I only needed three hundred words to describe what I'd seen to the readers of The Nottingham Evening Post, (as I still call it), but I got a little carried away and once I was safely at home, and had eaten and warmed up, my muse ran away with itself to the tune of more than five hundred words. As I said yesterday, the only thing worse than editing your own work is having someone else do it for you.

To give some idea of the process, here is the original full length, superfluous piece of writing.

According to the late Clash front-man Joe Strummer, the first 'punk' band were Eddie and the Hot Rods. However, the first 'punk' record was 'New Rose' by The Damned.

To commemorate 35 years together as a band, The Damned are touring with a full length play through of the albums Damned Damned Damned, their debut, and The Black Album, from 1980. Being the same age as The Damned, I am increasingly often the oldest person at a gig. Tonight, in the company of original punk rockers, I felt positively infant.

Punk rock gigs have changed since the glory days, and thirty five years on, most of these chaps probably have banks to manage in the morning. Thankfully, age has also eradicated violence and spitting at gigs.

Kicking off the show, Captain Sensible bounded onto the stage looking as always like a cartoon caricature of, well, Captain Sensible in his sunglasses, and red beret perched atop his white hair. After a brief introduction in which Captain took the credit for changing music for the better by blowing away the prog rock brigade with their twenty minute drum solos, the opening bass riff of 'Neat Neat Neat' kicked in.

They ploughed their way through the first album, and the first half of the show, with the minimum amount of fuss and with very little in the way of distracting chatter. Thankfully, they played together as a band who looked as though they were doing it for the sheer enjoyment of playing live, rather than dragging themselves out just for the money, (yes Sex Pistols, I do mean you).

After a brief interval, it was time for The Black Album. This was perhaps a strange choice to perform live, and definitely one for the true Damned aficionado. A much darker, more gothic sounding album than their early punk rock sonance, it doesn't really lend itself to live performance. The biggest problem was the alternating between slower songs and all out punk speed. The crowd started to get restless, and after he refused to sing 'Happy Talk' as it wasn't on the album, they started the traditional chant of "the captain is an anchor". Or something like that. The set was musically brilliant, but then again the album is musically brilliant, and this just sounded like the album.

After starting the show with the dismissal of self indulgent prog rock bands, it seemed odd that they were finishing the show with a very self indulgent prog rock sound. If Rick Wakeman had joined in wearing the full wizard gear, it wouldn't have been at all shocking.

The wait between 'thank-you and goodnight' and the encore was just a little bit too long, and after a bit of banter they broke into a cover version of 'Black Night' by Deep Purple. After the slow burn of The Black Album, the crowd became the most animated they had been all night, thanks to a back to basics punk set of 'Disco Man', 'Love Song'. 'Anti-Pope' and 'Smash It Up'. There was even a burst of 'Happy Talk', proving that the captain isn't such an anchor after all.