Dave Vanian interview

[nic208208]

I saw the Damned, Scala 2010 and they were, and are still the best band I have seen live.

[eibon81]

jblondejon: yes, thought so! And he always looked and sounded AMAZING! Mind you, he doesn't seem to have aged much, does he? Perhaps he really IS a Vampyre, after all!

[xXShortEmoKidXx]

Fuck whatever you have to say about my name, the Damned is my favorite band and I can't stop listening to them.

[eibon81]

I think that Dave Vanian was the first person to dress like that-someone please correct me if i'm wrong!

[jblondejon]

@eibon81 indeed he started the gothic look

[taiwarrior1]

cor!!! and their music was great as well. ;-)

[Kaprah91]

HEY!!! It's Sweeney Todd!!! it's obvious at this point where Tim Burton gets some of the ideas for the look of his characters...

[5380fabio]

It's not important how do you dress. The question is how do you feel the music inside. I like all kind of rock (from heavy metal to gothic rock), but I don't need special clothes to prove I'm an heavy metal kid, or a goth or the fuck you want... My passions shine through myself.

Excuse for my english but I'm Italian

[EnigmaticNeurosis]

@5380fabio Well said.

[MCRKiira]

I'm seeing The Damned in November (2011) for their 35th Anniversary Tour and I'm so excited! I think he's so sexy and their music changed my life!!

[planetrockford]

18th century decor rules.

[kingerz]

All kinds of people loved The Damned back in the 80s...a lot of us went up to their 10th anniversary conceret in a Circus Tent in Finsbury Park in London and it was punks, bikers, mods, trendy types, metalheads...never see that since the time of Nirvana.

[ninelivecat]

Grimly Fiendish was a comic book character in Wham!, Pow! and Smash! comics in the 1960s, as well as Cor!, Shiver & Shake, Monster Fun and Buster in the 1970s and 80s

[batbreath77]

I saw them in 1985 and still love em

[ParisSpleen74]

why don't people appreciate the fucking music and stop worrying about CLOTHES. For fuck's sake.

[GriefTourist]

sleeps in a coffin

[ariellevonglitz]

@GriefTourist

and lives in a castle!

[kasmiralyric]

@VredesStal Well actually tim burton asked dave could he model depps character after him! So depps not really a poser. If Anything its a great form of flattery yah know!

[Angusismyhero]

Dave doesn't have to sing for his voice to sound sexy, I could listen to him talking all day.

[badsign1980]

kids nowdays dont understand what it is to be free to be creative and unique they do things and are things that arent themselfs, they label things and are brainwashed with media to label themselfs they cant try to create something new and develop and not be afraid to be crazy, diff, new, no they bhave to soundand be like something that was and only think about success and money, that isnt art, that isnt anything but destroying something that was great and now is a joke

[esguerda]

@badsign1980 : i like you! I'm so glad you appreciate this stuff! i was only a young teen in the mid 80's, missed a lot of shows b/c i was too young, SO frustrating! i wish I had been born just a tad earlier, like '65. :)

[ajittffcure]

Interesting interview with Dave Vanian.

[MsGORGONS]

you don;'t have to watch mainstream crap...you two can RESIST

[quantana927]

Dave is just cool. Any way you slice it, this guy rocks. He isn't some rock star idiot that's full of himself and treats fans with disdain. Love the Damned.

[polycera]

'we've never really had a good bass player before' - what about algy ward?

[tequilakaren]

theeeeeeeee most tuned in guy ever, Dave i love ya xx

[tequilakaren]

omggggggg plan 9 chennel 7 orrrrr wait for the blackout , NEW ROSE DEFOOOO X

[Mel7vc]

I've never seen those music vids before! Had no idea they existed, Can you get them on DVD?

[childofthedamned]

Where's the full music video of Grimly Fiendish? Surely somebody should've put it on youtube by now...

[metalfingersinmybody]

Does anybody have a copy of Temptation ? the b side of Eloise?...

[incandescentsmile]

Emo boys can go hang - why don't guys in bands dress like the Damned did nowadays??? Being a teenager now, i hate the kind of music the press labels as "our music" - RnB and rap, or emo shite. I would have loved to have been alive in 80's. You guys had the best music.

[LBjim]

Yes we did, but if you are listening to the Damned that is a start man..

