Results: Weird Music Wednesday: Screaming Lord Sutch-English Horror Rocker (And Political Activist...And Heartthrob?!)

Screaming Lord Sutch (born David Edward Sutch) was an English rock & roll singer/bandleader who infused his may of his rockabilly- and r & b -inspired songs stage act with themes of horror and spookiness. Were you familiar with Sutch before reading of him here?

Sutch adapted his performance name from that of the previous Weird Music Wednesday survey subject, Screamin' Jay Hawkins. Though Sutch didn't possess the operatic vocal tone of his namesake, he compensated greatly by upping the shtick in his act. Sutch would brandish fake (I'm assuming?) knives and axes against the aghast first few rows of his shows' attendees and stab at fake (I'm convinced!) corpses. Unlike Hawkins' allusions to African and Caribbean occultism in his act, Sutch's antics seem based on, perhaps among other sources, the frightening movies of England's Hammer studio. Note that Sutch was portraying, as he said, a goblin and a ghoul, early as 1961, a year prior to The Beatles first U.K. single release. Do you think you'd have enjoyed a concert by Sutch in his scary prime?

Sutch parlayed his success as an entertainer into other ventures. Among them was short-lived, offshore pirate radio station, A longer-lasting effort was his founding of the National Teenage Party, later reorganized as the Official Monster Raving Loony Party. Sutch founded the party with the hope to give teenage Britons--his music's prime audience at the time--political representation in parliament. The pary's current manifesto (https://www.loonyparty.com/about/policy-proposals) is a pretty funny spoof of a party platform; and the Loonies have actually managed over 4% of the vote total in at least one election. Could you imagine casting your ballot for an American or Canadian Loony?

As implied in this poll's title, Sutch apparently had a following of smitten female admirers. Though no Such singles ever made the UK's national charts, in part due to many of his records being banned from play by radio outlets, he was popular enough as a touring act and jukebox presence for BBC TV to produce a documentary. Therein are quoted letters from girls pining for Sutch. Among everything else that may be weird about Sutch's act, do you find it weird that Sutch was an object of desire for lovestruck young women?

Though Sutch's music career lasted into the '90's with recordings and concerts both inspired and/or infamous, with band members who went onto become noted English classic rock figures such as The Who's Keith Moon and Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, his life ended sadly. He committed suicide in 1999, at 58, due to depression. Were he to be alive today, he'd be in his 80s, I'd have liked to see how loony he could have been a senior citizen. You?