Damned, The: Don't You Wish That We Were Dead

Released by: MVD Visual
Released on: May 20th, 2016.
Director: Wes Orshoski
Cast: Damned, Fred Armisen, Billy Idol, Lemmy, Chrissie Hynde
Year: 2016
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The Movie:

Wes Orshoski, the one man wrecking crew who gave us the fantastic Lemmy documentary in 2010, The Damned: Don't You Wish That We Were Dead (which takes its title from the title track of the band's classic Machine Gun Etiquette album) is surprising in just how blunt and honest it feels. Charting the history of The Damned is no easy feat. They've been around since 1976 and were technically the first punk band to be put down on wax. They hit big and fast but soon found themselves in the shadow of bigger acts like The Clash and The Sex Pistols. Whereas The Clash were political and The Sex Pistols just more or less angry about everything, The Damned were different. They were theatrical, over the top and a lot of fun, less concerned with changing the world than with having a good time.

The movie starts at the beginning, letting the founding members talk about how this all came together in their own words, the band essentially spawning out of the ashes of London S.S. (The Clash and Generation X would also form out of that bands dissolution). From there, we see how they rode the wave of punk's popularity, evolved into a proggier, gothier, artiser outfit, experimented with different styles and sounds and found fleeting commercial success with their cover of Barry Ryan's Eloise in 1986. It didn't last, and though the band has soldiered on and continues to draw decent crowds to this day (they're celebrating their fortieth anniversary this year), they never got 'huge' and packed stadiums the way that some of their contemporaries did.

As we learn their story, told in their own words, we get feel for the different personalities that have made up the band's roster over the years through the interviews that make up the movie's running time - and there's a lot of interview footage here. Not only do we spend a lot of time with the original four members - Ray Burns (better known as Captain Sensible), Dave Vanian, Christopher Millar (a.k.a. Rat Scabies) and Brian James - but we also get to hear from former members like Chrissie Hynde and yeah, even Lemmy (he played with them for a short stint). Less famous members of the roster like Lu Edmonds, Clem Burke, Paul Gray, Jon Moss and the late Bryn Merrick (who sadly lost his battle with cancer late last year). Current drummer Pinch, keyboard player Monty Oxymoron and Stu West also pop up throughout the film.

Accompanying interviews with band members past and present are snippets of input from a lot of other musicians that were influenced by The Damned or shared the stage with them at some point. The Clash's Mick Jones, Pink Floyd's Nick Mason, The Sex Pistol's Glen Matlock, The Buzzcocks' Steve Diggle, The Strangler's JJ Burnel, Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan, Generation X's Billy Idol, Minor Threat's Ian MacKaye, Dead Kennedys' Jello Biafra, T.S.O.L's Jack Grisham, Black Flag's Keith Morris, The Offspring's Dexter Holland, The Melvins' Buzz Osbourne, The Eagles Of Death Metal's Jesse Hughes, Blondie's Chris Stein and Guns 'N Roses' Duff McKagan all show up to offer up an appreciation for the band.

Not everyone comes across as happy and cheery. Scabies and James clearly resent Vanian and Sensible, and Sensible admits to being an 'asshole' at one point when the issue of Guns 'N Roses covering 'New Rose' comes up. There have been on again/off again partial reunions but the original line up hasn't played together in well over twenty years at this point - the footage here indicates that it'll likely stay that way. Egos collide frequently as we trace the band's history and influence and the movie does not sugar coat any of this.

If the interviews weren't revealing enough, there's a lot of great live footage included here, culled from various sources from the early days straight through to the present. This would be reason enough for most fans to want to check it out - and that's fair enough - but the way that the interviews cut as deep as they do is what really makes this interesting.

Video/Audio/Extras:

The Damned: Don't You Wish That We Were Dead arrives on Blu-ray framed at 1.78.1 widescreen in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer culled from various sources of varying degrees of quality. Some of the old film footage is pretty grainy and riddled with print damage while some of the video footage is soft and shows tape rolls - but it is what it is, that's just the nature of archival footage. The newly shot interview clips are crisp and clean and colorful. The disc is well authored, there aren't any compression issues. This isn't the type of movie you seek out for blistering video quality, but what's here looks perfectly fine given the origins of the movie.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound mix on the disc is very good. The music is spread out very effectively and while this is mostly just music and dialogue, when effects are used there's some good directionality and presence to them. Some archival clips have some hiss that likely couldn't be eliminated but outside of that there's nothing to complain about here. Levels are nicely balanced, dialogue is clean and clear and all in all this sounds very good. It would have been nice to get a lossless track, but that didn't happen. There are no alternate language tracks or subtitles provided.

There are some extras here - Captain Sensible & Fred Armisen - Nobody Busks In L.A. is a five minute piece where Armisen talks about how and why he got into the band before meeting Captain Sensible and talking to him backstage before a show. Then they bust out some acoustic guitars and head outside to the streets of Los Angeles to play for the people! Smash It Up actually works quite well as an acoustic song. Who knew? The Captains Tour Of Croydon is an seventeen minute piece where, as you'd probably guess, Captain Sensible gives us a tour of Croydon, offering up some amusing anecdotes about the various sites that he shows us. The Anarchy Tour is a twelve minute bit where those interviewed on camera talk about the differences between The Damned and Malcolm McLaren's group, and how Malcolm didn't like any competition. From there we hear about how the other bands on the Anarchy In The UK Tour - The Sex Pistols, The Clash and Johnny Thunders - all travelled together and got nice accommodations while The Damned were more or less left to fend for themselves. The Doomed/Henry Badowski is an eight minute piece where Sensible talks about former bass player for the band, Henry Badowski, and what he was like. Input from a few other band members can be found here too. Last up is “Smash It Up” Live At The Captain's 60^th Birthday Party (And Around The World) which is a four minute clip of the band performing the track at various venues around the world.

Aside from that, there's also an insert booklet that contains some pictures and an essay from director Wes Orshoski in which he talks about Captain Sensible running away when a would be mugger tried to steal his camera during the shoot. It goes from there and makes some interesting points about why this film was made - it's a good read. As this is a combo pack release, a DVD version of the movie is also included inside the clear plastic keepcase.

The Final Word:

The Damned: Don't You Wish That We Were Dead is, at times, surprisingly blunt in its depictions of the band's tumultuous career but that only makes it all the more fascinating to watch. The interviews are very revealing, often times quite humorous and always interesting while the quality and quantity of the live footage shot over the years is frequently astounding. MVD's Blu-ray lacks lossless audio, unfortunately, but it otherwise presents the movie quite nicely and with a few decent extras too.

Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!