Screaming Lord Sutch

David Edward Sutch
Born	10 November 1940 (1940-11-10) Hampstead, London, England
Died	16 June 1999 (1999-06-17) (aged 58) South Harrow, Greater London, England
Occupation	musician, politician

David Edward Sutch (10 November 1940 – 16 June 1999), also known as "Screaming Lord Sutch, 3rd Earl of Harrow", or simply "Screaming Lord Sutch", was a musician from the United Kingdom. He was the founder of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party and served as its leader from 1983 to 1999, during which time he stood in numerous parliamentary elections.

Musical career

Sutch was born at New End Hospital, Hampstead, northwest London. In the 1960s, inspired by Screamin' Jay Hawkins, he changed his artist name to "Screaming Lord Sutch, 3rd Earl of Harrow", despite having no connection with the peerage. His legal name remained David Edward Sutch.

After his career as an early-'60s rock 'n' roll attraction, it became customary for the UK press to refer to him as "Screaming Lord Sutch", or simply "Lord Sutch". Early works included recordings produced by audio pioneer Joe Meek.

During the 1960s, Screaming Lord Sutch was known for his horror-themed stage show, dressing as Jack the Ripper, pre-dating the shock rock antics of Alice Cooper. Accompanied by his band, the Savages, he started by coming out of a black coffin. Other props included knives and daggers, skulls and "bodies". Sutch booked themed tours, such as 'Sutch and the Roman Empire', where Sutch and the band members would be dressed up as Roman soldiers.

Despite self-confessed lack of vocal talent, he released horror-themed singles during the early to mid-'60s, the most popular "Jack the Ripper", covered live and on record by garage rock bands including the White Stripes, the Gruesomes, the Black Lips and the Horrors for their debut EP.

In 1963, Sutch and his manager, Reginald Calvert, took over Shivering Sands Army Fort, a Maunsell Fort off Southend and in 1964 started Radio Sutch, intending to compete with other pirate radio stations such as Radio Caroline. Broadcasts consisted of music and Mandy Rice-Davies reading Lady Chatterley's Lover. Sutch tired of the station, and sold it to Calvert, which was renamed 'Radio City', which lasted until 1967. In 1966 Calvert was shot dead by Oliver Smedley over a financial dispute. Smedley was acquitted on grounds of self-defence. About this time Ritchie Blackmore left the band to form Deep Purple. Roger Warwick left to set up an R&B big band for Freddie Mack.

Sutch's album Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends was named in a 1998 BBC poll as the worst album of all time, a status it also held in Colin Larkin's book The Top 1000 Albums of All Time, despite the fact that Jimmy Page, John Bonham, Jeff Beck, Noel Redding and Nicky Hopkins performed on it and helped write it.

For his follow-up, Hands of Jack the Ripper, Sutch assembled British rock celebrities for a concert at the Carshalton Park Rock 'n' Roll Festival. The show was recorded (though only Sutch knew), and it was released to the surprise of the musicians. Musicians on the record included Ritchie Blackmore (guitar); Matthew Fisher (keyboard); Carlo Little (drums); Keith Moon (drums); Noel Redding (bass) and Nick Simper (bass).

In the Rolling Stones song "Get Off of My Cloud", the guy who shows up "All dressed up just like a Union Jack" was Lord Sutch uninvited in Mick Jagger's room.

Political activities

In the 1960s, he stood in parliamentary elections, often as representative of the National Teenage Party. His first was in 1963, when he contested the by-election in Stratford-upon-Avon caused by the resignation of John Profumo. He gained 208 votes. His next was at the 1964 General Election when he stood in Harold Wilson's Huyton constituency. Here he received 518 votes.

He founded the Official Monster Raving Loony Party in 1983 and fought the Bermondsey by-election. In his career he contested over 40 elections, rarely threatening the major candidates, but often getting a respectable number of votes. He was easily recognisable at election counts by his flamboyant clothes. It was after he polled several hundred votes in Margaret Thatcher's Finchley constituency in 1983 that the deposit paid by candidates was raised from £150 to £500. This did little to deter Sutch, who increased the concerts he performed to pay for campaigns.

