When Music Week catches up with Dave Vanian at home in the London suburb of Harrow, our timing seems less than ideal to discuss The Damned’s first album in a decade.

“I’ve got a terrible headache,” complains the singer and sometime goth. He doesn’t sound like a man getting ready to unleash a rollicking comeback of snarling vocals, rattling riffs and classic songwriting from one of the greatest British punk bands.

But the battle-scarred legends haven’t endured for 40-odd years ...