Paul Gray Interview Exclusive

Paul Gray Interview Exclusive

Check out this interview with The Damneds Bass maestro Paul Gray. Starting his career back in the 70s Paul first crossed paths with his current bandmates in The Damned when his band’s picture was printed on the flip side of the debut Damned album (good luck finding a copy) since then Paul has thumped his Rickenbacker in Eddie And The Hot Rods, Played with Motorheads Larry Wallis, Johnny Thunders around the time of his classic ‘So Alone’ sessions. He then followed Algy Ward into the Damned lineup and recorded two hugely impressive studio albums ‘The Black Album and ‘Strawberries’ as well as the iconic ‘Live At Shepperton’ record that captured the often chaotic but always exciting sound of The Damned live.

After quitting The Damned he had a stint with hard rockers UFO followed by stints with Andrew Ridgely as well as stints with the musicians union and tutoring Gray then returned to public prominence with Damned bandmate Captain Sensible as one-third of the wonderful Sensible Gray Cells.

Gray was also diagnosed with Throat Cancer before returning to the live stage he played with another Damned bandmate this time Rat Scabies in Professor and the Madman in 2017 before stepping back into the Damned following the departure of Stu West where he’s been an ever-present as the band have raised their profile and delivered several studio albums bringing you up to date with the impressive ‘Darkadelic’. He’s also found the time to record and tour with Wingmen alongside a Moped, Strangler and a Ruts DC. Without further fanfare let me introduce Martin Chamarette our intrepid interviewer and the one and only Paul Gray who it was once said if he was paid by the notes he hit he’d be a millionaire.

Sensible Gray Cells – ‘Get Back Into The World’ (Damaged Goods Records)

Sensible Gray Cells – ‘Get Back Into The World’ (Damaged Goods Records)

Lately I seem to hear the term Garage Rock attached to just about everything I’m listening too, as it was to this baby, without going into a rant about how many different styles and eras there are of Garage Rock (again). I’m just going to look at this as a release grounded in influences, but ultimately standing up on its own as of today, it’s going to just be classed as seriously cool music.

 

For the uninitiated (I would expect very few who read RPM to be uninitiated) the Sensible Gray cells consist of Captain Sensible and Paul Gray from you know where alongside Marty Love (Johnny Moped amongst others) on drums with a guest appearance from Monty Oxymoron.

 

As the LP kicks off I’m not so much drawn into a garage rock vibe but instead led back to thoughts of Phantasmagoria era Damned  ‘Sell her Spark” is a great opener, but I can’t help but wonder what it would have sounded like with Dave Vanian on vocals? And that’s a thought that I just can’t shift, and it comes back to me intermittently throughout.

 

The fact is this could be an absolutely cracking Damned LP, and to court controversy, I rate it a better Damned LP than Evil Spirits, but lets not go there! As I’m blasting through the first few tracks, “Black Spider Memo man” for some strange reason hits at “Eloise” but at the other end of the scale “So long” smashes through the speakers more in tune with classic Who material, were the Who ever a garage rock band? Where as ‘Just a little Prick” runs everywhere from Pink Floyd to the kinks via the Beatles its ridiculously catchy and holding on to some classic influencers.

 

“DJ with half a Brain”, hits that Fuzztones vibe raw American garage rock, but presented from a typically British standpoint. I wonder as I’m listening through for the umpteenth time how great this would have been as a Damned track with Vanian to the fore, lets hope it can somehow be assimilated into a Damned live show. “Jam tomorrow” is a great track, different to everything that has come before, with some seriously cool guitar work from the Captain and a great keyboard run, hinting at Dub and Pschedelia with maybe a hint of the Orb within the samples.

 

Taking stock this is a seriously good LP, grounded in that guitar based underground rock that we’ve grown up with not afraid of experimentation, not afraid to push some boundaries, but at times I just wish certain tracks could have been recorded by the Damned! You’ll be able to pick them out.

 

There’s an early Syd Barrett quintessentially English vibe to “What’s the point of Andrew” a very definitive anti Royalist sentiment that any sane individual would wholeheartedly agree with, yes it takes the Piss.

 

“Fine Weather friend” could have been written for Dave Vanian, that name just keeps coming up, but when you listen the theatrics are just there, the vocal presentation is tailor made, again with some serious guitar work and a terrific locked down bass run. Next up “I married a monster” is a real burner, grounded in the underground, and “You and me” follows suite before we’re into LP closer ”Another world” weaving it’s way forward as a real slab of Psychedelia, an almost Eastern feel to the guitar led intro.

 

Great LP, now how do we persuade the Captain to hand over some of the vocal duties to his day job vocalist and introduce them to a Damned live performance?

