Well,
I've had some weird and wonderful nights watching The Damned over
the years, but this has got to be up there with the strangest.
Firstly
there was the Twisted Cabaret acts, namely the evening's MC, Kitten
on the Keys, and the burlesque dancers Missy Malone and
Mimi Le Meux.
Full
marks to Kitten for managing to get a reasonably enthusiastic
response from a largely bemused audience with her forceful combination
of cheerful banter and smutty ditties with keyboard accompaniment.
Missy's
dance routine, in which she appeared as the Bride of Frankenstein
and proceeded to remove her bandages, was quite mesmerising - and
a room full of Damned fans seems as good an audience as any for such
an act.
Mimi then came on for a more traditional routine, complete
with big feather fans and swirling tassles, and certain chaps in the
crowd seemed to be getting quite excited by it all.
Twisted
Cabaret indeed, and don't you just love The Damned for having the
style and imagination to have something like this as part of their
shows.
The second strange part of the evening was the time of The Damned's
performance. Annoyingly they had to be off stage by 10pm so that the
venue could become a nightclub, which meant them being on stage by
about 8.30pm, something which I'm sure Mr Vanian especially did not
appreciate.
It was soon apparent that all was not well with Mr V, as he skulked
around the stage looking particularly glum for the first few numbers,
then actually disappeared halfway through Disco Man, leaving Captain
to perform the vocals for the remainder of the song.
DV
re-emerged, still looking unhappy, and made it through to the end
of the set, but when the rest of the band came back for the encore,
Captain explained that Dave's voice had packed in, and that he couldn't
do the encore. So we then had Captain singing Jet Boy Jet Girl
and Love Song, and that blasted 10pm deadline arriving before
they had time to do Smash It Up, which was naturally disappointing.
So
well done to Dave for at least getting through the main set, and to
Captain for being a super-sub when required!
Set list:
Nasty
Street of Dreams
Neat Neat Neat
Generals
New Rose
Wait For The Blackout
13th Floor Vendetta
Eloise
Disco Man
Absinthe
The Shadow of Love
History of the World part one
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Ignite
Jet Boy Jet Girl
Love Song
Review by Grant Macabre