Before reading this book, I had no prior knowledge of The Damned other than their existence as one of the Crucial Three of "Punk," alongside the Sex Pistols and the Clash. I had no preconceived notions of the band or its importance in music history. This book made me interested in digging into their catalog, and checking out some other bands noted that I had not heard of.

This is a heavily researched, well sourced reference volume on the rise and fall of The Damned. Band members in and out of the band, internal strife, lots of bad behavior (why is there always smashing up studios and destruction of private property in these things? How cliches and unnecessary!).

Recommended for musos, hardcore fans of The Damned and its offshoots, and British music history scholars.

The book focuses on their formation and subsequent first decade, where along with the Clash and the Sex Pistols, were one of the first punk bands. The influence of the band stretches far and wide, be it them taking on support bands who later broke big themselves like Black Flag or having their classic song ‘New Rose’ being covered by Guns ‘N’ Roses. The classic line-up of Dave Vanian (the only ever present throughout the band’s many line-up changes), Captain Sensible, Rat Scabies and Brian James are all interviewed by the author and often tell a varying version of key events ion the band’s history as you’d expect. They have had a fair few musicians through their ranks including Algy Ward (who went on to form Tank), Paul Gray (later seen in UFO), Jon Moss (Culture Club) and Lemmy often appeared on stage with them.

You find out lots of facts including Captain’s love of cricket (his solo career and hit ‘Happy Talk’ are also covered in depth) and interesting insights to the various offshoots including the Phantom Chords and Naz Nomad and the Nightmares. Plus of course the band were very rock ‘n’ roll with Captain often finishing gigs in the nude, and along with Rat Scabies causing mayhem and damage in recording studios and venues. There are plenty of these tales in the book.

The band suffered from a series of label issues and changing management, yet despite setbacks still managed to record some classic songs and Kieron Tyler is a fan, which helps when he assess the songs and impacts of the albums throughout those first ten years. He is honest in his assessment and makes you want to listen to the songs again

Although the book is looking mainly at the band’s first ten years, Tyler goes onto cover the more recent history of the band although not in as much detail. Good news for Damned fans is a new album is due possibly by the end of year and they show no signs of stopping yet.

Well researched and for once a band biography that includes author interviews with the various current and past members, rather than relying solely on archive interviews. Great read for fans of the band and music in general.

Kieron Tyler leaves the reader in little doubt that The Damned were a hugely under-rated band whose influence spread from the gestation of both punk and goth music to later US rockers such as The Replacements, Nirvana and Guns 'n' Roses. Despite their pioneering influence, The Damned has tended to be sidelined and belittled by the mainstream; Tyler's book is an excellent attempt to set the record straight. As he suggest, it may not give us the complete truth, but it brings us closer to the truth than we were before.

The book has been phenomenally well-researched. Tyler has relied heavily on interviews done with band members and others directly involved, either by himself or quoted directly from contemporaneous sources. This lends a feel of both immediacy and authenticity to the band's story.

And what a story it is. Tyler starts off by placing us firmly in the nascent punk rock scene in London, before the term even existed, documents how the four founding members came together, and the musical influences that led them to record the pioneering and then-shocking New Rose. He then takes us chronologically through the band's tumultuous career over several decades, a career that persists to this day.

Throughout, the reader is left wondering how these people managed to survive the largely self-inflicted damage that they personally and the band endured. It's astonishing to think that all four founding members survived in the industry for decades after arising from a milieu where bands only lasted for a few years at most, and which claimed the lives of many of its foremost practitioners. Given the level of self-destruction chronicled here, that is truly amazing.

I enjoyed this book hugely, and found myself constantly jumping onto the internet to listen again to the songs that Tyler was discussing, which often clarified the story he was telling and added to my enjoyment of the book. If I had a quibble it would be that Tyler's chronology sometimes gets confusing and he seems to repeat himself; for example, an account of the recording of Anything appears twice. Overall, however, Tyler definitely succeeds in his objective of restoring The Damned and its members to their rightful place in modern music history.

They were the first of the UK punk bands to release a single (the pounding but catchy "New Rose"), they had one of the first albums (Damned Damned Damned), they produced some iconic punk songs like "Love Song"... but, as Kieron Tyler says in his much-needed new book on The Damned, they never seem to get the respect they deserve.

Tyler's book focuses on the band's most productive era, the first decade, in which they released most of their albums. He assesses their place in the punk scene (and how they were assessed by others), celebrates the music, and through archive and new interviews, brings the characters to life. And there are a lot of them, as the band has been through many a line-up change and hiatus over its long lifespan. He also covers side projects, like Captain Sensible's years as an unlikely pop star. And while Tyler makes a strong case for the importance and influence of the band, he's not shy of pointing out that the band shot themselves in the foot many times.

Tyler carries the story of the Damned through to 2016 in the last pages of the book. He also, interestingly, looks at how they've been portrayed in the books on the punk scene that have proliferated over the years. His is only the second on The Damned, and it deserves its place alongside the many books on the Sex Pistols and the Clash and the UK punk scene in general. As far as I can judge, it's an extensively researched work with a selection of photographs, a lot of footnotes, and a bibliography. There's no discography, but as Tyler says, the catalogue has been reissued and repackaged so many times that it might as well be left to sites like discogs. com to sort it all out.

If you collect books on the history of popular music in general or punk specifically, this should be in your collection.