What Damned song do you most enjoy playing on your drums? Do you think genetics will select for your children to have the same hair color as your own, or is it recessive?
- Phanny Tasmagoria, Huntington Beach, California

I think it`s either Blackout or Curtain Call. Blackout, because of the energy and power,and it was always one of my fave bits of Rats drumming. Curtain Call because a good friend of mine died suddenly, and that was the song that we played when his coffin was being carried out of the church. Such an emotional moment that every time I play it, I think of him and it sends shivers down my spine. It reminds me that we are all very fragile, and should be thankful for every day we get to live our lives as we want to. And yes, of course my kids will have red hair. Are you saying mine isn`t natural?

Sorry if you get asked this a 10000 times.But was it hard taking over from ,Rat?
- Margaret Mumford

I actually took over from Spike,and before him, Garrie Dreadful. Spike was a great drummer who chose not to stay with the Damned,but gave me the chance, and I`ll always owe him for that.

The only time I saw The Damned with Garrie Dreadful,I swore I`d never see them again. Garrie Dreadful did a lot of damage to this band and it has taken a while to rebuild peoples faith. He had no respect for what he was involved in, and quite simply, should have had his hands chopped off to prevent any other band having to suffer his pathetic attempt at hitting the drums. Nice guy though…….Apparently.

As a Brit who'd never heard of Rob Zombie, I wonder whose idea it was to tour with Rob Zombie and what do you think of his music/image etc?
- Val.

If you`ve never heard of Rob Zombie, may I deduce that your musical boundaries extend only to what you consider to be safely within that realm? We were trying to cut through the MTV imposed ideas of what people should or should not listen to. As far as image and ideas, I don`t think Rob is a million miles away from The Damned..Indeed he said he was honoured to be touring with us, The fact that we tried, shows we are not afraid of anything. The fact that we werent accepted,shows that his fans are afraid of something.

Pinch- When planning your budget, which necessity do you cut down on first; food, clothing, or stripper tips?
- Mustdangsally;

I love cooking,so I will never starve., I get most of my clothes free from Hurley International, Arnette, Vans and Etnies, check their stuff out, they`ve got some really good streetwear.

The last time I was in a stripjoint,I was with my girlfriend and ten of her mates,and the management had to tell them to calm down because they were taking the attention away from the strippers. With entertainment like that around me, I don`t need to worry about stripper tips hahahahahahaha.

Do you play any other instruments besides the Drums?
- Anita

I have been fiddling about with the bass for a while,but Patricia doesn`t need to look over her shoulder just yet. I`m about as good on the bass as Captain is on the drums……………if you ever heard him, you`ll know what I`m talking about. I also consider the playstation to be an instrument, seeing as I wrote my stuff for GD on the music 2000 programme and then took it to the band to do their thing with it.

What do you like about being in The Damned compared to other bands you've been in aside from getting to carry Captain's guitars for him?
- James

From the moment I joined the Damned,they made me feel very welcome. I only had to play Smash it Up with my wanger to pass the audition. That drum fill in the middle was fuckin painful,I can tell you.

The other bands I played in before the Damned (English Dogs, The Wernt, Janus Stark) were all really full on,in your face playing. The Damned has taught me how to play in a style that is explosive one minute, and gentle as a kittens claws on your ball sac the next………….and I don`t carry Caps guitars you cheeky fukka………we employ Grandpa for that.

Pinch, can you please tell us, who is the guy called Savage who composed "W" together with you and how exactly did he help you writing it?
- Uli Schmid

As I said before, I compose on the playstation and take my ideas to a studio(jigsaw studios in Frognall,near market deeping) where I convert it from midi files to real instruments. My friend, Tom Savage, works there and plays guitar, keys and bass while I play drums and sing to demo the tunes. When we did W, we were putting down the parts to the guitars,and he came up with the wah wow bit at the end of every line in the chorus. It sounded good, so we kept it, and being the honourable gent that I am, I gave him a writing credit and a percentage of the publishing. If you heard the demo for W, you would laugh your tits off at my attempt to sound like DV on vocals hahahahahahah, and it sounds totally funky, with all the wakkah wakkah guitar too. Best kept in the drawer methinks, along with all the other songs I demoed that never made it.

