Pleasure and the Pain: Iconoclassic Expands The Damned's "Strawberries" for 40th Anniversary

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The cover of The Damned's 1982 studio album Strawberries featured a pig with a strawberry on its head. Lead singer Dave Vanian once revealed that the title was inspired by fans' reaction to the band's new music: "We were playing a lot of new material and we had an audience that didn't want to hear about anything...they just wanted to hear [older singles] 'Neat Neat Neat' and 'New Rose,' nothing else. And they wanted to just smash everything. And they weren't interested in hearing music at all. So at one point, I turned around and said, 'It's like giving strawberries to a fucking pig, this gig, you know? And that stuck in our minds, and we used it." Forty years on, Strawberries has become one of the band's most beloved albums, and this Friday, October 7, the Iconoclassic label will celebrate its anniversary with a new 2-CD deluxe edition.

Strawberries, The Damned's fifth album, found the band at a crossroads. Produced by the band and Hugh Jones, it bridged their early punk outings with their post-punk, gothic sound while also revealing a host of '60s influences from psychedelia to pop. It reached stores just months after guitarist Raymond Ian Burns, a.k.a. Captain Sensible, hit the top of the U.K. Singles Chart with his cover of Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific showstopper "Happy Talk," raising The Damned's profile further. Vanian and Sensible were joined by bandmates Paul Gray (bass), Rat Scabies (drums/synth), and Roman Jugg (keyboards). The LP's artistic success in spite of the fact that internal tensions were simmering. Paul Gray would depart the line-up in 1983 (to be replaced by Bryn Merrick), and Roman Jugg would become an official member. Jugg would move from keyboards to guitar when Captain Sensible left the group after the Strawberries tour.

Iconoclassic's 40th anniversary edition of this Damned landmark (a top 20 entry on the U.K. Albums Chart) offers an even more generous selection than the 2005 Castle Music reissue of the album. It adds a whopping 15 bonus tracks including the non-LP singles "Lovely Money," boasting a cameo from Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band's Viv Stanshall, and "Fun Factory," with guest Robert Fripp. While the release of "Lovely Money" would precede the full album, "Fun Factory" sat on the shelf for nine years before being issued in 1991. The reissue collects the associated B-sides and non-LP tracks from the era as well as the single edit of "Dozen Girls" and five live tracks recorded the month of Strawberries' release. These bonus tracks paint a fuller portrait of The Damned's many sonic excursions of the period.

The 40th Anniversary Edition has been remastered by Grammy Award-winning engineer Mark Wilder at Battery Studios, and includes a 20-page booklet designed by Edward ODowd with liner notes penned by Jack Rabid (editor/publisher of The Big Takeover). Look for Strawberries on Friday from Iconoclassic Records. You'll find the track listing and pre-order links below!

The Damned, Strawberries: 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (Bronze BRON 542, 1982 - reissued Iconoclassic ICON 1058, 2022) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

CD 1

Ignite
Generals
Stranger On The Town
Dozen Girls
The Dog
Gun Fury (Of Riot Forces)
Pleasure And The Pain
The Missing Link
Life Goes On
Bad Time For Bonzo
Under The Floor Again
Don't Bother Me

CD 2

Fun Factory (Deltic single DELT 7, 1991)
Lovely Money (Bronze single BRO 149, 1982)
I Think I'm Wonderful (Bronze single BRO 149, 1982)
Lovely Money - Disco Mix (Bronze single BRO 149, 1982)
Dozen Girls (7") (Bronze single BRO 156, 1982)
Take That (Bronze single BRO 156, 1982)
Mine's A Large One, Landlord (Bronze single BRO 156, 1982)
Torture Me (Bronze single BRO 156, 1982)
Disguise (Bronze single BRO 159, 1982)
Citadel Zombies (7") (Bronze single BRO 159, 1982)
Ignite (Live in Newcastle) (from Live in Newcastle, Damned DAMU 2, 1983)
Disco Man (Live in Newcastle) (from Live in Newcastle, Damned DAMU 2, 1983)
Generals (Live in Newcastle) (from Live in Newcastle, Damned DAMU 2, 1983)
Bad Time For Bonzo (Live in Newcastle) (from Live in Newcastle, Damned DAMU 2, 1983)
Dozen Girls (Live in Newcastle) (from Live in Newcastle, Damned DAMU 2, 1983)

Joe Marchese

JOE MARCHESE (Editor) joined The Second Disc shortly after its launch in early 2010, and has since penned daily news and reviews about classic music of all genres. In 2015, Joe formed the Second Disc Records label. Celebrating the great songwriters, producers and artists who created the sound of American popular song, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with Real Gone Music, has released newly-curated collections produced by Joe from iconic artists such as Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, Laura Nyro, Melissa Manchester, Chet Atkins, and many others. He has contributed liner notes to reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them Nat "King" Cole, Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, B.J. Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Rod McKuen, Doris Day, Jackie DeShannon, and Andy Williams, and has compiled releases for talents including Robert Goulet and Keith Allison of Paul Revere and the Raiders. Over the past two decades, Joe has also worked in a variety of capacities on and off Broadway as well as at some of the premier theatres in the U.S., including Lincoln Center Theater, George Street Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and the York Theatre Company. He has felt privileged to work on productions alongside artists such as the late Jack Klugman, Eli Wallach, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. In 2009, Joe began contributing theatre and music reviews to the print publication The Sondheim Review, and in 2012, he joined the staff of The Digital Bits as a regular contributor writing about film and television on DVD and Blu-ray. Joe currently resides in the suburbs of New York City.