[WRITTEN OCTOBER 1986] 

The day of the Damned’s gig at Edinburgh had arrived, and, I hoped the day of my first interview with the Damned. On meeting with one of my pals I was informed that Vanian was wandering along Princes St. and knew nothing of any planned interview. I should have bloody known… all those letters to MCA and the Flashman Society were a complete waste of time.

We arrived at the Playhouse early afternoon and waited……………..

Finally we saw the bus coming down the road, so I got a pile of my records ready to be autographed and waited for Dave etc to get off.

Rat was good enough to do an interview and said he’d come down to the stage door after the soundcheck.

While waiting, I saw Roman come walking down the road. I’d thought he was already in the Playhouse when he never got off the bus with the rest of the band. While he was autographing some stuff for me he kicked the stage door so the Old Bastard that lets folk in would open it for him. Suddenly the door swung open and an angry Old Bastard appeared. “You don’t have to kick the door to get in, a knock would have done perfectly well” he said.  Roman looked a bit surprised and said “It’s the way we do things where I come from, anyway, I’m one of the band.  This did not impress Old Bastard, and he replied “I don’t care where you come from,  and I don’t care who you are. You could be Laurence Olivier for all I care, you do not kick my door.”  Roman must’ve realised he was a madman and got inside quickly. It was bloody funny.

Eventually Rat appeared, but expected to do the interview away from the Playhouse which would’ve been impossible as there were far too many people about who’d have got in the way. In the end the interview was done behind the drum kit on the stage. It wasn’t the most suitable of places as someone was testing out the kit… and making a right bleeding racket. It was better than nothing though.

Rat started off by commenting how Sugar & Spite #3 was all about him (even though it wasn’t!).

“I think that perhaps the Damned audience may be getting fed up with only reading about the drummer. It must get a bit dull.”

One of the roadies sitting nearby and reading one of the zines said that Rat should be proud of being in it all the time. I added my agreement too, that I could rant on about Jon bloody Moss if he’d prefer it.

I asked if it was difficult to keep on producing good songs that were also different to what has already been done.

“Not really. We still manage to come up with what I think are good ideas. You can take the same idea and do it a number of different ways, so it doesn’t really ever become boring.”

Since Damned material is always being reissued by their old record companies, and is in most cases, a rip-off, I wondered if Rat considered MCA a decent lot.

“It’s not really the record company… I mean it doesn’t matter what three letters go before the name of the company. It’s the individuals that you work with that matter.”

What about all the reissue stuff, like what Stiff Records are doing?

“Stiff were a great company at one time but they’re not anymore. It’s the individuals that make stuff like that work. The lot at MCA seem quite good. Well I like a lot of ‘em so I suppose that’s an advantage.”

How much control do you actually have over what is put out?

“We have no control whatsoever. None at all!”

I was wondering about that, as I’ve seen South African imports of Is It A Dream?

“I didn’t know about that. I don’t want my records released in South Africa. I’ll have to find out about that. It makes me look very stupid. You’ve gotta do something even if it is only not having your records sold there. It’s not exactly a big deal with Damned records, we’ll only sell about a hundred there if we’re lucky. But then again I think it’s imperative that the Damned do something. I don’t believe in Apartheid, I think it’s wrong… I’m really pissed off about that.”

Is there any way you can actually stop it happening though?

“I shall try now. It actually amazes me that they’re even out there, it really does. It just shows how money corrupts”

Time for a change of subject I thought. Could Rat ever see himself being part of another band?

“I’ve never really thought about it. I think when the Damned stops then so will I, as a drummer. I’d get fed up with it.”

Do you ever see people like Algy Ward or Brian James now?

“Now and again. I always got on really well with Brian.”

What about Algy?

“Well that used to always piss me off ‘cos everyone would always have a go at me for getting rid of Algy, but it wasn’t. It was Sensible who got rid of Algy. It was Sensible who decided, I was the handy scapegoat. I got on well with Algy at first, but what happened was that his drinking became so bad that it was affecting his role in the band, which was really unacceptable. The same thing happened with Paul Gray. I think if anyone gets that bad then they should go.”

I thought that a lot of ‘em would’ve turned up for the 10^th Anniversary.

“Yeah, Brian was in America though… you’re wrong in that (S&S#3) by the way… I didn’t say Brian was coming.”

Well I was told you did…

“I said that Captain would, maybe, and Captain did. Brian was in America, I dunno where Algy was, I think he was touring, Lemmy was touring. I dunno where all the others went to really, all the invitations were sent out.”

Was it good playing with Captain again?

“Do you mean did some irreconcilable affection return? No it didn’t. No, it was nice to play with him again, but there were a lot of reasons why he’s not in the band now, and a lot of those reasons were still obvious that day. So the Damned wouldn’t be able to function with Captain in the band anyway.”

I always heard he wasn’t turning up to practices and stuff like that.

