Screaming Dead

Screaming Dead

Screaming Dead is a punk and horror-themed band from Cheltenham, United Kingdom, active from 1980 to the present. The group forms around guitarist Tony McCormack, who recruits Sam Missile, later identified as Simon Bignall, on vocals, with Mal Page on bass and Mark Ogilvie on drums. The band name comes from the English title of the 1972 Jesús Franco horror film Drácula contra Frankenstein.

Early releases and local following

The band builds a local audience through live work, fanzine coverage, and sales of its demo tape. Its early cassette release, Children of the Boneyard Stones, includes a badge and a copy of the group’s own fanzine, Warcry. Screaming Dead then issues the self-financed single Valley of the Dead on its own Skull Records label. After the first pressing sells out quickly, the single is picked up by No Future Records.

Independent chart success and style

The follow-up 12-inch single, Night Creatures, reaches number 22 in the UK Indie Chart in September 1983. The band is often associated with goth, but Bignall describes it as a punk rock group with horror imagery in its presentation. Screaming Dead also records a version of the Rolling Stones’ Paint It Black, which becomes another indie hit and is made as a tribute to Brian Jones, who is buried in Cheltenham.

Line-up changes, later activity and related work

In 1984 the band adds saxophonist Nick Upton, taking inspiration from X-Ray Spex. It signs to Nine Mile Records, which releases its last two records on the Angel label. The change in sound loses some of its audience, and the group splits in 1985 as interest in punk declines. McCormack later forms the pagan gothic rock band Incubus Succubus with Candia Ridley and Adam Henderson in 1989. He then forms a new version of Screaming Dead in 1997, without Page or Upton, tours Germany twice, and records Death Rides Out for Resurrection Records before the band disbands again in 1999. Screaming Dead reforms in 2014 with Sam Bignall, Mal Page, Mazzy and Hugh Fairlie.