Brian James, founding member and guitarist with the legendary British punk band The Damned has died at the age of 70.
“Goodbye to a pioneer and true gentleman,” read a statement on his official Facebook page which went on to say, “with his wife Minna, son Charlie and daughter-in-law Alicia by his side, Brian passed peacefully on Thursday 6th March 2025.”
My first introduction to the music of Brian James came in April 1977. Big Billy Allen had come back home to East Kilbride from university in Aberdeen for the Easter vacation. He had brought with him three 7” singles. We all convened at Kraw’s house and cranked up the Dansette. “Is she really going out with him?” Dave Vanian’s deadpan voice, followed immediately by Rat Scabies’ relentless drums and then the guitar just crashes in before hitting its stride with that incredible riff. It was Brian James. It was ‘New Rose.’ And he wrote that song.
The other two singles Billy had with him were ‘Anarchy in the UK’ by the Sex Pistols and The Stranglers’ ‘(Get A) Grip (On Yourself).’ Punk was late in arriving in that part of Scotland. But it was a seminal moment in our lives. Life-changing in many respects as those West Coast singer-songwriters, Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells, Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here and countless others were consigned to the dustbin of our musical history (at least temporarily.) And I thank Brian James for that.
Having then spent that summer on the dole in Devon and Cornwall – “scroungers in the sun” screamed The Sun newspaper’s headline, referring to people like us – and having seen the four of them stood on the promenade earlier that day casually smoking cigarettes and chatting to fans, that night we went to see The Damned play at Penzance’s Winter Gardens.
Supported by The Adverts, the show was electric. Packed to the rafters, dangerously so – there were no Health & Safety considerations back then – it was sheer mayhem, bodies everywhere, jumping, pogoing, spitting, fighting. It was madness. But it was brilliant too.
The Damned had formed the previous year in London and just like ‘New Rose’ – the UK’s first punk single – Brian James wrote most of the material that would appear on their first two albums, Damned Damned Damned and Music for Pleasure (both released in 1977). He would leave the band later that year but was to enjoy a long and varied career thereafter, first with the short-lived Tanz Der Youth, before teaming up with Stiv Bators from The Dead Boys for The Lords Of The New Church.
Following three studio albums with Lords Of The New Church, Brian James went on to form The Dripping Lips and the Brian James Gang. He also played with Iggy Pop, the Saints and in the Racketeers.
In October 2022, Brian James reunited with Rat Scabies, Dave Vanian and Captain Sensible – the original members of The Damned – to play a series of shows in the UK.
Main photo: original cover of the ‘New Rose’ single. Brian James is pictured second from the right.
