DAMAGED GOODS 13th November 2026
A year ago there was a Headcoatees album, recorded at speed in the same sessions Thee Headcoats bashed out an album of garage rock. This year, same guerilla tactics, same results but then Billy Childish hit a groove he likes and doesn’t seem to want to leave it. And why should he, when the results are as spiritually true to rock’s roots as this.
Drawing in long-term friends and ex-lovers to be the vocalists of The Headcoats. A Medway version of a girl group in a time machine. Blessed with the spirit of the parallel project, this is nowhere complex and aims directly at the body and the heart, with songs of love, pain, sex and drugs. Mixing Billy Childish songs with well-chosen covers and wrapped in a glorious vintage sleeve, this is a celebration of the crude visceral fun of rock and punk. There’s covers of The Kinks, The Ramones, The Kingsmen, Bo Diddley, The Sonics and (on a meta level) a cover of the Fall’s cover of a Nuggets classic, Mr Pharmacist.
Singers are Holly Golightly, with a substantial career of her own / Ludella Black, aka Sarah Crouch, Medway potter and also partner to Mick Hampshire, another Childish collaborator / Kyra LaRubia, featured on many album projects, mother to Childish’s son / Bongo Debbie, member and leader of assorted bands, partner of Thee Headcoats’ bass player. It’s a tight-knit cast but mostly it’s a lot of fun, with the covers making this extra fun alongside Thee Heatcoats’ current release.
There is even a bit of Billy Childish bio legend in there, with a song influenced by a fan thinking that the makers of James Bond had commissioned him to write a title theme. Turns out it was the orange jumpsuit-wearing Billie Eilish….
It’s a bundle of pure R&B punching fun.
Check out also:
November 2026’s Medway Scene albums
https://www.vanguard-online.co.uk/thee-headcoats-children-of-the-sect-garage-excitement/
November 2025’s Medway Scene albums
https://www.vanguard-online.co.uk/thee-headcoatees-man-trap-vital-stripped-down-primal-rock/
Ross McGibbon