OK My question for ya is, As your song on GD added a very modern twist to The Damned sound, can you see this going any further, i.e. more samples and beats? I for one would welcome this!
- Al Fiendish.

Actually Al, I wanted it to be even more extreme than it ended up being. I wasn`t there at the mix of GD,or you might have been hearing something akin to the Chemical Brothers or Aphex Twin hahahaha I think everybody is very open to ideas,as long as they still sound like The Damned, and with DV singing and Cap on Guitar, I think it would be hard for anything they do not to sound like the Damned.

I have no idea what any new stuff will sound like due to the demos being Damndified . They kind of take on a life of their own once introduced to the band.

I would love the new stuff to be totally experimental and to take the band into unchartered territory,but there doesn`t seem like much stuff they haven`t experimented with already.... check out Monty`s foreskin solo on the breakdown in W.... you hadn`t noticed that huh?

"007 Agent Under Fire" or "Devil May Cry"?
- Mark Bannister

I think you are ignoring the timeless appeal of Gran Turismo 3 on Playstation 2 here Mark.

On the last tour, I was upfront with Mark, the driver, playing solidly for 8 hours, and when we arrived at the next town, I had actually done about twice the amount of miles that he had………obviously, we halved his pay for that day. I`m currently stuck on Half life, where you actually have to think, not just blow things away…………..very difficult for a drummer to comprehend…………..

The fans discuss this often but which track from 'Grave Disorder' would you like released as a single?
- Valerievicious.

I think the only ones to stand a chance in the UK would be a mix of Thrill kill to about 3 minutes by somebody like Norman Cook (cmon Cap,you live near him), or maybe absinthe,but with an orchestral arrangement. That would sound killer. I heard Democracy on the radio while driving through Orange County the other day,and it sounded great.... wish some radio station would pick that up for the states. It fits in well with some of the stuff they are blasting over here. By the way, if I hear another Linkin Park song on the radio, I will launch the fuckin thing out of the window. I used to like that album, but hearing them every 15 minutes has killed it for me. Funny how that happens.... killing in the name of.... enter sandman... etc etc

There are a ton of great bands out there. Why are we forced to listen to the same ones over and over…………anybody say Payola...???

Pinch,
What would you think to be next out of the gate for the band after promotion for Grave Disorder arrives at its thunderous, yet commercially successful, conclusion - a release that features a batch of live tunes or new studio tracks?
- Kary

We haven`t sat down and discussed any new recordings or releases while we still consider GD to be alive and kicking. The rest of the year looks like it`s sewn up with live shows, so maybe in the new year we will be a little clearer as to what comes next. Although you must be getting sick to death of re releases and box sets et al, it does keep the band in the public eye.

As we speak, Cap probably has around 645 new tunes to play us, as he never goes to bed without having at least a little fiddle... so once we get through those,we will be releasing the next Damned album as a six sided vinyl, double cd, feature packed dvd, minidisc and mp3... and any format not known yet to mankind... or yet to be invented by aliens... probably.

In the song "W", the lyrics appear [at least to me] to be a slam at President George W. Bush. Has your opinion of him changed since September 11?
- Peter Flessas

The whole world has changed since September 11th,but the song is really a dig at how the last US election was carried out. It doesn`t matter who the puppet at the top is, he is always on strings, it was just remarkable to see how those strings were pulled in front of a worldwide audience. The cheek, the nerve etc etc. By the way... W is a cunt.

Thanx for the questions folks. I hope you got what you were looking for, if not,you can probably find it at Home Depot... just ask for Garrie Dreadful... aisle 9 tool department... miaowwwwwww!!!

By the way,you can check out my gals website at WWW.MIMILEMEAUX.COM to see some of my amazing photographic skills.

Thanks to Pinch for answering the Q's... Another online interview coming up as soon as I can bribe Captain and DV!
Tune in same time next week month.