THIS IS A JOURNEY INTO SOUND

In these days of instantly accessible music via Youtube, streaming, downloading, and million radio and tv channels, not to mention countless websites, any new artists are easy to discover. A band or solo artist doesn't have to gig endlessly to build a following: a few well placed amateur videos on Youtube and a Facebook page can turn them into an overnight sensation without going through the traditional channels of live venues and record companies - the likes of Arctic Monkeys and Ed Sheeran are testament to that. So it's easy to forget there were times when acts could spend years plying their trade around the toilet circuit, slowly building a following and - if they were lucky - success. Sometimes a band could exist on the fringes for some time before a lucky break. Mott The Hoople were on the verge of calling it quits, having played the college circuit and released three flop albums on Island Records before David Bowie - a fan - wrote "All the Young Dudes" for them

I recently had the privilege of seeing Punk legends The Damned in my home city, after years of missing gigs for one reason or another, and i was not disappointed. For a bunch of guys who are (mostly) in their sixties they still play with the same energy and enthusiasm as they did back in the day (i've seen live footage from years ago), blasting the audience with classic rabble rousing anthems like "New Rose" and "Love Song", interspersed with great album tracks - "Anti Pope", "Ignite", "Stranger On The Town", "Under The Floor Again" -, songs from their more poppy/goth era - "Generals", "Eloise" - and a couple of songs from their forthcoming new album Evil Spirits. A mid-set interlude provided some of their well known humour when Captain Sensible's  guitar started "sounding like a fucking banjo" and a brief snatch of "I Walk The Line" ensued to much laughter from band and audience