[AzraelBlackthorn]

yes yes they did, the eigthies was incredible, so much goth rock was brewing in that time, the damned's goth phase, the cure, bauhaus etc etc, emo is just a wannabie rip off of goth and punk

[jimmymortis]

I don't know why people say it is a wannabe or a ripoff. If they want to be in these styles of music or in there styles of aesthetic or whatever subculture characteristics you can bring up they have a funny way of showing it. They don't have any of the attitude, style, or sound, in fact they go in the opposite direction. Therefore, its not a ripoff its just something completely different to me. Something completely different that I just happen to not care for.

[AzraelBlackthorn]

i say wannabies because they try to copy other styles badly, but dont really know anything about it, example, the amount of emo kids wearing misfits t-shirts, coz they look cool, yet not a single one of them listens to misfits, knows who glenn danzig or micheal graves are, and cant even name a single song, and if they can its usally die die my darling.

[gothicjokercro]

what the hell are you talking about? deathrock and goth are still alive. peple still get into it, just have to find the right area. you give up to early.

[incandescentsmile]

Maybe they are still alive, in London, large cities and what have you. But i live in the middle of country nothingness (you know - the kind of place where if a guy was caught wearing mascara and hairspray, he would be run out of town by a lynch-mob) Also, it's something to be part of a movement - if goth were to have a revival, we'd (that is, teenagers) get totally sneered at by "original" goths.

[Gloomshadow1]

@incandescentsmile no thats not true..were still at the clubs waiting for the new Generation to appear..where the fuck are you? ah ah

[DisneyPressedRoses]

let me just agree with you. i'm 13 and have been into goth and deathrock shit for over a year now ;)

[Jakegothicsnake]

Indeed. I'm a goth and in the areas where I live the big things for teens and young adults are gangster, pop, emo/scene, and hipster, but around my college campus, it is quite rare for me to see a gothic person, a punk rocker, or even a metalhead, but I don't give up my lifestyle because of it.

[julieanddavid]

@incandescentsmile we certainly did

[Gloomshadow1]

@incandescentsmile thanks..I still go to clubs and I still dress like this..you can check my channel..whe I go out to the clubs Im getting girls 20 years younger than me and Im starting to notice young guys starting to copy my dress..it will come back dont worry..style never goes out of style.

[julieanddavid]

@incandescentsmile we certainly did long live the damned

[Jakegothicsnake]

@incandescentsmile Me too........T_T When I was a kid, I thought people who were into rock and roll dressed like punks, goths, glam rockers, and metalheads. I hate the fashion sense of this emo/hipster thing with the moptop hair dyed in natural colours, skinny jeans, v-necks, thick glasses, allstars, tuques, and fedoras. Most the young people at the church I work at all dress very similar and it makes them look like clones!>_<

[HanoverFist247]

@incandescentsmile Yeah i am glad i was able to enjoy punk music and had seen The Damned over the years alot. Rap came out of the 80s as well. And rap has had many layers and changes over time. Your generation has pretty much taken music from the past 20 to 30 years and re done it with more commercialism and new artist. Be it punk or rap or new goth it's all been done. I think people have ran out things lol we have done every flavor. Used it all up. But what's here is for u and i to still enjoy.

[bublycat]

@incandescentsmile "You guys had the best music."... YES WE DID!!!!

[incandescentsmile]

@EnigmaticNeurosis Why the hell are you trying to start an argument over a comment i left 2 years ago? I was merely expressing admiration for a genre and subculture that seems far more layered and interesting than certain modern youth subcultures. Also, the expression 'go hang' means, ostensibly, 'fuck off' (though it's a slightly nicer way of putting it...) It doesn't mean, as you seem to have thought it meant, that i wanted them to hang themselves. What an absurd sentiment.

[EnigmaticNeurosis]

@incandescentsmile Retracted. youtube.c om/watch?v=9hPeGDQVRy4

[narred]

the guy speaks the truth. if a band's music don't evolve then you just churning out the same old shite..eg, placebo [i luv em but they still sound the same as when they started], foos [for god's sake when will they evolve?],AC/DC [they shoulda changed their style at some point after scott's death]. damned have a few crap albums but a LOT of GREAT albums

[dumpweed69]

i agree completely. couldn't have said it better myself.

[groovejet7]

yeah he is f*cking hot. I'd turn gay for him.

[cherrykissesxo94]

after saying that.. i think you did!

=D

[somberamarath]

This guy is the shit, he is intelligent, articulate, and I have to admit he is a good looking fucker. What he says about punk music is so true.

[lewisner]

Would have loved to see Vanian and Siouxsie Sioux do a duet!

