Born on October 12: Damn! It's Dave Vanian's birthday...

David Lett, his real name and former singer of the Damned, was born in Newcastle in 1956. At 68, the punk granddad is flirting with American rock, gothic of course!

When he was barely a few months old, his family moved to northwest London. Always prone to secrets, he has said he discovered music with rock pioneers like Eddie Cochrane at a Hell's Angels venue not far from his home. He also claims to have attended a concert by the New York Dolls, the band of David Johansen and Johnny Thunders, in 1973.

After working for a time as a gravedigger, he adopted the pseudonym Dave Vanian, borrowing two syllables from the word Transylvanian. While he had been a champion of the English punk movement since 1977, notably with the iconic album "Damned Damned Damned," Dave already cultivated a look that was more gothic than punk. Safety pins and zips on skinny pants weren't really his thing. It was certainly he who led his bandmates to record "Phantasmagoria" in 1985.

While, like many artists of their generation (those who survived excesses of all kinds), the English band now enjoys dipping into classics like "Neat Neat Neat," "New Rose," "Smash It Up," and even "Machine Gun Etiquette." Yet, with longtime members Dave Vanian, guitarist Captain Sensible, and drummer Rat Scabies (recently reinstated), the quintet recorded "Darkadelic" in 2023, a guitar-forward album that ultimately sounds very American. Captain Sensible explained that "Leader Of The Gang" is about the sexual escapades of Gary Glitter, the fallen glam rock star, while "Wake The Dead" was written to be played at the funerals of the band's fans who were bowing out. And it's a blast!

(MH with Stéphane Soupart - Photo : Etienne Tordoir)

Photo: Dave Vanian backstage at the Manhattan in Leuven (Belgium) on October 2, 1985 during the "Phantasmagoria" tour