“Yeah, he was so busy being Captain Sensible on his solo stuff that he really didn’t have time to be in the Damned”

I can always remember his classic quote that his solo stuff would never come before the Damned…

“Words are cheap is all I can say on that.”

Much as I like Captain’s guitaring, I think Roman’s good too.

“Roman’s in this band because he’s the right man to be in this band, and that’s all there is to it really. He’s one of the most subtle guitar players I’ve ever met, and through his subtlety comes his genius, and I think that unless you actually sit down and listen to what he’s playing, it’s wasted. You can’t compare him to the Captain just as you couldn’t compare Captain to Brian. Roman has the same talent,  but it’s in another direction, which is one of the reasons why we wanted him to do it.”

Another change of subject… I once read that Damned Damned Damned was your favourite album…

“It still is. I like all of them really, but that’s the one I listen to most at home.”

At this point Roman walked past so Rat decided to drop me in it by shouting out that I was the one that did the cartoon of him (In S&S#3), even though I never drew it. “Oh very good” was Roman’s reply, looking like he wanted to strangle me. I protested my innocence saying that I never drew it, to which Rat replied…

“You’re the editor, you had the ultimate responsibility.”

I thought it looked quite like him I said to Rat, making sure Roman couldn’t hear.

“Yeah, I always used to say he looked like Mr. Punch anyway” Rat said under his breath, grinning.

What do you think of your cartoon in it, I asked…

“I don’t know what this footballer looks like”

He’s a Scottish footballer… I would’ve thought you’d know, your Dad being a Scotsman (it says in one of the early Flashman Society newsletters that Rat’s Dad is Scottish, but…)

“What? My Dad? No my Grandfather came of from (couldn’t make this bit out…Lithuania? -Ed.)… to Edinburgh, Dalkeith I think it was. They all legged it ‘cos the Russians took over.”

I’ve heard that you’ve always wanted to play in Russia…

“I’d love to play in Russia, it’s about time we did. I’d like to try Yugoslavia or somewhere like that first. Poland would be good to do.”

Yeah, a few bands have played in Poland, I don’t think it’s as hard to get to play there.

“No, but I don’t think you can make any money there so agents and managers don’t like you going, whereas I’d like to go just ‘cos it’d be good fun. You’d probably get paid in tractors or something!”

What’s your favourite country for playing in at the moment?

I think Australia was probably the best. Australia was surprisingly good.”

What are the fans like over there?

“It seems that the Damned are certainly appealing to a certain type of audience now. If it’s Japanese or American you still get the same character types arriving.”

Do you still get the guy who gives you all the fossils in America?

“No, we didn’t see him this time, he was probably there though.”

I’ve heard about him a lot… coming up and giving you dead fishes and stuff…

“Well fossilised fish not dead fish.”

It’s gotta be dead to be fossilised hasn’t it?!

“Well it’s gotta be dead to be a fossil, true!”

Where did the LP title Anything come from?

“I dunno really… it’s just ‘cos we’re doing this song Anything Is Better Than This. Also it’s good for when people go into record shops and ask for Anything by the Damned!”

The song Anything sounds a lot like an Iggy Pop song to me…

“I wrote the music, you’d have to ask Roman about the melody.”

I’ve got a tape of you doing Iggy’s Five Foot One and it sounds quite similar to Anything…

“I don’t think it’s a blatant steal, I think it’s more using Iggy as the influence and the way he would’ve done it. Cos everyone was really pissed off, and Iggy always sounds a bit pissed off. I think you can say it was an influence rather than a steal.”

So doing the song Five Foot One was nothing to do with Vanian’s height?!!!!

“I wouldn’t say that to him!!”

What’s the new LP like compared to Phantasmagoria?

“Harder, I like it. It’s more punk. Phantasmagoria was very musical… this one’s got a lot of both in it.”

What other Damned album is it comparable with?

“I’d say it was more Black Album than anything else”

The geezer testing out the drums started to make even more noise, so was very quickly told to “SHARRUP” by Rat!!

I read in one of the music papers that the LP had a lot of cover versions on it. Is that right?

“It’s got one cover version on it…”

LA Woman?

“No, it’s an old song called Alone Again Or”

At this point the rest of the band appeared, ready to leave for the hotel. “If you’ve got a spare one of these it’d be very good of you” Vanian said pointing at one of my zines. Of course I was only too pleased to oblige!

“I’m pleased you’ve got Lively Arts in there” Rat said as he waited on Dave.

I took the opportunity to ask Dave to dedicate a song to the fanzine, and was pleased that he agreed.

“See you later on” shouted Rat, and with a shout of “thanks a lot” from Dave, they were gone.

My next task was to try and find a way out of the Playhouse. Eventually I got out just as the band were leaving. I reminded Dave about the dedication and he said he’d remember. Did he? Did he fuck!!! Oh well, at least I got the interview. THANKS A LOT RAT.