Page 108 - Classic Rock (January 2020)

‘During the interval,
Dave Vanian has his
head shaved.’
Captain Sensible: the
beret maketh the man.

Gottle of gear: Vanian
and friend deliver Dr
Jekyll And Mr Hyde.

Thank you and
Dave Vanian as goodnight…
Nosferatu, complete
with rubber ears and
freshly shaved head.
“Our audience are amazing,” says Vanian afterwards, Interview With The Vampire, which features a turn from
“They got behind the idea and it was wonderful to see.” young actress Indica Watson wearing a party dress
The Damned’s constituency are uncommonly which Dave spent last weekend painstakingly removing
faithful, and why not? The Damned, on all evidence hundreds of sequins from). But Dave gets into his coffin
presented here tonight, are one of the finest live too early and has to sing both songs from inside. Finally
spectacles available to modern man. Forty-three years emerging from his box during Neat Neat Neat – in order
into their career, and not only are they still peaking, to slaughter the doppelgänger who’s sung the first part
they’re also finding new ways to freshen up their entire of the song dressed as he had in the first act (oh, do
modus operandi. As the performance unfolds, Vanian keep up) – he launches into an epic cover of Bauhaus’s
nods to Dead Of Night by producing a ventriloquist’s Bela Lugosi’s Dead. It’s only then that he realises his
dummy for Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde, the audience nearly in-ear monitor pack has fallen off in the coffin and he
soil themselves with excitement as a barnstorming can’t hear anything. Cue much pacing. “Unfortunately,
Eloise (during the course of which an on-stage murder I’d worked out this spectacular thing with dry ice, and
takes place) confirms that the string section were more the coffin was so full of it I couldn’t find the pack.”
than worth all the effort, before long-established set- But with the entire audience so beside themselves
piece Curtain Call closes the first act on a stunning high. with delight at the sight and sound of a bald Vanian
Damned take to the stage to a rapturous reception. During the interval, as the audience check each other delivering the unofficial Goth national anthem, no
Paul Gray looks like a reanimated smuggler, a tricorne out over Bloody Marys, Vanian proves his commitment one notices, and the show storms on from strength to
hat sets off his trusty Rickenbacker a treat, while to his art by having his head shaved. strength. New Rose, Love Song, an apposite romp through
Sensible’s all frock-coat and plastic specs (the guitarist He’s elected to play the second half of the show as The Doors’ People Are Strange, Smash It Up (Pt 1 & 2) and
appears uncharacteristically subdued throughout Nosferatu. And those bald caps? Well, they just don’t finally, in its correct key, future classic Black Is The Night.
the entire set. “I was concentrating,” he admits. “I’d work: “They can come apart and it shows,” says Vanian, As the inevitable ovation erupts, Vanian returns to
been cramming, but some of the material we’d never “so I had all of my hair shaved off. It took six and a half his casket as Sensible, his usual beret back on his head
played before other than in the studio. Some stuff I’d minutes while people were gluing pieces to me and and his unusually taciturn tongue loosened at last,
played keyboards on and had to invent guitar parts.”) spray-painting me with make-up.” Pieces? Pointed apologises for being “under-rehearsed”, but there’s so
Pinch? Pinch is very high up… Not ideal for a man rubber ears, to be precise. much love in the room no one even calls him a wanker.
who’s used to giving visual cues to his prone-to-a-prog- Anyway, as one might expect, things get rather “I look forward to doing something much, much
noodle bandmates. hectic during Dave’s transformation and all doesn’t go bigger next year,” Vanian says later. “Maybe The
And Vanian? Vanian looks magnificent: an exactly to plan. Originally, as the second act kicks off, Bride Of Frankenstein… A reanimation, live from the
immaculately caped Bela Lugosi-style vampire, utterly with Tightrope Walk (twin aerialists giving it plenty on power station.”
in his element. As he applies his commanding baritone the flying trapeze), Vanian is supposed to sing from Having successfully brought The Damned back from
to Wait For The Blackout, he gazes out into the gilt the side of the stage before secreting himself in a coffin the dead on so many occasions, only a fool would bet
ornature and blood-red velvet plush of the capital’s from which he’ll emerge, triumphantly bald, after The against him succeeding.
most prestigious theatre, to find an entire legion of the Dog (a hitherto overlooked gem from Strawberries,
undead staring back at him. based on the character of Claudia from Anne Rice’s Words: Ian Fortnam Photos: Will Ireland

108 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM