This coming February sees the release of the final studio album by legendary The Damned founder Brian James, coming at the start of the band’s 50th Anniversary year and forty-nine years to the week since the release of their classic debut album ‘DamnedDamned Damned’.
‘Kicks And Diabolik Licks’ is being trailed by a single ‘In The Blood’. Brian sadly passed awayon 6 March 2025, a tragic event marked by an outpouring of love from across the punk and rock spectrum, from musicians, critics, fans and others; many of them having been on the receiving end of an electrifying epiphany, thefirst time they heard the needle click into the groove of ‘New Rose’ all those decades before. In recent years, Brian had had his battles with illness, but remained active, taking to the stage in Autumn 2022 for a highlysuccessful reunion tour with his Damned colleagues Messrs Sensible, Vanian and Scabies, followed by a performance with a reformed Lords Of The New Church, fronted by Michael Monroe in place of the departed Stiv Bators for the 2023Vive Le Rockawards. Then he stepped up for two nights at London’s 100 Club in celebration of Lenny Kaye’s famous Nuggets compilation
Throughout this period, Brian was putting together ‘Kicks And Diabolik Licks’. Inspired by his love of Italian culture, the album takes its title from Angela and Luciana Giussani’s popular comic character ‘Diabolik’. Several tracks, meanwhile, take inspiration from theItalian ‘Giallo’ movie genre; best exemplified in the works of directors Dario Argento and Mario Bava, the genre stems from the yellow-jacketed pulp crime novels common inItaly and denotes a trendin violent noir-style films, popular in the 60s/70s Italy and generally seen as a precursor to the 80s slasher genre. It also inspires the record’s vivid yellow sleeve art, by Brian’s longtime friend and noted film poster designer Graham Humprhreys, also responsible for the first two Lords album sleeves. The transposition of cinematic ideas to audio also gave Brian confidence to draw inspiration from his love ofthe more experimental jazz artists such as Coltrane, Mingus, Coleman and Derek Bailey–an influence only rarely glimpsed in Brian’s work, and never to such striking effect.
For the sessions, Brian was surrounded by friends, including longtime bassist and engineer Austen Gayton and drummers Malcolm Mortimore, Dave ‘Caveman’ O’Brien and Steve Murray, while Dirty Strangers frontman Alan Clayton sings backing vocals and ex-Modettes singer Ramona Wilkins Carlier takes the lead on a very different version of the Lords’ hit ‘Dance With Me’
Let it suffice to say, in Brian’s immortal words,“You want some action, then… yeah? ”Kicks And Diabolik Licks’ is available to pre-order on vinyl here, and on CD here.
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