The 1976 punk album that led to The Damned: “The real deal”On July 4th, 1976, the Ramones played their first London show at Dingwalls in Camden Town. The word confirmation perhaps best explains why Ramones became such an important record for British punk, because while it did not single-handedly birth British punk, it reassured many like-minded bands, such as the Sex Pistols and The Damned, that they were not alone. Only three months later, The Damned released ‘New Rose’, the first punk single by a British band, and while Scabies has never denied what the album meant to his own band, he has since argued that the Ramones’ influence on British punk has sometimes been overstated. “Their influence on British punk rock is negotiable, because the London bands had already started,” he said. Nearly 50 years after its release, Ramones remains one of punk’s defining records because it validated British punk and encouraged bands such as The Damned to fully execute their vision, no matter their skill levels.