We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming with late-breaking news….

Brian James, founder of The Damned, is dead.

Yeah, we were supposed to have Part Two of our massive David Johansen memorial today. (Here’s Part One.) But Brian James, without whom there would be no such band as The Damned, is dead.

Of course, you know his work. At least, you do if you wanna be my friend. He was the demonic Keith Richards clone with the rampaging SG who founded The Damned around the manic Keith Moon-ish overplaying of rejected London SS drum auditionee Rat Scabies, his equally crazed pal Ray Burns (soon to be rechristened Captain Sensible at the band’s second-ever gig), and a former teenage grave digger with this love of Bela Lugosi and ancient tango records named Dave Vanian. They beat everyone in the UK punkstakes: First UK punk 45, “New Rose” (see the clip above); first UK punk LP, Damned Damned Damned; first UK punk band to tour the States, in spring 1977; and first to break up in 1978.

They were also the first to reform, about six months later. And they made gobs of great music when they did. But it was without the man who started the band and wrote all but two songs on that string of brilliant records. (Okay, second Damned LP Music For Pleasure hardly lives up to its title, though it has its moments.) And his guitar style was crazed and individual, a clear successor to The Stooges’ James Williamson. Part of the secret was that he was devoted to an individual rock ‘n’ roll vision, one that didn’t brook politics like many of his peers in the early London punk scene: “The only anarchy I was interested in was onstage, in the music,” he tells the callow BBC interviewer in the clip below:

So, no. Part Two of that David Johansen memorial will have to wait until Monday. And I will write a proper memorial for Brian once that Johansen bit is finished. But Brian James plugging in that SG for the last time is profoundly upsetting news. Very little else could pull me away from my beloved New York Dolls. So let me leave you with one final clip, from the reunion of the original Damned lineup a few years ago, and a rendition of what may be my favorite Brian-era tune, “Sick Of Being Sick”:

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

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