The Damned are rarely cited as the most important or influential of the first wave of British punk bands, but in many respects, they can claim to be first. They released the first U.K. punk single, the first U.K. punk album, and they were the first British punks to tour the United States. Playing music that was both dark and playful, the Damned started out as a hell-bent-for-leather punk quartet, but soon added psychedelic and garage rock influences (1979's Machine Gun Etiquette), detoured into epic-scale pop with a dash of prog (1980's The Black Album), and embraced a tuneful but muscular take on goth (1985's Phantasmagoria), all within their first ten years. Through it all, the band's ability to take their music seriously without taking themselves seriously endeared them to a tremendously loyal fan base, and they were recording and touring well into the 2020s.