The Damned legend Brian James reportedly granted his dying want to be buried at sea

James handed away on March 6 on the age of 70.  A reason for loss of life was not revealed, though he died “peacefully” along with his household by his facet, in accordance with a submit on his official Fb account saying the information.

As The Solar stories, James was buried on April 28 on the ocean flooring in a personal ceremony which passed off off the coast of Newhaven, East Sussex, England. His widow Minna, son, Charlie and daughter-in-law, Alicia – and 9 of his closest mates have been reportedly in attendance.

Minna instructed the newspaper: “It was a lovely day and the ocean was calm. We’ve been collectively since I used to be 18, so it was very emotional. A burial at sea is fairly uncommon, nevertheless it was in his will so we needed to do it.”

Attendees took a ship for “round three hours” from Eastbourne, and afterwards they held a small memorial service at a church close to James’ residence in Brighton.

One supply instructed The Solar: “Brian now sleeps with the fishes, which is what he wished for earlier than he died. He was a real unique in life and has carried that on in loss of life.

The spirit of punk by no means left him and he was adamant he wished his last resting place to be at sea. A number of family members went out on the boat for round three hours and watched as his coffin was dropped into the drink.”

Again in March, Brian’s ex-Damned bandmate Raymond ‘Captain Smart’ Burns reacted to the information of his loss of life, sharing a photograph of himself with Brian on X. Burns wrote: “We’re shocked to listen to that creator of The Damned, our nice chum Brian James has sadly gone. A beautiful bloke that I really feel so fortunate to have met all these years in the past and for some purpose selected me to assist in his quest for the music revolution that grew to become generally known as punk.”

We’re shocked to listen to that creator of @thedamned, our nice chum Brian James has sadly gone. A beautiful bloke that I really feel so fortunate to have met all these years in the past and for some purpose selected me to assist in his quest for the music revolution that grew to become generally known as punk. Cheers BJ! 🌹 pic.twitter.com/HuLdyMvI3z

— Captain Smart (@CaptainSensible) March 7, 2025

Brian co-founded The Damned together with vocalist Dave Vanian, bassist Raymond ‘Captain Smart’ Burns and drummer Christopher ‘Rat Scabies’ Millar in 1976.

The band launched their debut single ‘New Rose’ in October of that 12 months, and in February 1977 dropped their debut album ‘Damned Damned Damned’ – the report scored an 8/10 assessment from NME. In November 1977, the band launched their follow-up album ‘Music For Pleasure’, with Brian James leaving the band quickly after.

Between 1992 and 1996, James performed within the Brussels-based Dripping Lips. In 2001, he joined MC5‘s Wayne Kramer, Weapons N’ Roses‘ Duff McKagan, Stewart Copeland and Clem Burke to kind the supergroup Racketeers and recorded and launched the album ‘Mad for the Racket’.