{"id":9535,"date":"2019-11-21T05:00:32","date_gmt":"2019-11-21T05:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=9535"},"modified":"2019-11-22T12:37:58","modified_gmt":"2019-11-22T12:37:58","slug":"brian-james-the-troubadour-london-08-11-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=9535","title":{"rendered":"Brian James \u2013 The Troubadour, London \u2013 08-11-19\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

About t<\/span>wo weeks after The Damned played a sell-out gig at the\u00a0<\/span>2,286<\/span>\u00a0capacity London Palladium<\/span>\u00a0the man who gave birth to The Damned and arguably British Punk is playing 3 \u00bd miles South West in the considerably smaller basement of the Troubadour Club in Earl\u2019s Court.<\/span>\u00a0That man, of course, is Brian James<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>Brian isn\u2019t renowned for reeling off gig after gig in the same year. Normally, it\u2019s just the one up at the 100 Club in July to mark the anniversary of The Damned\u2019s first appearance there<\/span>, but as John Wombat has just published his authorised biography of Brian, the subject matter is making an exception, with both before the gig signing the book and Brian putting his name to a veritable\u00a0<\/span>smorgasbord<\/span>\u00a0of memorabilia. Is it fair that Brian is consigned to\u00a0<\/span>such\u00a0<\/span>a\u00a0<\/span>small\u00a0<\/span>club<\/span>\u00a0whereas The Damned can play the likes of The Royal Albert Hall, Madison Square Gardens and The Palladium? The simple answer is no<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0but having been at the Palladium gig I have to say in all honesty Brian\u2019s gig\u00a0<\/span>was what I want a Punk gig to be all about; people standing on tables, hands pressed against the low ceiling to keep balance and to get a half-decent view, with the\u00a0<\/span>line between band<\/span>\u00a0and<\/span>\u00a0audience blurred because everybody is on top of everybody else.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

From where I was, if I\u2019d had the devil in me, I could\u2019ve put my hand out and detuned Brian\u2019s Telecaster.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Seeing\u00a0<\/span>Brian\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0fingers almost drunkenly stagger across his fretboard with the strings vibrating unnaturally but still producing the most wonderful sound ever I\u00a0<\/span>caught myself<\/span>\u00a0muttering, as my jaw swung open, \u201c<\/span>Far. King. Ell<\/span>\u201d. Towards the end of the set when the opening chords of \u201cI Feel Alright\u201d rang out I had to look to see if the Ghost of Ron\u00a0<\/span>Asheton<\/span>\u00a0hadn\u2019t descended onto the stage.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>The\u00a0<\/span>gig<\/span>\u00a0starts off with Brian playing a slow stripped-down\u00a0<\/span>drawn-out\u00a0<\/span>version of \u201cAlone\u201d that he tells us afterwards originally was written when he was in Bastard<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0his<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>pre-Damned outfit<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>It\u2019s not the first time Brian has reworked Damned songs in this manner<\/span>\u00a0as \u201cNeat, Neat, Neat\u201d got that treatment\u00a0<\/span>when played\u00a0<\/span>live in\u00a0<\/span>Tanz<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Der<\/span>\u00a0Youth. After \u201cWalking\u00a0<\/span>About<\/span>\u00a0Naked\u201d from his \u201cGuitar That Dripped Blood\u201d album and a blistering version of \u201cBorn To Kill\u201d Alan Clayton<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0frontman with The Dirty Strangers<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0took<\/span>\u00a0to<\/span>\u00a0the stage to relieve Brian of vocal duties<\/span>\u00a0launching into\u00a0<\/span>Bo\u00a0<\/span>Diddley\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0\u201cMamma Keep Your Big Mouth Shut\u201d<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the frontman stakes,\u00a0<\/span>Brain struck gold twice<\/span>\u00a0with Vanian and then Bator. D<\/span>oing it for the third time I think is highly unlikely<\/span>\u00a0unless either\u00a0<\/span>Adam\u00a0<\/span>Becvare<\/span>\u00a0or\u00a0<\/span>Jake\u00a0<\/span>Hout<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>wish to leave North America\u00a0<\/span>but Al<\/span>, who pretty much is on home turf, knows how to work the crowd, welcoming everybody and then telling them to \u201cFuck off\u201d with a\u00a0<\/span>huge<\/span>\u00a0grin on his face. His\u00a0<\/span>R\u2019n\u2019B<\/span>\u00a0vibe<\/span>, when\u00a0<\/span>R\u2019n\u2019B<\/span>\u00a0actually stood for something good,<\/span>\u00a0is perfect for Brian\u2019s live cross-section of a back catalogue<\/span>\u00a0that cover<\/span>s<\/span>\u00a0nearly all aspects of it; Damned, Solo<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0Lords of The New Church<\/span>\u00a0(Dave Tregunna was in attendance) and even The Stones get a look in<\/span>, sadly no Mad For The Racket<\/span>. O<\/span>h<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0to hear ‘<\/span>Chewed\u00a0<\/span>Down\u00a0To\u00a0The<\/span>\u00a0Bone’<\/span>\u00a0live<\/span>\u00a0and with his onetime London SS bandmates of Tony James and Brady in the crowd I wondered if they would join him for their version of \u201cFish\u201d<\/span>. Again this was not to\u00a0<\/span>be.\u00a0<\/span>However,<\/span>\u00a0author John Wombat donned a guitar for the set and show-closing song, \u201cNew Rose\u201d<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0It was a perfect end to a perfect night.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Brian is in the throes of writing his autobiography that he hopes will be out in 2021. In conjunction with the publication, Brain told me he hopes to have his own anthology released that will collate his non-Damned and Lords works together<\/span>, with some surprising additions<\/span>. For me, neither can come soon enough.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Author: Armitage Smith<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 About two weeks after The Damned played a sell-out gig at the\u00a02,286\u00a0capacity London Palladium\u00a0the man who gave birth to The Damned and arguably British Punk is playing 3 \u00bd miles South West in the considerably smaller basement of the Troubadour Club in Earl\u2019s Court.\u00a0That man, of course, is Brian James.\u00a0Brian isn\u2019t renowned for reeling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9537,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[148,149,147],"class_list":["post-9535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-live-review","tag-brian-james","tag-lords-of-the-new-church","tag-the-damned","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9535"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9591,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9535\/revisions\/9591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}