The Damned – Strawberries

Good album.
I when Nigel dragged the terrified pig into the studio to shoot the pictures Chaos.
Ended up with the 2nd worst damned LP cover after Music For Pleasure

Excellent record. Saw them touring this at the UEA in Norwich in 1982, they were fantastic (Sensible stripped off bollock naked except for hat and sunnies, three Nuns as backing singers...I saw them after without the Habits, there was coloured hair and a mohawk...they weren't nuns!!!!!....Scabies coming out after the gig to declare the Russians were preparing to nuke Norwich....so much going on). This might of been a change of direction for the band, but a great one, and a needed one, dull to trot out the same formula for ever. As for the sound, excellent. Had one of the recent Sanctuary pressings, to my ears it was a no, so back to this issue, quite often original is best.

My copy retained its strawberry scent after 40 years, and it smells like a strawberry shortcake doll if a strawberry shortcake doll was in my grandmothers house

I don't understand why the "stamped" promo version is not listed separetely than this one...it's a different release and it will be normally appears in the "promo" category...

A great album. My first vinyl album in fact..
I moved away to CD and never went back to the black stuff, having sold all my records. BUT, Casper the pig adorning the cover of my beloved original Strawberries vinyl copy is still lovingly hanging from my wall in a frame - and will be until my last breath. Never going to part with it. I swear Captain Sensible's guitar solo on Under The Floor Again is as good as anything I have heard from anybody except a certain Mr Gilmour on Comfortably Numb....

I bought this when it first came out back in 82, and the scratch n sniff strawberry insert STILL smells of strawberries to this day!
Oh yeah, and the music is still as blinding as it ever was....probably their best album! It’s my favourite.

If only I had known how great this record is I would have bought it decades earlier... just got it some weeks ago and listen to it nearly every day. But I guess I would have hated it at the age of 17, now I'm loving it at 47.

Being a damned fan from very young I left school in 82 and went to many damned gigs the die hard fans loved it amazing live at the time great days.

Wow was this really not issued in US until 1993?

On a musical level this is their best album IMO

“Damned Damned Damned” may have changed lives back then (mine being one) but who can really listen to it today? Being an icon and being a good piece of music are not the same things. The punk stuff has faded and dated, best left in history books and museums, whereas Strawberries’ clever mix of ‘60s psychedelia and power-pop still sounds fresh today. Lot of Barrett and Strawberry Alarm Clock vibes here and yet it all sounds curiously timeless, never pastiche; the only thing that might date it somewhat is the angry polemic of Bad Time For Bonzo but even that’s done so tastefully that one barely notices

When Strawberries came out (I bought it at the time) it created huge controversy among the punk fraternity who didn't understand it and couldn’t move on from Smash It Up etc; in fact that’s actually where the title comes from. When gigging the newer material prior to the release the reaction was so negative from the fans that at one point Vanian was exasperated enough to say to the crowd “it’s like giving strawberries to pigs”.

My only complaint was that the scratch and sniff card was of the strawberries instead of the pig. A true landmark for the Damned