[Fushia1992]

yeah, it would be interesting:)

[Socialpsychotics]

He is so f**king hot.

[xicablu]

@Socialpsychotics Absolutely!!!!!!

[Deuteronomy100]

kinda..a family would pay the gravedigger`s boss,but essentially,he digs the grave for whoever is dead.

[VelvetSun]

annnnh Get well soon Mr Vanian!!! T_T

[agameofdarts]

what drug is he on here? paul gray was the man.

[avend666]

If he bites me, will i become a vampire too?

[julieanddavid]

hahahahahaha omg

[PAULLONDEN]

A brilliant man ☻!

[SimarilRL]

name of the song in 0:10 please ?

[vonsmitty1313]

It's "Shadow of Love" from the classic album Phantasmagoria,1985...

[NeilThompson30]

I agree with the Wrecker. The Black Album is their best and most consistent album and Paul Gray is their best bassist. When this lineup got back together and supported the Ramones at Brixton Academy in the early 90s it was one of the best gigs ever.

[thewrecker36]

wot dave !?? you never had a good bass player before bryn ?? you forget paul gray , which i think was the best .

[livingdeadpunk138]

I agree

Paul Gray is great

[aSlavetoBeauty]

ever the man of my dreams! And one of the most original bands of the past 4 decades.

[sussbox]

I went to same school as Dave a few years after him,met him once when Damned played at pavillion before it was knocked down in Hemel.Great band the Damned not this version though.

[vonsmitty1313]

Before joining the DAMNED,Dave was a gravedigger who would sing Alice Cooper songs,like "I Love the Dead",at the top of his lungs while he worked.A scene based on this would be a good opener for a Story-of the-DAMNED biopic...

[sarafin07]

how do you know dave was a grave digger?

are you sure....

thats pretty intresting

did you know his wife patricia met him through a wigi board thats even weird-er

not sure if it's true though but she did say it in an interview

[vonsmitty1313]

It's true that Dave dug graves,and that Rat Scabies and Captain Sensible met while cleaning the bogs[bathrooms] of a big sports stadium...

[sarafin07]

It's weird how people  meet but then agian it's very intresting..thats cool though

[Deuteronomy100]

Rod Stewart was a gravedigger too.

[sarafin07]

whao really? haha thats crazy

is aGrave digger someone who digs graves for people who buy them? sorry silly question..

[dustin11]

No, it's slang for a Starbuck's barista

[sarafin07]

Hahahaa!...lol =) sorry it was a silly quetion!

[dustin11]

You have a vagina, thus you are forgiven.

[sarafin07]

Sexist bastaard!

[nikotwasik]

what a honey. sexy damned man!!

[nightimer]

I am a 17th century Transylvanian who runs around playing an electric guitar. It has not escaped my eagle eye that early Damned photographs clearly display that these guys were the only punk band wearing flares. Rat Scabies was a particularly brazen and unrepentant offender. Shocking, really.

[14icedtambourines]

i can has dave vanian?

[nikotwasik]

whaa?

[14icedtambourines]

i can has dave vanian?

[KtotheY77]

he is beautiful

[julieanddavid]

he was sexy in 86 and still is sexy in 2008

[Lobotomyu]

he's only 52 now.

[julieanddavid]

51, 52 in october

[senbean]

If you cut his hair short and took his make up off he would look like that American actor who was in the film Christine.

[WhiteSage777]

No ,you mean the actor in Christine looks a bit like Dave but nowhere near as beautiful.

[darkviewman]

johnny depp thought mmmmmmmm who should l look like for my sweeny todd

[reznut]

Oh, my beautiful Dave Vanian. I just love this man! Thanks for posting this video!

[cakolyre]

he's so cool.since I've red anne rice's books and seen vampire movies I wish I was one or I could meet one....I've never met vanian but if I could it would almost realise my wish.He's really one good singer.the entire group is awesome,I love them

[julieanddavid]

ive met him and he is sooo sexy

[livingabortion]

im not sure about his little comment about captain..."weve never really had a good bass player"...hmm i wonder what he meant by that...anyways the damned are the shit..i love the gothic twist they have..i think its fuckin awesome

[123THETHING456]

IDITOT! captain sensible was not bass, he was guitar! why the hell do you think hes bass, if you knew anything and watched videos of the damned, it cant possibly be hard to see that captain is bass! geez im not that huge of a fan, and like I know more than you! go listen to your fall out boy, something youll probably be more interested in... as for a person like you

[althread]

Capt Sensible was the original Damned bass player. He played bass on 'Damned Damned Damned' and 'Music for Pleasure'. Brian James left the band and the Capt moved to guitar for 'Machine Gun Etiquette' and all the later albums.