 

Buy ‘Get Back Into The World’ Here

Author: Nev Brooks

The Damned – ‘The Rockfield Files’ (Spinefarm Records / Search And Destroy Records)

The Damned – ‘The Rockfield Files’ (Spinefarm Records / Search And Destroy Records)

2020 has been a year that we all would rather forget due to the pandemic live shows have been sorely missed so any new music we must grab with two hands so that brings me to the latest EP release by The Damned titled ‘The Rockfield Files’.

The Damned has recorded some of their classic material at Rockfield and the welsh studio was where the band decided to record their last album Evil Spirits.

‘Keep em’ alive’ is the first track on Rockfield files and it doesn’t disappoint with a chanting intro the track then bursts into life with guitars and drums crashing in and with Dave Vanian’s glorious vocals over the top the tune is a sure-fire winner.

‘Manipulator’ is next up and is a melodic punk ripper with sneering vocals from Dave and some great slashing chords on the guitar courtesy of the Captain.  This track also contains some powerhouse drumming from Pinch who sadly said goodbye to the band and with the Palladium and now this EP as his swansong he is leaving on an extreme high.

The spider & the fly’ is an interesting track as the beginning sounds like something off ‘Phantasmagoria’ but quickly morphs into the psychedelia of “The Black Album” and shows what a diverse band The Damned are.

The last track ‘Black is the Night’ is a song most Damned fans will know as it was the bonus track on the anthology of the same name released last year albeit this is an extended version and a welcome edition here for any fan who has not picked it up.

Overall this EP is top quality with some more great songs from such a great band.

Do yourself a favour and go and buy it and cheer yourself up cause after the last couple of months we all need some happiness in our lives and what better way to do that than with music.

Buy ‘The Rockfield Files’ Here

Facebook

Author: Gareth ‘Hotshot’ Hooper

Professor and the Madman – ‘Séance’ (Fullertone Records)

Professor and the Madman – ‘Séance’ (Fullertone Records)

I hate concept albums as the 16 year Punk Rock Kid inside of me still thinks of some Prog Bloke in a Wizard’s Hat and Cloak stabbing his keyboards, which takes up the space of a fitted wardrobe, with a large Kitchen knife whilst the drummer enters the 20th minute of his half hour drum solo.  Right, now that’s out of the way; my favourite Bass Player ever is Paul Gray who found fame with Eddie and the Hot Rods, The Damned, UFO and erm Andrew Ridgley. One of my three all time favourite Drummers is Rat Scabies who fortunately played on the ground breaking Damned albums “The Black Album” and “Strawberries” with the aforementioned Paul Gray. So when the news broke earlier this year that once more Scabies and Gray would be joining up with Alfie Agnew (Adolescents, D.I.) and Sean Elliott (D.I., Mind Over Four) for the follow up to the Professor and the Madman’s “Disintegrate Me” album I reached for the Box of Kleenex. However, my hand hovered as the words “Concept album” was banded about. Of course the middle-aged me knows that any Genre can tackle the idea of a Concept record, Jazz, Blues, Classical and even Punk, but having quality musicians play on an album doesn’t automatically mean you’ll pull it off, see “Son of Albert” by Andrew Ridgley. “Séance”, is the story relating to a group of mates who hold a séance to say one final farewell to friends who have obviously died,” does manage to pull it off and rather well at that, in the manner of “Sgt Pepper” and “Yellow Submarine.” It does feel as it should be a West End or Broadway Musical, the soundtrack produced by George Martin cue a séance. 

 

“All the lonely Soul” is the brooding intro before the title track introduces us the main characters longing to reconnect with their past and lost loved ones through a séance. “So Long” starts off with a Monkees style intro before we’re taken though a journey of what seems like regret or reflection. Something that does come across throughout the album is the great vocal Harmonies. Alfie and Sean take it in turns in the lead vocal department but it’s the chorus’ that would make Brian Wilson proud. After “So Long” the character in “Real Me” contemplates the Devil on his shoulder. It’s probably the best song the Kinks never wrote. “Child’s Eyes” looks back at how things through adolescent eyes are so much simpler whilst in adulthood it “Seems like the jokes on each of us”. There are two types of people who play bass; Bass Players and Bass Guitarists. John Entwistle, Lemmy and Paul Gray are Bass Guitarists; they play their instrument as if it was a lead guitar and Paul’s style so fit’s in on “Séance” you couldn’t imagine anyone else doing a better job. “Time Machine”/Man With Nothing To Lose” introduces us to another couple of characters; the Scientist who has had enough of reality and wants to build a time machine to go back to his perceived better era. Now “Time Machine” really screams ‘Musical!!’ I can see in my mind a row of men in blazers and straw boaters jazz handing across the stage, all that is missing is trumpets! A homeless man overhears the Scientist in the more downbeat fairground sounding “Man With Nothing To Lose” and imagines what could be achieved if time travel was possible “We could go back and fix all our mistakes. Build ourselves mansions with the money we’d make.” And “Hit 1980 and go see The Damned” If only, if only! “Two Tickets To The Afterlife” returns to the original character who now finds himself in a Game Show set in Hell with some choice prizes “We’ve Got Thrills, we’ve got pills, we’ve got million dollar bills. We’ve got weed, we’ve got speed, we’ve got everything you need” but they all come with a price. “…Afterlife” is probably the heaviest track on the album. Once off the Game Show our main man now finds himself in front of “The Council of Purgatory” who confuses him with their gentle overtones, almost a Barber Shop quartet? Again I can really see this on the West End Stage. “All The Lonely Souls” is reprised as an instrumental that finishes of the main, first act. 

