Kieron Tyler

From rank outsiders to pop stardom a decade later, The Damned blazed an anarchic trail through punk rock to achieve massive chart success. A beacon for the Sex Pistols and The Clash to follow, they flung down the musical gauntlet in 1976 with Britain’s first punk single ‘New Rose’.

Smashing It Up: A Decade of Chaos with The Damned is their definitive biography, drawing on new, in-depth research and interviews with associates and band members including founders Brian James, Chris Millar (Rat Scabies), Raymond Burns (Captain Sensible) and David Lett (David Vanian).

Conflict was rife: managers and labels came and went; bridges were burnt; opportunities squandered; and Kieron Tyler reveals how and why the wayward, wild and wilful Damned are the punk band that survived, and why they truly led the British Punk movement and outshone their contemporaries.