The Damned: The Story Behind The Punk Anthem 'New Rose'

The Damned: The Story Behind the Song 'New Rose'

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When people think of UK punk, perhaps the first band that comes to mind is the Sex Pistols or The Clash , but it would be a scrappy group of musicians called the Damned who released the first punk single in the country’s history. The band separated themselves from their contemporaries choosing not to make politics front and center instead choosing topics like escapism or love. Today, let’s talk about their first punk single New Rose.

The Damned’s history is filled with so much internal strife that Guns N’ Roses who would cover new rose years later looked like the cosbys. Ok looking back, maybe that’s a bad analogy.

The riff for the song New Rose pre-dated the beginnings of The Damned as guitarist Brian James came up with it when he played in a band called Bastard. He would recall to Loudersound

“I was in Brussels in late seventy-four,and I had this riff nagging at me. I played it with the drummer from Bastard, a guy called Nobby Goff, and he just didn’t get it. He didn’t set fire to it like he needed to. It was in limbo for a while, kind of like a homeless riff.”
It wouldn’t be until James met a drummer named Rat Scabies, named after a horrendous skin condition that the foundation of the song was complete.The pair would jam at an old Church in London’s Lisson Grove recalling “When I first got together with Rat,” “we were still in the stages of getting The Damned together – finding a bassist and singer and all that stuff. So I played him the [New Rose] riff and he just took to it like water. Bang! He was off. He just attacked it. It was perfect. Now I had something I could build a song around.”

The band just now needed a vocalist and bassist to round out the lineup.It had turned out one musician who setup an audition but failed to show up was sid vicious, bassist for the sex pistols. The next person in line to audition was a grave digger named David Vanian would remember his audition to the guardian newspaper saying Brian shouted the lyrics in my ear while he played guitar, and I did the best I could. He’d seen me in the audience at some shows and told me: “You look like a singer.” Before it became all torn clothes and spiky hair, punk was about individuality. I wore winkle-pickers and was going for that 1920s Rudolph Valentino look. I’d seen a few Hammer horror films, too, and decided I wanted to live in Baron von Frankenstein’s castle.

Melvoin
The intro of the song the line “is she really going out with him” was inspired by the Shangri-La’s leader of the pack, a song Vanian was a huge fan of. Despite what some people may think, the song’s lyrics were not inspired by a relationship, but the the blossoming punk movement. with James going on to explain . Brian James explained the meaning when he toldto Mojo magazine February 2013: "Everyone thinks 'New Rose' is about a girl or a new relationship but it's not. It was about this emerging scene, this lovely buzz that you'd never dreamed could possibly happen. It was like. 'I'd got my own Swinging '60s,' that sorta vibe."

The song was recorded quickly and cheaply costing the band about 50 pounds with Producer Nick Lowe at Pathway Studios in North London. The band packaged the single with a b-side that included a cover of the Beatles song Help played at a frantic pace.

New Rose would be released as the first punk single in UK history on October 22, 1976 a month before the sex pistols put out their single anarchy in the UK.

James would tell the Guardian newspaper “We thought we were a fast rock’n’roll band, but a journalist coined the term “punk rock” so suddenly New Rose was “the first British punk single”

The band would stress that they were not in a rush to beat their peers to the stores as they were friends with the sx pistols. In fact one of the first gigs the Damned played was on July 6, 1976 at London’s 100 club opening for the Pistols. New Rose would appear on the band’s debut album Damned Damned Damned which was released on February 18, 1977.

New Rose wasn’t a big hit commercially but critics loved it and the band soon found thsemselves on the cover of weekly music magazines including sounds nad melody maker. James would look back almost 4 decades after the song came out revealing to Loudersound “Listen, no one knows anything’s a classic till after a certain amo

[loodath]

The Damned was and still is one of the all time best punk rock bands to exist.

[Sixtra]

The Damned is the world’s most underrated punk band in my opinion. And their debut album is still one of the best and rawest I’ve ever heard 🤘😎

[AbsyntheAndTears]

The Damned are still one of my absolute favorite bands. I love how unique they are - they were nothing like the rest of the bands of their time. They are great live, would love to see them again.

[takodabostwick]

Lemmy from Motorhead was a huge fan of The Damned. They actually toured together and became great mates.

[brandonpage]

Man, there will NEVER be another era, like the original late 70s/early 80s, punk era!!! It was lightning in a bottle!! A moment in time, that simply cannot be recreated.

[williamjosephdunn]

There is a great 2015 documentary about the Damned called, "The Damned: Don't You Wish That We Were Dead". There is a great line from, I think it was Dave, that went something like, "our big tragedy as a band is that we are all still alive. If one of us were gone, it would give us an excuse forn why people don't think we are as good as we used to be any more. What are you going to do- so and so is dead"

[ministerofdarkness]

The Damned are truly the greatest Punk band of all time! Machine Gun Etiquette is a pure Masterpiece!! PLAY LOUD

[mikewilson]

They did a fantastic cover of Love's "Alone Again Or" back in the eighties.

[Will-zerq]

If you get the chance to see the Damned live, take it. They are a great live band.

[johncarr]

One of my all time favourite bands. Great to see you do a post on them, cheers. Damned unto Death!

[antreynolds]

Finally one of my all time favorite punk bands is getting some love thank you

[mmickle]

I worked security for The Damned one time. They did New Rose, Eloise - Captain Sensible even sang Happy Talk with my boss guesting on backing vocals during an interlude. It was great stuff!

[mykeadaptiv]

This was one of the first "punk" songs I heard, and I was hooked from the point the drum intro hits.

[adda]

my favourite of the 3 big uk punk bands. probably the best musicians in that early punk scene too.
Brian James was the reason I wanted to get an SG guitar, though he plays a telecaster nowadays. big fan of his playing on the first two damned albums and of course the Lords of the New church.

definitely worth checking out the documentary about them "Don't you Wish that We Were dead", was lucky enough to go to the uk premiere and meet Brian and Rat briefly afterwards, back then the question was asked "what would need to happen for the original lineup to reform and that left Rat stumped. Whatever it was, it seems to have happened as they're set to do a reunion gig in the not too distant future!

[johnsmith]

Going to see them in February in Glasgow. The original line up back together...so long as they can still stand each other. Check out the documentary "Don't you wish we were dead" it's excellent.

[cubanheelsbeerbelly]

I love the damned. Thanks for doing this. They did more to distance themselves from the "angry young man" cliché that dominated punk music at the time. They always had their own style. Awesome band.

[MdlAgedHeadbanger]

I saw The Damned a couple years ago with the Original Misfits. What a show....

[bunkerzero]

A song about a scene growing and blossoming into something beautiful and chaotic!

[Mrs.Sardonicus]

I saw then a few years back on Halloween in NYC with TSOL. They still put on an amazing show. The Damned rule

[VolvoImpala]

Oh hell yeah! Rat Scabies on "New Rose" is drummer extraordinaire. That's always something I loved.