Sense and Capt.Sensibil-ity: An Interview with Capt.Sensible of The Damned
by pamela m., Marika
20.07.2007 @ Back to Future Fest, Germany

Captain Sensible: That’s the great thing about being in a band- you get invited to do all sorts of weird, wonderful things.

Marika: Like you got invited to light a Christmas tree if I remember?

CS: It was in Cambridge.  Every year they invite whoever is playing to turn on the lights for Christmas- big extravagant thing with decorations all around the town.  I thought this is fantastic.  It’s amazing to be considered not quite so evil as we were 30 years ago. So, I thought, now we are part of British culture, they have accepted us.  But a week before we came, a Bishop complained that we were inappropriate, not wholesome, not the right sort of people to be turning on Christmas lights.  When I heard this, I went crazy because I fight against the church- every religion- because to me it’s all bullshit, lies, and a way of controlling people.  I think the church has got no right to moralize to me or anybody else, so fuck you bishop.  I went down and pushed the button and made a little speech as well.

M: Controversy actually helps a bit.

Pamela: Do you think some of The Damned’s acceptance came from you?  You did do “Happy Talk” and other things more socially acceptable.

CS: No, I think the reason is in ‘76 people thought we were evil.  In ‘65 they thought The Stones were evil.  In ‘55 the thought Elvis was evil.  Although it has to be said that Punk is a sort of protest movement and it does challenge things. I think it’s very important for that because especially now with anti-globalization protests, animal rights, it’s all punk rockers who lead these.

P: So, you’re into the political scene, animals rights, you’re a vegan.  Have you been doing that all along?  Did it come later?

CS: Yeah, I have been.  I was working with a band called Crass .

M:  They educated you to veganism?

CS:  They did actually. When I left school, I was pretty angry.  I could see a lot of bollocks in society.  In Britain we had a very structured society where a working class bloke was on the bottom and would stay there unless he got lucky as a footballer, pop star, or criminal.  

Crass, helped me understand it’s all linked- the bastards who sell you hamburgers finance the president’s campaign are the same who are tearing down the rainforests for more beef.  I got more in a week working with Crass than I did in 10 years at school.

P: So, is this what led to the Blah party?  What’s the deal with that?

CS: The Blah party is instead of me shouting onstage at the poor audience between songs, I formed my own party- it’s very democratic- it’s an anti-politician party.  It’s not about getting elected, it’s about getting members.  When you get a certain amount of members people from T.V. and newspapers have to respect you- we have 8,000 members- that’s nearly as big as the top 3 political parties in Britain.

P:  What is the party platform?

CS:  It’s fairly anarchistic, tinged with socialism.  I believe we should spend far less on the military.  No one else is saying we could slash the budget by 90%.  Nobody wants to take over Britain.  Nobody wants to invade us.  We don’t need this army.  It’s just America telling us to arm ourselves and we should tell America, the government, [not the people-they’re great], to fuck off.  We should spend our money on hospitals, schools, and public transport.

M:  You seem to be on the same path as Jello Biafra when he ran for mayor or Hunter S. Thompson when he ran for mayor.  Kind of stirring the shit-pot.

CS:  Exactly.

M: Putting things out there to be heard because of the controversy and because it’s coming from a character.

CS:  I’m lucky to have a wacky stage name and people will listen to me.  What I want to do when I look back at my life is think I did my best, and if I stirred up the shit a bit- that’s great!  

P:  Were you the driving force in the band behind the anti-Reagan, anti-Bush, and anti-Pope songs?

CS: (naughty grin) Yes.  Actually Pinch wrote the anti-Bush one, “W ” and little did we know what he’d turn out to be.

P: It’s interesting you have political songs and you never hear the Damned , at least in the U.S, discussed as a political band.  Any thoughts on this?

CS: It’s just part of what we do, really.  I wish more people knew about us, but I don’t mind being obscure. We don’t do a lot of interviews.

P: Is that because you don’t like to or people don’t ask?

CS: A bit of both really.  Dave’s a little bit of an enigma. The mystery man.  A lot of people get the impression he’s kind of dark, moody, stuff like that.  He’s actually the most entertaining bloke I’ve traveled with.  He’s got a great sense of humor- it’s kind of quirky English humor from the 50’s.

P: You guys started the band together and you were out of the band for a while.  Lord knows you don’t have to do this, so there must be something between you guys.