His most significant contribution to politics came at the Bootle by-election in 1990. He secured more votes than the candidate of the Continuing Social Democratic Party (SDP), led by former Foreign Secretary David Owen. Within days the SDP dissolved itself. In 1993, when the British National Party gained its first local councillor, Derek Beackon, Sutch pointed out that the Official Monster Raving Loony Party already had six.

He appeared as himself in the first episode of ITV comedy The New Statesman, coming second in the 1987 election, ahead of the Labour and SDP, which saw Alan B'Stard elected to Parliament.

Adverts in the 1990s for Heineken Pilsener boasted that "Only Heineken can do this". One had Sutch at 10 Downing Street after becoming Prime Minister.

Private life

Sutch suffered from depression and committed suicide by hanging on 16 June 1999, following the death of his mother the previous year. At the inquest, his fiancée said he had "manic depression".^{[citation needed]}

Sutch is survived by a son, Tristan Lord Gwynne Sutch, born in 1975 to the American model Thann Rendessy.^[1]

In 1991, Sutch's autobiography Life as Sutch: The Official Autobiography of a Raving Loony (written with Peter Chippindale) was published but recalled by publishers.^{[citation needed]} In 2005 Graham Sharpe, who had known Sutch since the late 1960s, wrote the first biography, The Man Who Was Screaming Lord Sutch.

Discography

Sutch released records from 1961 onwards. Later works include:

• Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends (1970)
• Hands of Jack the Ripper (1972)
• Alive and Well (Live, 1980)
• Jack the Ripper (Compilation, 19??)
• Rock & Horror (Compilation, 1982) Ace Records CDCHM 65
• Story/Screaming Lord Sutch & The Savages (Compilation, 1991)
• Live Manifesto (Live, 1992)
• Murder in the Graveyard (Live, 1992)
• Raving Loony Party Favourites (Compilation, 1996)
• Monster Rock (Compilation, 2000)
• Midnight Man (EP, 2000)
• Munster Rock (Compilation, 2001)
• The London Rock & Roll Show DVD ASIN: B00007LZ56

