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Damned but not down >> The reprehensible Captain Sensible by JOHNSON CUMMINS
After seeing the Damned--arguably the first recorded punk band--obliterate an audience in 1993, it was quite obvious that this band refuses to go down like dear old Mr. Townsend. Classic songs like "Neat Neat Neat" and "New Rose" seemed to breathe with new life. I talked to a jovially hungover Captain Sensible and asked him to let me in on the secret to eternal rock 'n' roll youth. Mirror: So how do you guys still manage to "bring it on" now that you're nearing your uh... twilight years? Captain Sensible: I would think it has something to do with still being able to drink as much as we ever could. Booze has always been the fuel to everything we've ever done. M: But do you ever think there will ever come a time when you'll become too old to go on? CS: Oh yeah, I mean we'll stop when it's time to stop. But I can still outrage people and I think our sound is still relevant. M: When you hear the current crop of watered-down punk bands do you think punk has run its course? CS: I'm assuming you're not as old as I am, but when punk came along it was to rid ourselves of all the rubbish that was happening back then. Y'know, like Genesis and that shite. Now there's techno doing the same thing, although I quite like it because it's like psychedelia to me. I'm all for blowing away the cobwebs. M: You became a pop star in your own right in the late '80s. Is it easy going back to the Damned after selling out? CS: I love being in the Damned, but being a pop star was fucking incredible. I didn't pay for a drink for bloody years. Once I went to the store to get cauliflower for my mom and people dragged me into a pub and poured drinks down my throat for three days and then I found myself waking up in a hotel room in Italy wondering how the hell I got there... M: But your solo songs were novelty hits. Aren't you glad that people know you again for the Damned? CS: Yeah, but I also loved being massively popular. More people call me Captain than my real name, Raymond. I love that. M: Did you always know you would be a pop star? CS: God, no. Even when I went to #1 with "Happy Talk," it was a song intended to fill out the album. It was one of my mom and dad's favourite songs and I thought they would be the only people who would've liked it. M: Did you think you would last this long? CS: No way, mate. I thought it would last for about three months and then I'd go back to my job cleaning toilets. I got a weekend job at a community centre and we had Marc Bolan play there and my job was to hold all these screaming girls back. After that I figured I'd learn some chords and give it a go. M: Do you enjoy the renewed interest in the Damned? CS: Of course. I love fame. I don't understand how people become uncomfortable with fame. At the same time, I still love being the crotchety old git sitting in the corner at the pub spouting on about politics. People will come into the pub and say, "Who's the crazy guy taking about socialism?" and the regulars will say, "Don't mind him, that's just the Captain." And I love being that guy. At Foufounes Électriques with the Sinisters and Disbanded, Friday March 20, 6:30pm, $21-$24 + taxes
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One of the most painful things to witness is your heroes aging in a not-so-graceful manner. Try watching Pete Townsend trapped in a Plexiglas cage to protect what's left of his hearing, stabbing away at an acoustic guitar as a backstage roadie plays the real chords. The man who wrote the immortal lines of "Hope I Die Before I Get Old" might be more at home calling out bingo numbers in a church hall than onstage in a hockey arena. The majority of these geezers find themselves propped up onstage and, even at their best, can only go through the motions of a once vibrant youth. There are exceptions to the rule of youth--like the Cramps, KISS and the Misfits--but generally we're seeing the inanimate corpses of the likes of the Sex Pistols, the Rolling Stones and Fleetwood Mac clumsily clutching at the straws of rock 'n' roll.