There are names buried deep in rock ’n’ roll history that seem almost impossible to find anymore. Dig through enough old records, photographs and forgotten performances, however, and eventually you’ll find Screaming Lord Sutch, a bizarre and largely overlooked figure who helped bring horror into the world of rock long before it became commonplace. We love older music as it gives us a window into the past and with Sutch, you only have a few instances where his music came to light before fading into the shadows. Today, many will say the likes of Alice Cooper, Rob Zombie, and Marilyn Manson are the kings of “Shock Rock” but if it wasn’t for Screaming Lord Sutch, these artists wouldn’t have a leg to stand on.
THE SHOCK ROCKER BEFORE ALICE COOPER
Born David Edward Sutch in London in 1940, Sutch emerged during the early 1960s with a stage persona that was outrageous for its time. Wearing top hats, capes and theatrical makeup, he transformed himself into a character seemingly pulled from a Victorian nightmare. His performances could include coffins, skulls, knives, simulated violence and gruesome theatrical routines, with Jack the Ripper becoming one of his signature characters.
Sutch wasn’t the first musician to embrace horror. That distinction largely belongs to Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, whose performances in the 1950s featured coffins, skulls and supernatural imagery. Sutch took that influence and developed it into something distinctly British, building his act around Victorian murder, graveyards and characters such as Jack the Ripper.
Watch SCREAMIN LORD SUTCH and THE SAVAGES Perform “Jack The Ripper in 1964!
By the early 1960s, Sutch and his band, the Savages, were performing songs including “Jack the Ripper” and “Dracula’s Daughter” while turning their concerts into theatrical horror shows. Sutch would sometimes be carried onto the stage inside a coffin before emerging to perform.
This was years before Alice Cooper became synonymous with guillotines, snakes, blood and elaborate stage deaths.
THE BLUEPRINT FOR SHOCK ROCK
A 1973 Hit Parader feature even described Alice Cooper as being “second in line,” identifying Sutch as an earlier pioneer of visual rock. Sutch understood that a rock performer didn’t have to stand onstage and sing. The performer could become a character, and the concert could become theater. That idea would eventually become central to shock rock, heavy metal and generations of theatrical performers who followed.
Surrounded By Legends
The London Rock and Roll Show, Wembley Stadium – Screaming Lord Sutch
‘Various’ – 1970s
The London Rock and Roll Show was the first concert to be held at Wembley Stadium
Those accolades alone would make Sutch worth remembering, but the musicians who passed through his orbit make his story even more remarkable. We were blown away by some of the names associated with Sutch and where they ended up afterwards.
The Savages included or worked with future legends such as Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Ritchie Blackmore, Nicky Hopkins and Mitch Mitchell. These musicians would go on to help define British rock, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and the Jimi Hendrix Experience. If that isn’t bragging rights, we don’t know what is.
Sutch, meanwhile, never became a superstar.
FROM ROCKER TO POLITICAL ECCENTRIC
His career eventually took an even stranger turn. In 1963, he founded what became Britain’s Official Monster Raving Loony Party and became far better known as a political eccentric than as a musician. For much of the public, the top hat and political antics replaced the coffin, knives and horror shows that had defined his earlier career. That may be one reason his contribution to rock has faded from memory. He ended up running for office 39 times in total.
By the time Alice Cooper brought theatrical shock rock into the mainstream, Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne helped establish heavy metal’s darker side, Sutch was already yesterday’s strange man in a coffin.
THE MAN STILL LINGERING IN THE SHADOWS
Screaming Lord Sutch didn’t invent horror in music, and he certainly wasn’t responsible for everything that came afterward. But he was one of the early performers who understood that darkness could become an entire stage identity rather than simply something mentioned in a song. David Sutch died in 1999 at only 58 years old.
Today, his name is barely recognized outside the deepest corners of rock history. If you start digging through those old photographs, recordings and stories, he’s still there: the man in the top hat, the coffin and the makeup, screaming his way through a rock show while audiences watched something they had rarely seen before. We have to admit, he’s a harder-to-find artist than most and only has a handful of music out there today.
Screaming Lord Sutch may have been forgotten by time, but he was never completely erased. If you know where to venture, he’s still lingering in the shadows among the dusty bins and spider webs.