The Damned's 50th Anniversary Marked With Limited Edition Vinyl

10-13-2026

Cleopatra Records is celebrating The Damned's 50th anniversary with the release of a special limited edition colored etched 12" vinyl called "Love Song" that features 5 tracks.

The label shared these details: It's 50 years this month since The Damned released their debut single "New Rose" - which, in turn, means it's half a century since the first ever UK punk record came out. And, if you don't think that's an event to celebrate, you should stop reading now and get back to your 70s prog collection. We'll wait.

The Damned themselves will be on tour in the US through October and into November. Here, however, we have the collector's item to end all collector's items... a limited edition 12-inch that makes even the greatest rarities in the band's long catalog seem common-as-much in comparison.

Even the legendary "Stretcher Case Baby" freebie, back in 1977, had a pressing of 5,000, and copies of that now sell for several arms and a leg. "Love Song (Dodgy Demo) is a lot more limited than that... just 255 copies. And that breaks down even further, to just 85 apiece of three different color vinyls - red, purple and white, each with a custom etching on the b-side.\

And "Love Song" is not alone on the disc, as it's 1978 demo is joined by a January 1984 recording of "Nasty," live romps through the mighty "Waiting For The Blackout" (1985) and the theme to Hawaii 5-0 (1995) and, wrapping everything up, Bob Dylan's "Wheel's On Fire," a super-scarce 1980 single by The Rat (Mr Scabies, of course) And The Whale (his wife-to-be, Vivian Mason).

Pre-order here