Ladies And Gentlemen How Do?…On this very date in 1979 one of the finest punk rock records hit the shops.  Sure there was no Brian James genius to steer the band and it was now down to Sensible, Scabies, Vanian and the new bloke Ward to move to the next level and take the band on a more adventurous journey that’s for sure.

They still had the genius and mainstay tunes on the album that have been in the bands set ever since and it would seem strange not to see the band play and hear that killer Algy Ward grunt on ‘Love Song’ or the set closer and conductor of pandemonium over the years ‘Smash It Up’.

Its had the Anniversary treatment more times than the queen and had its fair share of reissues but one thing they’ve never done is fuck about with its exceptional sonic boom.  It might have been the Damned mark two dipping their collective toes into the songwriting pool and doing it exceptionally well and paving the way for the far more diverse ‘Black Album’ but it has never had the respect it should on a wide musical scale.  For me, you can keep your Pistols and your Clash (as much as I love both bands)  because my go to punk band from the class of the 70’s has always and will always be the Damned.  Never mentioned in the same breath as the other two but they were the first to this and first to that and first to the other and the only band that possibly could have come up with this record.  It might not have the might of the debut album but it’s not far behind that’s for sure.

What other groups could have called on the services of Lemmy, Strummer, Headon and Simonon to do backing vocals? Finally what better excuse to show how splended the band were than showing this TOTP footage of them performing ‘Love Song’  – Happy Birthday MGE the finest 39 in all the land.

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