It was like a spine-chilling scene from the gothic horror films Dave Vanian had always loved. A violent storm blew The Damned’s Volvo Estate clean off the road at Scotch Corner, the notorious junction between the A1 and the A66 in North Yorkshire.

“The car was lifted about six feet off the ground, flipped, and then we were skidding along on the roof; I could see huge showers of sparks on both sides of it,” Dave, 68, tells me.

Singer Vanian – famous for his head-turning half-Dracula,…