Wednesday 18 December 2024.

Wednesday 18 December 2024. THE DAMNED play the first of two nights at The Roundhouse. THE DAMNED line-up from the 1980s play the UK. David Vanian, Captain Sensible, Rat Scabies and Paul Gray will play shows across the UK, opening in Newcastle and finishing up for two nights at London’s Roundhouse, a significant venue in their long-standing career. I saw The Damned at The 100 Club Punk Festival in Sept 1976. I saw The Damned 10 times in 1977, including two shows at The Roundhouse where they were supported by The Dead Boys. i have seen them over 40 times ... Support comes from THE FLESHTONES who i saw at The Rainbow in 1981...and DOCTOR AND THE MEDICS who I have seen a couple of times. The Damned released the first proper punk single ' New Rose' in 1976, which was just before any of the other punk bands. It was covered by Guns N Roses in 1993. Pretty amazing that 2026 will be the 50th anniversary of punk, and The Sex Pistols and The Damned are both still playing live gigs with three original members each . ------------ The venue looks pretty full tonight. Good to see so many older punk rockin' lovin' folks here. Tonight I have a seat in the guest block of the seated area. Looking down on the floor , there are lots of bald heads. THE FLESHTONES arrived on stage at 7.20pm for their 35 mins set. Pretty amazing to see them again after over 40 years. They played CBGBs and Max's Kansas City punk clubs in the 1970s, but never had the big success of other New York punk bands ,but they played a good set of tracks including ' Way Of The World' and 'Remember The Ramones'. DOCTOR AND THE MEDICS arrived on stage at 8.10pm for their 40 mins set. The Doctor is looking and acting just like he did back in the day, along with some entertaining banter. He was joined by a great female co-singer. They played ' No-One Loves You When You've Got No Shoes ' and they finished their good set with their UK Number 1 hit cover from 1986 ' Spirit in the Sky'. THE DAMNED arrived on stage at 9.10pm for their 1 hour 40 mins set, and are sounding really good. Punk classics played included 'Love Song' ,' I Just Can't Be Happy Today', 'Neat Neat Neat' , ' New Rose' and 'Smash It Up'. Captain Sensible is joking around as usual . A great show. Full setlist played by THE DAMNED tonight.... Love Song Machine Gun Etiquette Wait for the Blackout Lively Arts The History of the World (Part 1) Plan 9 Channel 7 Stranger on the Town Limit Club I Just Can't Be Happy Today Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Beware of the Clown Eloise ( Barry Ryan cover) Life Goes On The Invisible Man Ignite Neat Neat Neat Encore: Curtain Call Drum Solo (Rat Scabies) New Rose Encore 2: There Ain't No Sanity Clause Smash It Up (Part 1) Smash It Up (Part 2) --------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------- Monday 16 December 2024. ELYANNA live at Shepherds Bush Empire. Palestinian-Chilean music artist Elyanna heads out on her WOLEDTO world tour in support of her debut album of the same name. WOLEDTO sees Elyanna blends Arab pop with elements of EDM and jazz to create an energizing new sound with deep respect for tradition. Elyanna has just completed a North American Tour. This is the last date on her European Tour. Looks like this show sold out in advance. ----------- Due to where she cones from, the outside of the venue is like Fort Knox , with barriers everywhere, and double the usual amount of front door security personnel. The venue is rammed solid sold out. Maybe a 75% excitable female crowd . We have a female DJ , then a male DJ play 25 mins sets each of Arabic dance music. ELYANNA arrived on stage at 9.10pm for her 75 mins set. She certainly looks and dances like Shakira . She joins in with her four female dancers routines . There is a guitarist with her for some songs, but otherwise it is all backing tapes. A nice big screen is showing live footage. The Arabic tunes ticked along ok. A few chants of " Free Palestine" during the evening.

Posted 16th December 2024