David Edward Sutch was born in Kilburn, London, in 1940, losing his policeman father in the Blitz when he was only 10 months old. Being brought up by a devoted and resourceful mother, he left school at 15, running a window-cleaning business for several years before being bitten by the rock'n'roll bug in the late Fifties. Influenced by Tommy Steele and Cliff Richard at the Two I's coffee bar in Soho, but wanting to go even further, he formed the Raving Savages in 1960, and adopted the name Screaming Lord Sutch. In fact, most of his hollering-horror act was stolen lock, stock and barrel from Screamin' Jay Hawkins, the American creator of 'I Put A Spell On You', right down to the entrance out of a coffin, though he replaced the voodoo mumbo-jumbo of Hawkins with very British Jack-the-Ripper references. Plagiarism notwithstanding, the Savages act, complete with axes and skulls, cage and loincloth, caused a storm on the London circuit, and came to the attention of the producer Joe Meek, who hooked up with Sutch and, the following year, produced ''Til The Following Night', which was released on the HMV label in 1961, backed with a rollocking version of Little Richard's 'Good Golly Miss Molly'. As their peak, The Savages included Ritchie Blackmore on guitar, Nick Simper on bass, and Nicky Hopkins or Freddie "Fingers" Lee on piano, alongside founding member Carlo Little on drums, but even though the Savages toured extensively in Britain and continental Europe, the music was always secondary to Sutch's stunts. During 'Jack the Ripper', the singer would stab the hapless pianists Hopkins or Lee (dressed as a prostitute) before flinging heart and liver (bought from the butchers) into the audience.
Frustrated at the lack of airplay for novelty titles such as 'She's Fallen In Love With The Monster Man', 'Monster In Black Tights' and 'Dracula's Daughter', Sutch decided to launch another attack on the media, and in 1963, taking advantage of John Profumo's resignation, he stood for the National Teenage Party in the subsequent by- election in Stratford-upon-Avon. He only won 209 votes and lost the first of many deposits, but a pattern was set for the next 35 years as Sutch and the Monster Raving Loony Party became a feature of every British election. On one US trip, Sutch had claimed to be "the sixth Earl of Harrow", and he eventually added the "Lord" to his name by deed poll in 1977. In 1969 he gathered together an impressive line-up to record his debut album, including Jimmy Page (who also produced the album) and John Bonham, guitarist Jeff Beck, session keyboardist Nicky Hopkins, guitarist Deniel Edwards and Jimi Hendrix Experience bassist Noel Redding. Rick Brown and Carlo Little from The Savages also appeared, and 'Lord Sutch And Heavy Friends' was released in 1970, winning the accolade in a 1998 BBC poll as the worst album of all time. What he should have done is release his debut album some four years earlier, and made sure it included a selection of his novelty rockers and well-chosen covers, showing what The Savages could do when given free rein. Over the years, Screaming Lord Sutch has claimed to have influenced shock-rockers such as Arthur Brown, Alice Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne, the Tubes and Marilyn Manson, as well as the psychobilly sound of the Meteors, with whom he recorded in 1981, and his legacy will always be the horror-themed act that he put on in the 60's, so as a reminder of that, here is the album that he should have released in 1966.
Track listing
01 Jack The Ripper
02 Come Back Baby
03 Dracula's Daughter
04 I'm A Hog For You
05 Bye Bye Baby
06 The Cheat
07 Monster In Black Tights
08 'Til The Following Night
09 Good Golly Miss Molly
10 She's Fallen In Love With The Monster Man
11 Don't You Just Know It
12 All Black And Hairy
13 You Don't Care
14 The Train Kept A' Rollin'
