The Cavern: Liverpool: Dec 20th 2005

It’s my birthday and there’s fuck all on the T.V. (not that I watch it anyway apart from the footie or VH1). 24 hours previously I had been on the net checking out sites, and low and behold Dead Men Walking were doing some end-of-year shows. So, I got in the car, picked up TP with his photo gear, and off to the land of the scouser we drove…

We get into the legendary Cavern venue at around 9pm. It’s a strange place; you wind around stairs as if you are going down to an underground train station. You then exit into a cellar that looks just like those pictures from the 60’s. Mad as fuck to be honest, but those crafty people at the Cavern have added a second room, this is the place we find DMW.

The band consists, this time around, of Mike Peters (The Alarm), Slim Jim Phantom (Stray Cats), Kirk Brandon (Spear Of Destiny), and Captain Sensible (The Damned). They have been in the city over the last few weeks recording a studio album at Elevator Studios (and Christmas shopping), so they seem to be right at home there. Many other artists have passed through the ranks of DMW, including Billy Duffy (The Cult), Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols), Bruce Watson (Big Country), and Pete Wylie (Mighty WAH), and a couple of others who lasted an hour, sometimes a full day!

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So what you have is a ‘Band Of Gypsies’, Rock N’ Rollers who just get together, go on tour, play some songs, have some fun - does anyone remember laughter? The whole project was the brainchild of Mike Peters, with no real plan. Future or fucked? Only time will tell, but you do get the feeling that when DMW hit their stride, it’s going to rock for sure…

Opening up with Rock This Town by The Stray Cats, then Spear Of Destiny’s Do You Believe In The Westworld, onto Strength from The Alarm. Then into Neat, Neat, Neat which is the first Damned song of the night and that is how the set shapes up; each band member does one of his own songs and it moves around in rotation. It’s like a rockabilly hoedown at times, but it puts a smile on your face. Over the next 60 minutes we hear classics such as Happy Talk (err, scratch that one because it was played especially so a young lady; who’d decided she could drum better than Slim Jim; could try – for real). You do get the feeling that DMW still lacks a killer punch, like Iggy Pop or Lou Reed, or Bruce Springsteen, well you got to have dreams - right!

Overall, a DMW show is a good night out, and they end this one with a rousing cover of Fight For Your Right by the Beastie Boys, throw in a couple of Christmas songs including Mr Lennon’s Happy Christmas (War Is Over), and before you can blink an eye, they are gone, and so are we. Thanks given to tour manager Liam and we ease on down the road with a smile on our faces, and with some of the best songs ever written ringing in our ears. DMW won’t change the world, but they will make it a place to be in for one night. So get off your arses, check out their site, get down and get with it!

JJ