HW: Damned by the curse of Damned (was Re: Greasy Truckers Party 2001)

[Jon Jarrett]

On Sat, 20 Oct 2001, Doug Pearson wrote:

> I was thinking about this subject, and I'm continually amazed at how RIFE
> the Damned are with Hawkwind connections (some mighty tenuous):

        <snip>

> * Bassist Paul Gray (ex-Eddie and the Hot Rods) played in UFO ... much
> earlier, Larry Wallis played in UFO ... Larry Wallis played on lots of Mick
> Farren records ... Mick Farren wrote the lyrics to "Lost Johnny" and was in
> the Deviants with Paul Rudolph ...

        And of course Mr Wallis was in the Pink Fairies, at at least one
point with Paul Rudolp and Twink...
>
> * The second Damned album, 'Music For Pleasure', was produced by Nick Mason
> of Pink Floyd.  After leaving Pink Floyd, original guitarist Syd Barrett
> played two gigs with Stars, featuring Twink on drums ... Twink played in
> the Pink Fairies with Paul Rudolph ...

        And Twink was in Hawkwind for, um, two gigs :-) Also Nick Mason
produced Steve Hillage's _Green_ which certainly features Andy Anderson
and may (no-one ever confirmed or denied this for me) feature Nik on one
track, and Steve Hillage besides being in Gong with Tim Blake and
several people on whose records Nik has appeared (well, Gilli at
least), also had one or other of the Twinks (I think the Here'n'Now
one) in his band in 1978; and Dave Gilmour of the Floyd mixed `Kerb
Crawler' and Snowy White, who played with the Floyd live sometimes, is on
the Deep Fix album which features, besides Moorcock, Terry Ollis, Simon
House and allegedly Messrs Brock, King & Powell... There must be more
(aside from Roy Harper).

> * Current Damned bassist (yes, they've had a lot of them) Patricia Morrison
> used to play in the Sisters of Mercy (any connections through them that I'm
> forgetting about?), and before that, in the Gun Club ...  Ward Dotson was
> one of the guitarists in the Gun Club (the other was Kid Congo Powers, who
> was also briefly in the Cramps) ... after the Gun Club, he was in the
> Pontiac Brothers ... one of the other guitarists in the Pontiac Brothers
> was Jon Wahl, who later formed Clawhammer and the Amadans ... the drummer
> for both those bands was/is Bob Lee, whose other band Backbiter backed
> Twink as the "LA Pink Fairies" ... long before that, Twink was in
> the "real" Pink Fairies with Paul Rudolph (told you some of these were
> tenuous!)

        Only know SoM connection is that they have covered `Silver
Machine' live, but that hardly counts. I'm sure there must be a link
through people somehow but I don't know it. Possibly through Michael
Heaton? But I like the link through anyway...

> I couldn't figure out a way to connect the Damned to the Cure for the Andy
> Anderson connection.  The Sex Pistols will work, though, since before
> joining the Pistols, Sid Vicious made his "musical" debut as drummer in
> Siouxie and the Banshees, and Robert Smith of the Cure played guitar with
> Siouxie for a couple tours in the early 80s.

        Well, I've given you _one_ way to do it above :-) Yours,
                                                                 Jon

n/p: Disarray - `Flies in my Room'
--
"I recognise that I have transgressed many of the precepts of the divine
law, and that I am subjected by various vices and iniquities, disobedient
to the words of the divine mystery brought unto me and a worshipper of the
delights of this military age." Marquis Borrell of Barcelona, 955 A.D.

             (Jonathan Jarrett, Birkbeck College London)