This is the Homepage of the Screaming Dead
Teenagers in Blood - The Screaming Dead 1981 (from left. Mal Page, Sam Bignall, Tony McKormack, Hugh Fairley
July 2011 Site Updated
November 25th 2009: SCREAMING DEAD finally acquire screamingdead.com
August 9th 2008: More history added
July 28th 2008: Initial History added
July 26th 2008:This Page is currently being built
Originally formed in 1979 by Tony McKormack the Screaming Dead were without doubt forerunners of not only the Goth movement but also the Death Rock and Horror Punk movements. They were years ahead of their time and were calling themselves Horror Punk and Gothic since their formation.
Advertisement from Sounds Dated October 16th 1982
1986. During the time that they existed they played mainly in the South and the Midlands of England, (only once playing as far North as Leeds). During this time they also released five singles and three tapes. As none of these releases were produced in large numbers they have since become very collectable.
The Screaming Dead were very much an underground band, and although they played a respectable amount of gigs they never toured and never played outside the UK, in fact the bulk of their gigs were played to an audience of less than fifty people. They also never had any real coverage by the mainstream music press, except by the journalist Spike Sommer.
Despite their relative obscurity during their initial existence they now have an almost mythical cult status, and are indeed far better known and listened to now, than ever before. The reasons for their now legendary status are many, and to understand them you have to go back to the genesis of the band in the late 1970s.
The Prototypes of the Screaming Dead
Tony McKormack the founder member of The Screaming Dead, had always been a keen fan of horror films, and had also had a facination with Witchcraft and Vampires. This facination was of enough concern for his english teacher to mention it in his school report. In the autumn of 1977 he bought a bass guitar with the intention of forming a horror/vampire/witchcraft themed Punk Rock band. There were to be several early versions of this model, and early names were Hells Heroes, and the Bezerkers. In late 1978 the band that was to become the first Screaming Dead consisted of Tony McKormack on guitar and Keith Williams as vocalist. They had originally been called the Living Dead, but on hearing that Sid Vicious and Johnny Thunders were to form a band with that name, McKormack decided to go one better and called his band The Screaming Dead. Over time the band begame just "Screaming Dead ". They Screaming Dead rehearsed but never managed to recruited a bassist and drummer at the start of 1979 Keith left the band and a life in musuc forever. Tony McKormack remained as sole member of The Screaming Dead.
THE SCREAMING DEAD 1.0
The first incarnation of the Screaming Dead as a fully functioning band consisted of Simon Warner on Vocals, Tony McKormack on Guitar, Martin Middleton on Bass and Hugh Fairley on Drums. They formed at the very end of 1979, and played three gigs the first being Tewkesbury Watson Hall on March 8th 1980, then Cheltenham Art College SU Bar the following week, and finally Beckford Village Hall shortly after. They split up after the Beckford gig, and shortly afterwards a new Screaming Dead was formed.
THE SCREAMING DEAD 2.0
This was the Punk phase of the Screaming Dead, and in many ways the period for which they are best remembered. This is when Sam Bignal joined the band. Tony McKormack and Sam Bignall, soon recruited Ian Grant as second Guitarist and then persuaded Middleton and Fairley to rejoin the band. It was at this stage the band first began to develop into the prototype Goth Rock Band they were later to become. The image came first, when all other small town embryonic punk bands where adopting the dress style of the time with studded leather jackets, mohican hairstyles, jeans and Doc Martin boots, the Screaming Dead take on Punk Fashion was more individual, they dressed almost exclusively in black, except for red scarf's and shirts, and they wore Winkle Picker Chelsea boots with Dinner Jackets, they also used silk and chiffon and wore make-up. Next followed the music, although the Screaming Dead were essentially a Thrash Punk Band they began to use minor chords and reverb. The lyrical content began to veer towards the Occult, Horror and Death which was completely going off on a tangent against the backdrop of extreme Left and Right political themes that were predominant in the lyrics of almost all of the underground Punk bands of the time. Over the next few months the band replaced Martin Middleton with Mal Page and Ian Grant left, and they began recording their first demos, one of these being released as the Tape Western Front. It was this tape that first got the band noticed and brought them the first seeds of national recognition. The original Western Front tape is now a much sought after and extremely rare collectors item. In 1981 the band lost drummer Hugh Fairly and gained Mark Ogilvie. With Mark Ogivie the band now had the line-up that would be constant until their demise in 1986.