[livingabortion]

listen here ya little fuckin cunt...i dont fuckin listen to know fuckin fall out boy i would love to fuckin set them on fire and watch them burn...but you know ur right captain did play guitar but he was bass on there first and second albums..i hope you burn in hell ya fuckin little bitch

[DaikyojuGappa]

he was on bass in the first two albums moro*

[julieanddavid]

yep he sure is

[CathyD2]

OMG! I had forgotten how utterly gorgeous that man was, dribble dribble :)

[star17city]

Wow my gothe years are well behind me but Vanian still does it for me! What a fittie! Phwoar!

[ianbastard2000]

Grave Digger. Yep that's correct. A grave digger from hemel hempstead to be precise. A mate of mine went to school with him and I've met all of them a few times...And yes..Dave does appear a bit strange!!!

[julieanddavid]

he's not strange he's just different

and a Gentleman

[jennvix]

Strange no, beautiful YES.

[ianbastard2000]

I'm sticking with a bit strange!!!!!

[sarafin07]

whoa thats cool did you meet captian sensible too?

thats awesome i would love to meet The Damned! I really wish i could...it's funny how young i was when i first started to like the damned i was 15? now i'm 18 and i still love them so much!! =)

[ianbastard2000]

yes I have met the captain aswell a couple of times. Larger than life character

[lewisner]

The Captain once chased a girl past me on a Tube station escalator!

[newrose24]

this video was the reason I satrted liking the damned

[wozzel]

DV always reminded me of Kory Clarke and I hate Kory Clarke......

[fursfan83]

i much prefer this period of the damned

[edjs567]

man, that whole goth aspect of the damned? i dunno, i just don't get it

they were one of the best out of the original punks from the UK

[BrianApocalypse]

they really should have taken him out of the reflection out of the band.

[mrsVanian01]

dave is just soooo gorgeous, he gets sexier with time xxx

[davesbitch]

hahahahahaha

[BANDITBRON]

dave, I know this is talking twenty years ago, but have to say two things, you talk way too deep, i was struggling to understand what you said also about bryn, yes, I know he is a damn good bassist but no one comes near Paul Gray especially at the beginning of "therapy" off black album, 1980 which was a bad time for Bonzo....

[MacHazzer]

Must.. love... Addams... Family.  ..

[julieanddavid]

mmm Sexy Mr Vanian yea he did sleep in a coffin

[salamy123]

whats the name of the last song?????

[elgorfo2]

grimly fiendish

[munchiehk]

I'm alsmost loathe to say this...but take away that magnificent hairdo and he both looks and sounds like Arnold Rimmer from Red Dwarf. Watch an episode,then watch this and tell me I'm wrong. Gawd bless, Dave...

[BlueMolly2006]

Hmmm, very nice, is all I can say. :D

[ezraathome]

Hes soooooo prettyyyyyyyyyy

[lisar5]

Fucking handsome girlfriend xx

[MorayEel]

Pigeonholed in terms of the music, not the image. Vanian would never lose the horror movie trappings, that's what he's all about! Wouldn't be surprised if he actually slept in a coffin at one point or another.

[NightNurseBetty]

ive heard he actually did sleep in a coffin for a while haha.......LOVE this interview by the way grief23, i always enjoy seeing new things ;P

[pessimystica]

well, i also read he did was a gravedigger... heh, that explains a lot of things.

but anyway, i think The Damned is a perfect gothic punk blend. i'm not nearly as big in the punk scene as much as i am post-punk, but hands down, they're my favorite "punk" band of that age.

[emeranneee]

sorry, just had to post again- Dave is F**king divine, thats heaps for putting this up Grief23~

[emeranneee]

Arrh, Dave I love you so much - but then there's that little twinge I feel when u talk about bands being 'pigeon holded' whilst being interviewed in broad daylight with candles flickering either side of u & then releasing a track called 'crimly fiendish'... eeek

[julieanddavid]

ive got this on video

[kenortman23]

Did Dave REALLY think they never had a good basist before Bryn? He must have been temporarily insane to say that. Paul Gray, Algy and Captain were all great bass players! (especially Paul Gray)

[betaville72]

I was shocked he said that too. But what does he know?! Rat used to keep the tempo not any of the bass players. Algy is my all time favourite.