Captain Sensible is not a fan of Guns ‘n Roses, despite Gunners covering The Damned ‘New Rose’ on their 1993 covers album ‘The Spaghetti Incident?’.
Listen to the Noise11.com interview with Captain Sensible:
Captain Sensible is proud of ‘New Rose’. It was the first single for The Damned in 1976 and they end their show with it to this day. “We got it right the first go,” Captain Sensible tells Noise11.com. “That was the song that recruited me to the band in the first place. Brian (James) played it to me. He had a basement flat in North London. He played me that song on an acoustic guitar. Even with that style I knew it was a classic ready to go so I said, ‘I’m in’ and joined the band and my life changed”.
Captain Sensible says he hasn’t even bothered to check out the Guns ‘n Roses cover. “The funny thing I have never really heard it. I have so little interest,” he tells Noise11. “I was never a fan. I couldn’t get past the name. ‘Guns’ and ‘Roses’. Okay, ‘guns’ because they are horrible, aggressive, killer types and ‘roses’, because their hearts in the right place when they are bumping people off. It just didn’t make sense to me. Sorry, Guns ‘n Roses?”
Captain Sensible says when The Damned started out it was musically exciting times in the UK but barren in the USA. “The golden period for rock music was the late 60s, early 70s when America didn’t have an answer to the stuff the rest of us were making … Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin. What did they have? Not much”.
One Damned cover he does like is ‘Smash It Up’ by The Offspring for the ‘Batman and Robin’ movie soundtrack. “I did make a point of going to see that film and I was in a cinema watching when Robin steals the Batmobile. Yes! I could hear the sound of cash registers because I wrote that song”.
The Damned will tour Australia and New Zealand in June for SBM Presents.
Dates are:
New Zealand
2 June, Auckland, Powerstation
3 June, Wellington, San Fran
Australia
5 June, Adelaide, The Gov
7 June, Brisbane, Princess Theatre
8 June, Sydney, Metro Theatre
9 June, Melbourne, The Forum
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