We’re sorry to listen to of the passing of Brian James, one of many key architects of punk rock.
Brian was the guitar genius who fashioned the Damned and wrote almost all of the songs on the primary two albums and created the template for punk rock…his songs have been thrilling, thrilling and nice rushes of sound with wonderful guitar solos. Even when he had simply written New Rose alone he could be one of many greats however there was a lot nice music as he distilled the Stooges and MC5 right into a extra thrilling entire. His imaginative and prescient for the Damned noticed him put the band collectively, selecting the members of the lineup that someway fitted completely regardless of being so completely completely different from each other. The Damned first album is an all time traditional however I’ve all the time beloved the second album as nicely and it was nice to see Brian again on stage with the band a few years in the past a superb epitaph and lap of honour for one of many nice bands and for Brian himself.
His post-Damned Tanz Der Youth mission was an enormous favorite of mine, and Lords of The New Church was one other visionary mission musically and visually from Brian, who understood the total 360 of rock n roll – the garments/the cool/the music and the imaginative and prescient factor.
Through the years, he was all the time there doing cool stuff. I met him a number of instances, and he was a complete gent and a visionary – Mick Jones from The Conflict usually stated that Brian was the primary particular person he met who had the imaginative and prescient for punk when he turned as much as jam with Mick on Praed Avenue in 1975.
Godspeed Brian, you have been vital in all our lives and I’ll be cranking your music tonight…
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