September 24, 2025
The Damned return to Montreal, but The Bellrays weren’t so lucky
Finally, The Damned are back playing shows in Canada – specifically Montreal, where tonight saw the lads performing a wonderful set at the historic century old Beanfield Theatre (although for most of its existence, it was known as the Corona Theatre, but that’s neither here nor there, is it?)
Just on the bands history alone, this was a must-see event that not even a public transit system strike could tarnish, although it has made getting around the city an even more difficult task than it normally is. A lack of buses means an increase in cars, taxis, ubers and poxy cyclists too.
See Also: Dwarves at Foufounes Electriques, Montreal
The Damned were the first British punk band to ever release a single, narrowly beating out the Sex Pistols for that honor. Moreover, throughout their career, they have switched musical styles on several occasions, including one that earned them the title as the first ever goth rock band. Always innovators, never followers and as poignant now as they have ever been; The Damned truly are something to behold.
The Bellrays
Although scheduled to play the opening slot tonight, The Bellrays mysteriously were not in town. No reason was given for their absence other than in their place, would be a make-shift DJ set, performed by someone who spent more time off the stage than on it. Surely there’s a few comments to made about DJ culture here, but let’s not poke bears.
While the whole DJ thing was amusing, I can’t help but feel that a local band could have easily and willingly filled that spot, giving proper live music to the hall and a chance to grow to a local band.
Rumors swirled about the room, that the DJ on stage was actually the show promoter, although I can’t say for sure if that was true or not.
The Damned
Prior to The Damned taking to the stage, it occurred to me that I had never seen so many people sporting red berets in one place before now. Apparently, as we are rapidly approaching Halloween, many felt the need to cosplay as Captain Sensible. Perhaps they did so in solidarity with the guitarist who has famously adorned his red beret through more than four decades on stages the world over. Regardless, here they all were.
It is quite inspiring to see The Damned still so energetic, and giving so much energy to their live shows all these years in, and a true testament to how much they lover their craft. In turn, the audience responded by bellowing their lyrics back at them, cheering raucously between tracks and even heckling the band a little bit.
Someone from the audience, obviously displeased with the volume vocalist David Vanian was using to address the crowd, yelled for Vanian to “Speak up.” Vanian, in true Londoner fashion, responded by saying “Speak up? You loud mouth gobby goyt!”. I haven’t heard somebody get called that in donkeys years. I’m sure a handful of audience members at most got that, myself being a Londoner, being one of them.
While Vanian and Sensible spoke frequently to the crowd, I wondered how many people in the room understood what was being said to them. While Montreal is a largely bilingual city, a strong London accent still stuns some of the locals around these parts. Captain Sensible seemed a little put off by the lack of response to a few of his quips, and this is probably why.
Playing through a setlist that was comprised of about twenty-odd songs, revisiting early records through to Darkadelic which came out roughly two years ago. Captain Sensible queried if anybody had knew albums like Strawberries and Machine Gun Etiquette, which of course was designed to get a roar from the crowd, and achieved exactly that.
Of course, The Damned were going to play New Rose – which was the first ever punk single released in the United Kingdom, that I alluded to earlier on. The song famously covered by Guns N’ Roses on their Spaghetti Incident covers record, that I would assume brought new ears to the band. New Rose was preceded by a drum solo, and while I normally fuckin’ hate drum solos, this one was played the great Rat Scabies who returned the band, again, two years ago. This one, this one I paid attention to.
In the late moments of the second encore, after having just played Smash It Up, Vanian yelled “Free The Bellrays one” to the crowd, which is a pretty omnius hint towards why the band hadn’t shown up, without actually saying what had happened. Given the recent social-political atmosphere that now exists between Canada and the United States of America; its probably fairly safe to that the border had something to do with this.
My buddy Tim cracked a joke while we were talking about this after the show, and I have to steal it and pretend I came up with it. So here goes! This, according to Tim, is Canada’s revenge for the arrests of the Dayglo Abortions. Maybe we can work out some sort of trade, where we swap their musicians for ours!? Yeah, low brow jokes aren’t below us, baby!
Read More:
>> Bruce Dickinson at Mtelus, Montreal
>> Korn at Canadian Tire Centre, Ottawa
>> Descendents at Metlus, Montreal
I’ve said it before and I’ll surely say it again, but getting a chance to see bands like The Damned still rocking some forty-odd years after they began, is a privilege that we really shouldn’t over look. In fact, music lovers should be cherishing these chances will they are still here.
With the bus and train strike still in full effect, leaving many with no way to get back home until the bus start running again… we did the only thing punk rock lovers would do it this situation. We headed to the bar.
