The Damned

The Damned are an English 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) and tour the United States. The band briefly dissolved after their second album, Music for Pleasure (1977), was critically dismissed. They re-formed without Brian James and released Machine Gun Etiquette (1979).

In the 1980s, they achieved success playing gothic and psychedelic rock, with nine of the band's singles charting in the UK singles chart top 40. That decade saw the release of four studio albums: The Black Album (1980), Strawberries (1982), Phantasmagoria (1985) and Anything (1986). The latter two albums did not feature 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).

The Damned again re-formed for a tour in 1991. In 1995, a lineup with Vanian and Scabies released a new studio album, Not of This Earth, against Vanian's wishes, leading to Scabies' departure from the band for nearly thirty years. This was followed by the return of Captain Sensible, and the albums Grave Disorder (2001), So, Who's Paranoid? (2008) and Evil Spirits (2018), which was their first studio album in the Official Chartstop 10 list. and Darkadelic (2023), which also made the top 10. In November 2023, Scabies rejoined, and their 2026 covers album, Not Like Everybody Else, was the first Damned album to feature three members from the classic lineup in over forty years.

They have been recognised as influential in the development of numerous genres, including punk rock, gothic rock, and hardcore punk, as well as influential to popular bands that came after them.