Of all the great albums released in the early days of punk (i.e. mid to late seventies), the most surprising was the Damned's third album, Machine Gun Etiquette (1979). The group, which seemed to be finished after a disastrous second album (ironically titled Music for Pleasure) and the departure of Brian James (their guitarist and primary songwriter), reformed with Captain Sensible moving from the bass to the guitar, Algy Ward taking the bass duties, and the entire band contributing to the songwriting. I clearly remember not expecting it to be any good at all. I was shocked and delighted to find that it wasn't good - it was great. It's still one of my favourite punk albums. What else could it be, with absolutely amazings songs such as "Love Song", "Melody Lee", the epic "Plan 9 Channel 7" and the sublime "Smash it Up (Parts 1 and 2)" (link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux1Za8Wmz_s). It also features a blistering version of the MC5's "Looking at You", which showed their knowledge and taste. In other words, they had finally found material that was a match for Dave Vanian's splendid singing and their powerhouse rhythm section. And on guitar, Sensible instantly proved himself to be a brilliant rock and roll six-stringer. Thirty years later, they're still out there (occasionally) which almost certainly would not have been the case without this record.