As much as I firmly believe you should never mess with perfection, I’ll make allowances for Motörhead taking on The Damned’s song Neat Neat Neat because they had the good grace to team up with them.

And also because they were fellow travellers in the punk era, when The Damned were one of the instigators and the older, grizzlier Motörhead were a high-energy metal band who played in the same spirit of angry rebellion.

It’s not *better* than the original but Lemmy and Dave Vanian growl their way satisfyingly through the song while the band – both bands, presumably — pummel and bash away enthusiastically.

The collaboration appears on a new compilation of punk bands celebrating Motörhead’s 50th anniversary, the aptly titled Killed By Deaf, but was actually recorded back in 2002.

Motörhead and The Damned had a history of playing the same venues in the early days of punk – Motörhead having always straddled the genres of punk and metal.

And for a brief period in 1978 Lemmy actually joined The Damned for live gigs when they were temporarily without a bass guitarist, performing as The Doomed.