 

“Greetings From The Other Side” starts the final act with the reawakening of mankind after 2000 years frozen in stasis, with questions and concerns of the album’s protagonist answered by the ‘Forces’ “We did not die, we were never here.” The album ends with “New World” with the ‘Forces’ leading mankind to Utopia, the Garden of Eden, you decide but warning, pleading with us to “take care of your new World, not like the old world and teach the children not to hate, because if you don’t…Maybe we’ll see you again.” 

 

Did I ever tell you I love a good old concept album?   

 

“Séance” by the Professor and the Madman is out on the 13th November on either yellow vinyl, CD or digital Download via Fullertone Records that you can pre-order at www.professorandthemadman.com   

Author: Armitage Smith

Website | Artist Page | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Spotify | ReverbNation

 

 

 

Gone But Not Forgotten – Bryn Merrick

Gone But Not Forgotten – Bryn Merrick

Bryn Merrick was a member of Cardiff-based punk band Victimize long before he joined the Damned. He joined The Damned where he survived as bass player from 1983 to ’89. He’d replaced Paul Gray, who had left for UFO. Merrick’s first release with the Damned was the single “Thanks for the Night” b/w “Nasty”. As bassist on the bands most commercial and commercially successful albums  ‘Phantasmagoria’ and ‘Anything’ Bryn had arrived in the big time. 

Bryn made his TV debut on the set of the Young Ones where the band performed the fantastic single ‘Nasty’ still with the Captain on board but, it would seem not for long before he fell overboard. Bryn played the two dates at Finsbury park under the circus tent for the bands Tenth Anniversary Tea Party celebrations and was then featured on the Old Gray Whistle Test recording in Denmark where the band had a pretty decent feature.  The band had never had it so good at that period and after the success of ‘Grimly Fiendish’ and subsequent singles around the album there were high budget videos recorded as well as plenty of sold out shows. The high point of this period had to be the bands cover of ‘Eloise’ which saw them hit the top three in the UK singles chart. The band managed to stay a stable entity for several years thanks in no small part to the inclusion of Jugg and Merrick although stable might be a poor choice of word seeing as the tomfoolery and high jinx would continue a plenty with Merrick complaining of being set alight by Scabies as well as trashing the set of Rock the Dock in Liverpool on a promo performance of Anything ahead of the album release.

They rode the success as they pushed on with the more commercially accessible ‘Anything’ album the band was playing to big crowds every night and with Bryn and Roman occupying the guitar department the band seemed to be doing well but something was indeed rotten in the heart of Denmark and the band imploded after a time of inactivity and sitting around waiting for something to happen which did but this time it was without Jugg and Merrick. who bowed out when the ‘Light At The End Of The Tunnel’ was released at the tail end of the ’80s.  It was fun whilst it lasted and Bryn enjoyed the trappings of success and the fast living of Proper tour busses and half decent hotels.

With the return of Captain several years later Bryn only became newsworth in Damned circles due to his health issues and one we hoped he would win.It was during the making of the movie ‘Don’t You Wish That We Were Dead’ it became apparent that both Bryn and Paul were being treated in the same place by the same Doctor.  Sadly the last time I saw Bryn was during a questions and answers session when the film had a screening in Cardiff Chapter Arts Centre where both Paul and Bryn were present with the film maker and seemingly in good spirits taking candidly about their time in the band.  Sadly Bryn never fully recovered from his diagnosis and on this day in 2015 he lost his battle with the disease.

His time in the Damned will be fondly remembered by many fans and I personally loved following the band around during that period at some pretty amazing shows.  Bryn was a character and filled some pretty hefty shoes in The Damned from Captain, Algy and Paul He last played with the band at a show at Cardiff Point where the Damned had 4 bass players on stage at the same time not something you see every day.  Captain, Paul, Stu and Bryn it was great to see but I think there were a couple up there who’d had a sherry or two but it was fun to be there for that.  Bryn sadly lost his battle on this day in 2015 but not before signing off Facebook with,”Goodbye, Signing out for a while”.  Gone But Not Forgotten Rest in peace Bryn Nos Da for now.