CS: I think it’s that we do very different things.  Dave is totally in love with film and visuals whereas I am totally into sound.  That’s an example of how we don’t tread on each other’s toes.

M:  It probably brings more to the project.

CS: He’s the style guru.  I don’t have much style, but I do other stuff.

P: Back in the mid-70’s there was this party hard, die young ideal.  Thinking back to that time as you remember from then, what did you think would happen?  Where did you think you’d be with this?  And, I found nothing in the press about big drug issues with The Damned.  Was it hidden or did it not exist?  If not, how did you avoid the death and destruction?

CS: I think the drugs thing, apart from Sid Vicious, was mainly in New York.  You read * “Please Kill Me”,  and there are a lot of drugs in that, but I never saw much in London.

P: Really?

CS:  The class of ‘77- The Pistols, Chrissie Hynde, The Stranglers, The Clash, smoked a bit of dope.  We did a bit of speed. We looked at what showbiz was. We were reacting against the rock-n-roll bands of the time with their feet up on the monitors and swaggering attitude.

M: The big arena rock?

CS: Yeah, some rock god standing there with his nose full of cocaine, singing insulting songs about groupies.  For me, punk was so anti- that sort of thing- the misogyny of that sort of rock was disgusting.  Punk changed a lot of things for women in rock.  Punk is fairly challenging.  You have to listen to the words and sometimes it’s not that pretty a noise.  I thought hair metal would come back, but it didn’t.  Well, kind of.

M: Bands like Bon Jovi.  That era, Guns-n-Roses, but they cite punk influences.

CS:  They do side with the punks, don’t they?

M: They cite The Damned as an influence, so you might have kind of changed their platform- how they presented themselves, though they’re still quite misogynous.

CS: There’s nothing I hate more than heavy metal.  I hate everything about it; it’s the right dressed up as the left. They don’t want to change the world, read their lyrics.

P: So that’s your goal, to change the world?

CS: Yeah, why not?  It needs changing.

P: Your music is considered a forerunner of the Goth scene, especially Dave as the fashion god, but it doesn’t sound Goth.  You guys have influenced the punk and the Goth scene?  How does that set with you?

CS:  I don’t know.  When I left the band in ’85 and they had success with Phantasmagoria and other albums.  I genuinely like music that’s tinged with melancholy.  I like a nice melody and not too happy.  

P:  You have a new album coming out?

CS: We’re working on songs.  I know people in England, our faithful fans, they want a new album now, but  there’s no reason to rush things.

P: What should we expect?  Something totally new, something reflecting the past?

CS:  There will be elements of it all- I hope this time we reflect how good a keyboard player we have.  Monty- he’s a genius at improvisation.

M: Will we see some of that onstage?

CS: Yeah, a few times.  I don’t want to bore the aficionados with noodling- we dabble in psychedelia occasionally.  Some of my records at home do that and I love them dearly, I want to be like my heroes.

P: Who are your heroes?

CS: It’s marvelous in this job you get to meet your heroes.  But I still get all nervy.  People like Tony McPhee from The Groundhogs, a blues band from the early 70’s.  If I met David Bowie, I wouldn’t cross the room to shake his hand.  I’ve got no time for David Bowie, but meeting Mark Bolan meant everything to me.

M: You met Mark Bolan?

CS: Yeah, we toured with him in ‘77.  He took us on a 25-date tour of Britain and Scotland.  Not only that, he had us in his tour bus which is unheard of.  Everyday he gave us bits of advice.  He was like our dad.

M: Do you do that for others?

CS:  We’re horrible to our support bands.  When we went out with The Rats in ‘77/’78 we used to put Led Zeppelin through their monitors.  They got so angry they would throw things at us on stage.  The next day, when they were playing we’d walk across stage reading a newspaper then they’d walk across eating ice cream and talking.  It was war.  No, we weren’t nice as Marc Bolan.

M: When you started, you were singing to a certain generation in a certain time.  Now you’re singing to a new generation and the past generation (the one’s that are still around) in a different world.  Do the same words still apply?

CS: The amazing thing is that this is the first generation that has ever liked the same music as their parents.  We get kids coming with their parents who saw us the first time around and parents bringing their kids who like Green Day and they like us.  Crazy isn’t it?  It’s not supposed to be like that.  





·    “Please Kill Me” by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain
Copyright 2007 Instigator Media Group s.r.o. / Provokator.org (tm)

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