I was pleased to get tickets for this gig, as it was The Damned’s farewell tour so would be the last chance to see them live. Yeah…. ok… it was their first ‘Farewell’ tour that 29 years later they’re still on. But back on this cool December evening in 1993 we all took them at their word that this was going to be ‘goodbye’ from Dave Vanian and the boys.

Many people got into The Damned when they were at the beginning of the punk movement. ‘New Rose’, which they released in October 1976 is considered to be the first British Punk single. I didn’t get introduced to The Damned until the mid-80’s when they released the very gothic ‘Phantasmagoria’ and ‘Anything’ albums – and have always preferred their ‘goth’ tracks to their ‘punk’ ones – although have happily ‘danced’ and ‘sung’ away to New Rose on more than a few occasions.

For their farewell gig they pretty much predominantly just played tracks from their punk back catalogue. It was good fun, and I enjoyed the whole gig, but would have liked a few of the ‘goth’ tracks to have made an appearance.

Their support on the night was Freaks of Desire, who I’m sure I’ve seen since and have actually listened to within the last couple of years, but apparently I found them very average at this gig.

I might see them again on another ‘farewell tour’ at somepoint. They seem to play most years and have a bunch of rescheduled gigs planned for this coming year so you never know…