Flicky Harrison Captain Sensible, the prince of punk, ironically shot to the top of the charts with a song from the romantic musical South Pacific.

The Captain is lead singer with The Damned, pioneers of the anarchic soundtrack to a generation that is called punk rock.

His bad boy rebel image, strutting the stage in his red beret, hardly sits comfortably with his rendition of the Rodgers and Hammerstein song Happy Talk - but irony has always been his middle name.

"South Pacific was my parents favourite album and they took me to see the movie,'' said the Captain.

Happy Talk hit the number one slot in the UK charts in 1982 and scooped the Captain an appearance on the BBC flagship music programme at the time - Top of the Pops.

His version was sampled by rap artist Dizzee Rascal in 2004.

As a young man growing up in Croydon, The Captain, alias Raymond Burns, started out cleaning toilets and being an usher at rock concerts in Fairfield Hall, in the town.

"I used to clean 14 toilets a day,'' he said.

But being around the musicians who played there had a major impact on the young guitarist.

"It was my job to discourage people from running down to the front. One day Marc Bolan was playing and I was caught up in the rush. I looked up at him and thought: He's got the job I want.'' The guitarist's musical roots go back to the 1970s when revolution was in the air.

Sick of the sweet songs of the previous decade the next generation were eager to over turn the musical establishment, causing turmoil and upheaval in their wake to create the new sound called punk rock.

The Captain belonged to a number of Croydon covers bands before ending up in the Johnny Moped Band.

It was improvisational. We played all our own stuff and never played the same song twice which is how I learned to jam,'' he said.

The Captain teamed up with Chris Millar who morphed into Rat Scabies, Brian James and David Vanian and The Damned were born.

The big three who launched the punk rock era were The Damned, The Sex Pistols and The Clash and the whole movement began at a Ramones concert in 1976.

"The Ramones played Dingles and we were all at that gig, members of the Sex Pistols, The Clash and David Vanian,'' said The Captain. "That's what kicked the whole punk thing off.'' The Damned are still out there today living the punk ethic of individuality, playing frenetic chaos music and generally exciting their fans to a frenzy.

The Captain is no stranger to Swindon having visited with the supergroup Dead Men Walking featuring his pals Mike Peters from The Alarm, Kirk Brandon from Spear of Destiny and Slim Jim Phantom from The Stray Cats.

But this will be the first time The Damned have played in the town and they will be causing their usual rumpus at their sell out gig at the 12 Bar.

The Damned The 12 Bar Westcott Place Swindon May 3 Sell out Factfile: Captain Sensible Born: Raymond Burns in the London borough of Balham on April 24 1954 Family: Married to Rachel one of the Dolly Mixtures, a three girl singing group. They have three children: Fred, Daisy and Syd named after their pal Syd Barrett from Pink Floyd.

Instruments: bass guitar, keyboards and electric guitar The Damned's first gig: January 6 1976 with The Sex Pistols First album: Damned Damned Damned produced by Nick Lowe.

Solo hits: Wot?, One Christmas Catalogue and Glad It's All Over, The Snooker Song was the theme music for the BBC gameshow Big Break and his track Brain's Theme was written for the movie Skinned Deep in 2004 Politics: Member of the Green Party before forming the Blah! Party which is a protest party to: give all politicians a kick up the jacksie'

6:06pm Friday 2nd May 2008

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