomad And The Nightmares. Very little of the blitzkrieg punk approach upon which The Damned built their name, such as on their 1977 debut album or ‘79’s Machine Gun Etiquette, is evident on the Thomas Mitchener-helmed Darkadelic. We may have to wait for more OG Damned reunion dates for the old approach. But moody rockers such as “Wake The Dead” and “Beware Of The Clown” are full of precision guitar raunch and all the high drama of the band’s Phantasmagoria days – not my favorite period, but plenty disagree with me on that score.
We jump in discussing “Beware Of The Clown,” a rare bit of political commentary from The Damned.
TIM: Well, our worst clown here in the States is in the courts as we speak.
CAPTAIN: [laughs]
TIM: “Beware Of The Clown” is a little unusual within The Damned’s oeuvre. Political statements are rare in your universe, although you once told me you never really had a political conscience until you hung out with Crass.
CAPTAIN: That’s very true. Y’know, I could give a toss about the government in ‘76, ‘77 – all the things the Pistols or The Clash were always on about. Then I stayed with Crass at Dial House when I was making a record for their label.
[NOTE: Sensible is speaking of the 1980 Crass Records EP, This Is Your Captain Speaking. Sensible sang and provided guitar, bass, and keyboards over Crass founder Penny Rimbaud’s rampaging tribal/Bo Diddley beats and backing vocals from Dolly Mixture, whose guitarist Rachel Bor was Sensible’s longtime partner. Engineered by Crass’ longtime studio boffin John Loder, the songs – “(What D'Ya Give) The Man Who's Gotten Everything?”, the hymn-like “Oursouls (sic) To You,” and “The Russians Are Coming” – wouldn’t have been out of place on the albums The Damned were releasing at the time, Machine Gun Etiquette and The Black Album. It served as a bridge between the two worlds, with some of the proto-sampling tape collages marking Crass’ work seeping in, and The Damned’s melodicism and musicality finally present on a Crass Records release. It’s a definite curio in Sensible’s solo career, which went straight into novelty pop fare immediately after on records such as “Wot?” and “Happy Talk.”]
They were all vegetarians, so what was I gonna do – not eat? That was what they were serving at meal times. This was where I learned about the moral reasons for not eating meat, and about proper anarchism, not just Johnny Rotten whingeing on about “Anarchy In The UK” over a sodding Bad Company outtake. Before then I’d been what we call a football hooligan here in the UK. I was more concerned with drinking as much beer as I could drink. I got a real education from Crass, I did.
TIM: Can you either confirm or deny or clarify a persistent rumor that has been going around since you missed all The Damned US dates last year?
CAPTAIN: Wot? Alright, this should be fun! Haven’t gotten in the verbals in awhile! [laughs]
TIM: We heard you refused to get the COVID-19 vaccines and ran afoul of the US State Department, who are refusing entry without the shots, and therefore you won’t tour the States with The Damned any longer?
CAPTAIN: No! No! Not true! Fake news! [laughs] I had some health issues, and like Brian, I really don’t like to discuss them publicly. I will say that I have recovered, and am back in The Damned full-time.
TIM: Oh! So you will be playing the Stateside dates?
CAPTAIN: Yeah! [NOTE: And he did!]
TIM: Well, good. Glad we could clear that up.
CAPTAIN: But no, it wasn’t anything as silly as that. Nah, actually it was cancer.
TIM: [in shock] WHAT?! CANCER?!
CAPTAIN: Yeah. Nah, I’m alright now. I got treated, got it taken care of, and I’m back playing again. I’m fine.
TIM: So, you’re in remission?
CAPTAIN: Yeah, I’m alright now. Clean bill of health. I get to go back out there and stand on a stage with an SG, and a big fucking valve amp turned up full. It’s the greatest feeling in the world, that sound. It cuts right through you.
TIM: The Gibson SG – favored weapon not only of Brian James, without whom there is no Damned, but also of your sort of surprise guitar hero, Carlos Santana.
CAPTAIN: That’s right. I didn’t learn guitar from The Stooges or whatever – that was Brian. I’d never heard those bands before I met Brian. But I loved the way Carlos Santana played. He made his guitar sound like it was singing, and he knew how to wiggle a string a bit. And I spent hours with those Santana records, slowing them down on the Dansette [British phonograph], trying to get all those bits together. Then punk comes along, and there are no guitar solos! And I’m the bassist in The Damned, anyway.
TIM: But that Santana influence was still audible once you moved over to guitar, even as you were covering things like “Looking At You” by MC5.
CAPTAIN: Yeah, that’s right. I’d say so, yeah. But it all starts with Brian, doesn’t it?
TIM: Brian James is the auteur, the mastermind behind The Damned.
CAPTAIN: He’s the riffmeister, and a lovely, lovely man. Like I said, I really enjoyed playing with Rat and Brian again, and we all became friends again. I honestly thought we would end up in flying fists by the third date of the tour. But I now see how shortsighted the planning was. We need to do this again. None of us are getting any younger.
Thank you for your time, Captain. And here’s to your remission being permanent. To close, let’s push our way to the front row last November, as Sensible, Vanian, Scabies and James close the last date of the original Damned’s reunion tour, with the first UK punk 45 “New Rose” and choice New York Dolls and Rolling Stones covers! See you next week!
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Cancer. Wow. Okay.