Smash it Up – The Damned (1979)

Description

Additional information about this, The Damned vinyl art.

The Damned – The Artists

The Damned are an English punk rock band formed in London in 1976 by lead vocalist Dave Vanian, guitarist Brian James, bassist (and later guitarist) Captain Sensible, and drummer Rat Scabies. They were the first punk band from the United Kingdom to release a single, “New Rose” (1976), release a studio album, Damned Damned Damned (1977),nd tour the United States. They have nine singles that charted on the UK Singles Chart Top 40. The band briefly broke up after Music for Pleasure (1977), the follow-up to their debut studio album, was critically dismissed. They quickly reformed without Brian James, and released Machine Gun Etiquette (1979). In the 1980s they released four studio albums, The Black Album (1980), Strawberries (1982), Phantasmagoria (1985), and Anything (1986), which saw the band moving towards a gothic rock style. The latter two albums did not feature Captain Sensible, who had left the band in 1984. In 1988, James and Sensible rejoined to play a series of reunion gigs, one of which was released the next year as the live album Final Damnation (1989). Their fast-driven punk rock has been cited for influencing and shaping the emergence of hardcore punk in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the United Kingdom and the United States.

Smash it Up – The Song

‘Smash it Up’ is a song by English punk rock band the Damned, released as a single on 12 October 1979 by Chiswick Records. It is considered the band’s unofficial anthem. The single was the second release from the band’s third studio album Machine Gun Etiquette (1979), where it was listed as “Smash It Up (Part II)”. The B-side of the single was “Burglar”. “Smash It Up” was produced by the band and Roger Armstrong. It is structured in two-part form: a melodic instrumental introduction (written in hommage to Marc Bolan after his tragic death) segueing into an energetic pop-punk song. The song’s lyrics criticise those who indulge in hippie culture (referring to “blow wave hairstyles” and “Glastonbury hippies”) instead of advocating for political revolution. Smash It Up” was boycotted by BBC Radio 1 because of its perceived anarchic lyrics, stalling at No. 35 in the UK Singles Chart.

Smashed & Cracked – The Shape

This record has been modelled into a smashed and cracked record.

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