Elections fought

Election	Type	Constituency	Party	Vote	% vote	Place	Candidates
15 August 1963	BE	Stratford-on-Avon	National Teenage	209	0.6	5th	5
31 March 1966	GE	Huyton 1	National Teenage	585	0.9	3rd	3
18 June 1970	GE	Cities of London and Westminster	Young Ideas	142	0.4	5th	5
10 October 1974	GE	Stafford and Stone	Go to Blazes	351	0.6	4th	4
24 February 1983	BE	Bermondsey	Official Monster Raving Loony	97	0.3	6th	16
23 March 1983	BE	Darlington	Official Monster Raving Loony	374	0.7	4th	8
9 June 1983	GE	Finchley 1	Official Monster Raving Loony	235	0.6	5th	11
28 July 1983	BE	Penrith and The Border	Official Monster Raving Loony	412	1.1	4th	8
1 March 1984	BE	Chesterfield	Official Monster Raving Loony	178	0.3	5th	17
4 July 1985	BE	Brecon and Radnor	Official Monster Raving Loony	202	0.5	5th	7
10 April 1986	BE	Fulham	Official Monster Raving Loony	134	0.4	5th	11
17 July 1986	BE	Newcastle-under-Lyme	Official Monster Raving Loony	277	0.7	4th	7
14 July 1988	BE	Kensington	Official Monster Raving Loony	61	0.3	7th	15
10 November 1988	BE	Glasgow Govan	Official Monster Raving Loony	174	0.6	7th	8
15 December 1988	BE	Epping Forest	Official Monster Raving Loony	208	0.6	7th	9
23 February 1989	BE	Richmond (Yorks)	Official Monster Raving Loony	167	0.3	6th	9
4 May 1989	BE	Vale of Glamorgan	Official Monster Raving Loony	266	0.6	8th	11
15 June 1989	BE	Vauxhall	Official Monster Raving Loony	106	0.4	10th	14
22 March 1990	BE	Mid Staffordshire	Official Monster Raving Loony	336	0.6	7th	14
24 May 1990	BE	Bootle 2	Official Monster Raving Loony	418	1.2	6th	8
27 September 1990	BE	Knowsley South	Official Monster Raving Loony	197	0.9	6th	7
8 November 1990	BE	Bootle 3	Official Monster Raving Loony	310	1.1	5th	7
7 March 1991	BE	Ribble Valley 3	Official Monster Raving Loony	278	0.6	6th	9
4 April 1991	BE	Neath	Official Monster Raving Loony	263	0.8	7th	8
16 May 1991	BE	Monmouth 4	Official Monster Raving Loony	314	0.7	4th	7
4 July 1991	BE	Liverpool Walton	Official Monster Raving Loony	546	1.4	5th	6
9 April 1992	GE	Huntingdon 1	Official Monster Raving Loony	728	1.0	6th	10
9 April 1992	GE	Islwyn 5	Official Monster Raving Loony	547	1.3	5th	5
9 April 1992	GE	Yeovil 6	Official Monster Raving Loony	338	0.6	5th	6
6 May 1993	BE	Newbury	Official Monster Raving Loony	432	0.7	7th	19
29 July 1993	BE	Christchurch	Official Monster Raving Loony	404	0.8	5th	6
5 May 1994	BE	Rotherham	Official Monster Raving Loony	1,114	4.2	4th	5
9 June 1994	BE	Bradford South	Official Monster Raving Loony	727	2.4	4th	5
9 June 1994	BE	Eastleigh	Official Monster Raving Loony	783	1.4	5th	14
16 February 1995	BE	Islwyn	Official Monster Raving Loony	506	2.2	5th	7
25 May 1995	BE	Perth and Kinross	Official Monster Raving Loony	586	1.4	5th	9
27 July 1995	BE	Littleborough and Saddleworth	Official Monster Raving Loony	782	1.9	4th	10
1 February 1996	BE	Hemsworth	Official Monster Raving Loony	652	3.0	5th	10
11 April 1996	BE	South East Staffordshire	Official Monster Raving Loony	506	1.2	5th	13
31 July 1997	BE	Uxbridge	Official Monster Raving Loony	396	1.3	4th	11
20 November 1997	BE	Winchester	Official Monster Raving Loony	316	0.6	5th	8

Notes:-

• ¹ This election was won by the incumbent Prime Minister.
• ² Sutch achieved a better result than the candidate from the rump SDP.
• ³ Sutch achieved a better result than the candidate from the continuing Liberal Party.
• ⁴ Sutch achieved a better result than the joint candidate from the Green Party of England and Wales and Plaid Cymru.
• ⁵ This election was won by the incumbent Leader of the Opposition.
• ⁶ This election was won by the incumbent Leader of the Liberal Democrats.

References

1. ^ Getty Images - Sutch Is Life on Getty Images

• Chippindale, Peter. "Sutch, David Edward (1940–1999)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/72456
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1950-1973, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Research Services 1983)
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1974-1983, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Research Services 1984)

External links

• http://www.screaminglordsutch.com
• Screaming Lord Sutch and The Savages History
• Radio Sutch's successor by Colin Dale, former Radio Sutch DJ
• BBC report of Sutch's death
• BBC obituary
• David Sutch's gravesite
• Screaming Lord Sutch at Ward's Book of Days

Party political offices
New creation	Official Monster Raving Loony Party Leader 1983–1999	Succeeded by Howling Laud Hope and Cat Mandu

Persondata
Name	Sutch, Screaming Lord
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	10 November 1940
Place of birth	Hampstead, London, England
Date of death	16 June 1999
Place of death	South Harrow, Greater London, England