Captain Sensible

Captain Sensible (born Raymond Burns, 23 April 1955) is a singer, songwriter, guitarist (and sometimes bassist) who grew up in Croydon, England, and co-founded the punk rock band The Damned in 1976. After leaving the band, he reinvented himself as an alternative pop singer with a rebellious, self-conscious image. His signature headwear is a red beret.

Sensible's first solo release came in 1978 with the single "Jet Boy, Jet Girl", recorded while The Damned were on hiatus.[1] He followed this in 1981 with an EP on Crass Records.[1] He signed to A&M Records and had a UK number one hit in 1982 with a cover of "Happy Talk", the Rodgers and Hammerstein song from South Pacific, featuring backing by Dolly Mixture and a band including Robyn Hitchcock on guitar; this was later sampled for rap artist Dizzee Rascal's 2004 song "Dream". Other songs which became hits in the UK and various European countries were "Wot?", "One Christmas Catalogue" and anti-Falklands War "Glad It's All Over". After quitting A&M Records he continued recording for various independent labels, including Deltic Records and Humbug Records. He has also toured with his solo band Punk Floyd.

His recording of "The Snooker Song" from Mike Batt's musical The Hunting Of The Snark was used as the theme music for the BBC gameshow Big Break, and he also wrote and performed a song called "Brain's Theme" for the movie Skinned Deep in 2004.

Playing live in Abergavenny in 1994Captain Sensible is also a member of Dead Men Walking, a supergroup featuring Mike Peters (The Alarm), Kirk Brandon (Spear of Destiny) and Slim Jim Phantom (Stray Cats).