Getting back on track with "The Beatles of Punk"

“One minute I was a toilet cleaner, the next minute I’m in a band -- and for some reason birds find someone with a guitar slung around their neck more attractive than toilet cleaners.” -- Captain Sensible of The Damned.
Today I was going to write about spending the past three days (and nights) in Peoria, Ill., covering a labor relations hearing that gave new depth of meaning to the term "tedium," but the possibility of blinding, complementary weeping made me reconsider.
So...
I am going to write about listening to THE DAMNED today instead.
My head is still not right after sitting through 26-1/2 hours of hearings, so today I am shaking out the cobwebs by blasting songs by the band Jeff Nelson of Minor Threat called "The Beatles of Punk."
The Damned were the first UK punk band to release a single ("New Rose"), the first to release an album (the brilliant "Damned Damned Damned") and the first to tour the United States.
I was only 11 when all that happened, but I do have in my possession the STIFF RECORDS 45 of the band's second single, "Neat Neat Neat." It is probably my most cherished record in my collection. The label says "play regularly" and I always do try to regularly play songs by The Damned.
Dave Vanian (David Lett), Captain Sensible (Raymond Burns), Rat Scabies (Chris Miller) and Brian James (Brian Robertson) injected a massive dose of fun and chaos into what had been a moribund music scene, and they influenced THOUSANDS of subsequent bands in the process.
Today, they added yet another accomplishment to their list of achievements: They became the first band to make me forget the horrors of a National Labor Relations Board hearing.