Captain sensible

The Damned will release their new album Darkadelic on April 28

Damned man has locomotive named after him! Choo Choo!

To some, the Captain's 1982 No 1 romp through Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Happy Talk" was the ultimate punk sell-out. Silly beggars! It was, of course, a hilarious act of screwball subversion. Either way, its Goonish novelty was unrepresentative of the two albums that followed. As the best bits collated here show, solo Sensible traded in the same satirical Englishness as The Kinks and Madness ("Croydon", "A Nice Cup Of Tea").

A raw, supercharged blast of punked-up garage rock, recorded live in a tiny studio: “It’s a short, sharp shock on record!” says Captain Sensible

First of all, there was the somewhat staggering recent news that Captain Sensible was about to turn 60. Then a few weeks ago, Nick Lowe was 65. And today, it turns out, Dave Edmunds, Nick’s former best mate and partner in Rockpile, is 70.

The announcement by The Damned that they'll be playing the London Forum in April to celebrate Captain Sensible's 60th birthday and tickets for it will cost what they would have in 1977 has caused a lot of excitement among the band's venerabe fans and reminded me of the following mad escapade from that lively year.

The Damned are to play a one-off London date later this year with tickets available at the 1977 price of £1.70 each. The gig will take place at The Forum on April 24 to celebrate guitarist Captain Sensible's 60th birthday. Ruts DC, Johnny Moped, TV Smith and Ed TudorPole will support on the night. Tickets for the show are strictly limited to two per person, and are paperless - with fans required to present the credit card they bought the ticket with on the night to gain entry.

David Vanian and Captain Sensible also announce UK tour

“We never thought we'd make it this far and neither did you…."

The making of classic punk 45, "Neat Neat Neat"