During the Punk phase of the Screaming Dead they released the tape Children of the Boneyard Stones and the single Valley of the Dead.
Valley of the Dead Cover
THE SCREAMING DEAD 3.0
Although the membership of the band remained the same, during 1983, the Screaming Dead became essentially a completely different band, the metamorphosis was sudden, the band went into Cave studios in Bristol, for a three day stint to record their next single for No Future Records as a Thrash Punk band, and came out as the seminal Goth Rockers they are probably best remembered as. It is interesting to note that whilst the single (Night Creatures) was being Recorded (underground in the St Pauls district of Bristol) , that the Bristol Riots of the 1980s were taking place above them.
The single Night Creatures was released, with it's haunting reverberated guitars, monastic backing vocals, and swirling pipe organ. Along with a completely different artistic direction for the cover. (This was the first of many pictures drawn in this style by Tony McKormack, the Night Creatures cover was in fact a copy of a Russian Illustration from the periodical Satyricon by S. Tschechonin 1913). Opinion on the single was divided, it was either a work of genius, that demonstrated how the band were capable of not only much greater musical ability than anyone had ever believed possible, but also had the courage to both think outside the box, and then to act outside the box . Or it was a complete betrayal of the Punk Movement. Either way Night Creatures did spawn a host of Screaming Dead imitators during the mid eighties.
Night Creatures Cover
The next release , a cover of the Rolling Stones classic Paint it Black was a slight return to the older Punk style of the band, due mainly to the record company's insistence. And very shortly after it's release the band made, what is in retrospect a less than wise decision to recruit a saxophonist. The next two singles that followed neither lived up to the artistic promise of Night Creatures or recaptured the aggression and power of the band's Punk days.
The Danse Macabre Cover
A Dream of Yesterday Cover
The Screaming Dead later changed their name to Blue Roses and then the The Sanctuary in late 1985 and early 1986. They recorded a two track demo, with the tracks Melancholy Blue and Blue Roses. They then folded in March 1986. However during the early 1990s they released the Album Death Rides Out which contained almost all of their recorded material from 1981 - 1885
SCREAMING DEAD 4.0
In 1997 the Screaming Dead reformed, Mark Ogilvie was not available to play drums, so the band used a drum machine, this was not popular amongst Sam Bignall and MAL Page, however without resorting to this compromise the reunion would probably not have taken place. The reunion actually was more of relaunch, and whereas when most bands get back together after more than a decade, they come back as a pastiche of their former selves, The Screaming Dead where not back as a washed out Theme Park version of their youth. They had a new sound, both completely new versions of their old material, and some great new material. The band actually played to a great deal more people in this version of the band than at any time in the past, with three UK and two German tours, they also released the CD Album Death Rides Out.
BUY THE NEW CD ALBUM
These are new arrangements of older songs and new material
Track listing
1. Twentieth Century Vampire
2. Necroaria
3. Night Creatures
4. Bubonia
5. Night
6. Methadonia
7. Western Front
8. Angel Of Death
9. Damned Generation
10. Jerusalem
11. Free With The Dead
12. Dream Of Yesterday
Death Rides Out by The Screaming Dead
DEATH RIDES OUT Album ABCD25
Price £11.99 + postage and packing
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Tony McKormack Guitarist and Songwriter of Screaming Dead is also Guitarist and Songwriter in VAMPIRE DIVISION
Tony McKormack Guitarist and Songwriter of Screaming Dead is also Guitarist and Songwriter in INKUBUS SUKKUBUS
