Scabies formed Les Punks

The former members of the band worked on a series of brief side projects and solo recordings, all making little commercial impact. Scabies formed a one-off band called “Les Punks” for a late 1978 gig. Les Punks was a quasi-reunion of the Damned (without Brian James or Edmonds) that featured Scabies, Vanian, Sensible and bassist Lemmy of Hawkwind and Motörhead . The Damned tentatively re-formed with the “Les Punks” lineup in early 1979, but originally performed as “The Doomed” to avoid potential trademark problems. Sensible switched to guitar and keyboards , and after a brief period with Lemmy on bass for studio demos and a handful of live appearances and a slightly longer period with Henry Badowski on bass, the bassist position was filled by Algy Ward , formerly of the Saints . During a December 1978 tour of Scotland, Gary Holton substituted for Vanian.