Biography
Raymond Burns, who performs under the moniker Captain Sensible, first came to notice as co-founder with Chris Miller, aka Rat Scabies, of the punk band the Damned and ranks among the era’s most captivating and gifted figures. Although he harbored no ambition for a path independent of the Damned, a run of hit singles paired with the group’s lengthy periods of inactivity rendered a separate career unavoidable. In the early 1980s he assembled a short-lived band called King that disbanded after three months, sang on the single “Jet Boy Jet Girl,” and guested on Johnny Moped’s Cycledelic album. Signed to A&M as a solo artist, he scored a number one British hit with the vintage show tune “Happy Talk,” then released the original antiwar Falklands track “Glad It’s All Over” and spent time working with Robyn Hitchcock.
His ongoing membership in the Damned kept him regularly in the pages of the British music press, where his outspoken vegetarianism and opposition to war, expressed through biting satire, became widely known. Captain Sensible displayed greater charm than any other punk veteran; his 1985 vegetarian-themed single “Wot! No Meat?” proved successful, and he issued the albums The Power of Love (1983), Revolution Now (1989), and The Universe of Geoffrey Brown (1993), each a strong seller and critical favorite in England. In an era when the Damned remained only a cult act across the Atlantic, Captain Sensible registered scarcely at all with American listeners. Together with his band—Paul Gray on bass, Malcolm Dixon on organ and synthesizer, and Garrie Dreadful on drums—he became celebrated for the reckless abandon and exceptional musicianship of their concerts, enlivened by the Captain’s savage wit.
The 1994 release Live at the Milky Way, widely regarded as the finest album of his solo career and one of the era’s strongest live recordings, was followed by Meathead in 1995 and Mad Cows & Englishmen in 1996. Bolstered by that live document, Captain Sensible retained his standing as a fan favorite even after rejoining the Damned in the twenty-first century, appearing on the group’s 2001 album Grave Disorder and its 2008 release So, Who’s Paranoid?
His ongoing membership in the Damned kept him regularly in the pages of the British music press, where his outspoken vegetarianism and opposition to war, expressed through biting satire, became widely known. Captain Sensible displayed greater charm than any other punk veteran; his 1985 vegetarian-themed single “Wot! No Meat?” proved successful, and he issued the albums The Power of Love (1983), Revolution Now (1989), and The Universe of Geoffrey Brown (1993), each a strong seller and critical favorite in England. In an era when the Damned remained only a cult act across the Atlantic, Captain Sensible registered scarcely at all with American listeners. Together with his band—Paul Gray on bass, Malcolm Dixon on organ and synthesizer, and Garrie Dreadful on drums—he became celebrated for the reckless abandon and exceptional musicianship of their concerts, enlivened by the Captain’s savage wit.
The 1994 release Live at the Milky Way, widely regarded as the finest album of his solo career and one of the era’s strongest live recordings, was followed by Meathead in 1995 and Mad Cows & Englishmen in 1996. Bolstered by that live document, Captain Sensible retained his standing as a fan favorite even after rejoining the Damned in the twenty-first century, appearing on the group’s 2001 album Grave Disorder and its 2008 release So, Who’s Paranoid?
Albums
Singles
(What D'ya Give) The Man Who's Gotten Everything?
2022
This Is Your Captain Speaking
1981
(What D’Ya Give) The Man Who’s Gotten Everything?
1981
Live
