The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (214 page)

Wednesday 16

Screaming Lord Sutch

(David Sutch - Kilburn, London, 10 November 1940)

Screaming Lord Sutch & The Savages

The original longhair and first name in comic rebellion, Screaming Lord Sutch’s musical career dates back to the fifties – though he’ll always be best known for his askew political persona. Sutch was a man whose antics infuriated as many as they delighted, his complex history culminating in severe depression and eventual suicide. Perhaps the most appropriate way to set out his obituary is as one might for the kind of statesman Sutch parodied throughout his career.

1941:
The policeman father of the infant David Sutch is killed during the London Blitz.

1960:
Screaming Lord Sutch emerges as a rock ‘n’ roller with The Savages. His ‘My Big Black Coffin’ and ‘Jack the Ripper’ singles (1962) – produced by fellow maverick, the late Joe Meek (
February 1967)
– are snubbed by the BBC for being ‘too shocking’. The Savages’ stage act at the time predates Alice Cooper by a decade, with its inclusion of coffins, severed heads, knives and other Sutch obsessions. The group will never have a UK hit.

1961:
Sutch falls foul of the law by attempting twice to elope with (different) teenage girls.

1963:
Sutch runs for Parliament for the first time, with the appropriately named – in light of his previous misdemeanour – National Teenage Party.

1964:
The singer founds pirate station Radio Sutch, in order to get his records played.

1966:
Lord Sutch stands against Prime Minister Harold Wilson at Huyton. Wilson, who at first refuses to shake his hand, eventually relents and offers Sutch a cigar. Among Sutch’s many policies over the years are one or two that came to fruition, including an end to discrimination against long hair, the abolition of the 11-plus exam and all-day drinking in pubs – though how much of this was down to Sutch’s influence is open to debate. Perhaps his most sage observation was: ‘Why is there only one Monopolies Commission?’

1968:
Despite having no connection to nobility, Sutch changes his name by deed poll to ‘Screaming Lord Sutch, Earl of Harrow’.

1970:
His album
Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends
features such luminaries as Keith Moon, Jimmy Page and Noel Redding. Despite this, it is ranked ‘The Worst Album of All Time’ in a 1998 BBC poll.

1983:
Sutch founds the infamous Monster Raving Loony Party – and will become the longest-serving British party leader, standing for election some forty times. His latest attempt to change his name, this time to ‘Mrs Thatcher’, is thwarted, however.

1990:
The Monster Raving Loony Party poll 418 votes in Bootle, Liverpool – some 263 more than David Owen’s SDP. Sutch’s offer to merge with Owen’s party is politely declined.

1999:
Sutch is found dead at his home by his girlfriend, Yvonne Elwood, having hanged himself. Diagnosed bipolar, Sutch had been down since the death of his mother two years previously – and was also addicted to antidepressants. Prime Minister Tony Blair says: ‘Our elections will never be quite the same without him.’

‘I don’t have any animosity towards anyone. I love, because love is the greatest thing. Love is the key to eternal life.’

Junior Braithwaite, interviewed by Roger Steffens, 1985

Screaming Lord Sutch : One final return in the box …

Sunday 27

Brian O’Hara

(Liverpool, 12 March 1942)

The Fourmost

Several days after Sutch, another British early sixties hero took the same drastic measure as The Savages frontman. Lead singer/guitarist of Merseybeat frontrunners The Fourmost, O’Hara and his band – Mike Millward (guitar), Billy Hatton (bass) and Dave Lovelady (drums) – were one of Brian Epstein’s early discoveries, picked up around same time as Gerry & The Pacemakers and Billy J Kramer. This association assisted them in landing a deal with Parlophone and a brief succession of UK hits, of which ‘Hello Little Girl’ (1963, written by Lennon and McCartney) and ‘A Little Loving’ (1964) breached the Top Ten. The band were popular, but issued just one album (1965’s
First and Fourmost);
their chart career faltered after Millward contracted the illness that eventually cost him his life (
March 1966).
Brian O’Hara continued to front The Fourmost as they settled into regular nightclub work, somewhat clunky comic routines now replacing their earlier image. Despite regular band reunions into the eighties, little had been heard from the singer when his body was discovered by police at his Waverley home. O’Hara had hanged himself in his bedroom.

Longtime Sutch bassist and collaborator Tony Dangerfield passed away in July 2007.

JULY

Thursday 1

Dennis Brown

(Kingston, Jamaica, 1 February 1957)

(Byron Lee & The Dragonaires)

An increasingly dark year for reggae continued with the death of the genre’s ‘Crown Prince’, 42-year-old Dennis Brown. Throughout its history, the reggae scene has always been open to youngsters, and Brown was no exception. Despite losing his mother, the genial singer – often known by his second name, Emmanuel – had begun singing at nine, an underage performer in Jamaica’s clubs, scoring homeland hits at just eleven. Nurtured by Studio One, Brown saw a couple of songs – The Impressions’ ‘No Man is an Island’ and ‘If I Follow My Heart’ (both 1969) – become radio favourites. And he did follow his heart, switching between studios as he built up an enviable collection of mainly Joe Gibbs-produced albums and singles over the years; British pop followers will remember the classic ‘Money in My Pocket’ (1979), which took Brown on to
Top of the Pops.
Brown also found time to sing with The Dragonaires and run his own Yvonne’s Special label (named after his wife of many years), and during the eighties managed to ride the dancehall revolution with some aplomb.

A tremendous artist who recorded almost seventy albums in his brief time, Dennis Brown was taken far too young. He apparently died from upper respiratory failure brought on by a severe bout of pneumonia, addiction to crack cocaine having weakened his immune system. Unsubstantiated rumour, however, suggests Brown may have had AIDS: two previous girlfriends of the star had been diagnosed HIV positive, and one was already dead.

Saturday 3

Mark Sandman

(Newton, Massachusetts, 24 September 1952)

Morphine

(Treat Her Right)