The curtain fell quickly soon after the band took to the small stage at The Nashville club that night back in 1976, following an offensive burst of something that could hardly be described as popular music - intensely loud guitars, screeching vocals, thundering drums - all played at breathtaking speeds.

The audience, there that night to see the band Salt, clucked their approval at the group's dismissal. Who was this upstart band? Who did they think they were, trying to upset a music scene that nightly recognised Elton John and Eric Clapton as being the top of the pops? Good riddance.

And then, from behind the curtain, came the band's bass drum ... launched into the deserving crowd of decaying hippies, overturning their tables and smashing their greasy pints of beer. An uproar ensued.

And the legend of The Damned was born.