Screaming Dead

The band, named after the English title of Drácula contra Frankenstein, the 1972 horror film directed by Jesús Franco, was formed by guitarist Tony McCormack, who recruited former singer with The Waste, Sam Missile, bass guitarist Mal Page, and drummer Mark Ogilvie.

The band built up a strong local following which spread farther afield with coverage in fanzines such as Gez Lowery’s Rising Free and through sales of their demo tape. They followed their first tape with a more formal release, the Children Of The Boneyard Stones cassette, which came with a badge and a copy of the band’s own fanzine, Warcry.

They then self-financed their debut vinyl release, the ‘Valley of the Dead’ 7″ single, initially released on their own Skull Records label, but when it sold out of its first pressing within a week it was picked up by No Future records. The band’s next release, the ‘Night Creatures’ 12″ single, saw them break into the UK Indie Chart, reaching number 22 in September 1983.

While the band were at times tagged as Goths, the label was rejected by Bignall, who in a posthumous interview stated “Screaming Dead were a punk rock band, there’s no doubt about that! We had a bit of an interest in the horror theme, and that was how we decided to present ourselves.”

For their next release, the band recorded a cover of the Rolling Stones’ ‘Paint It Black’ which was also an indie hit and was recorded as a tribute of sorts to Brian Jones who is buried in their hometown of Cheltenham. In 1984, taking inspiration from X-Ray Spex, the band recruited saxophonist Nick Upton, the band also signing to Nine Mile Records, who issued their last two releases ‘The Danse Macabre Collection’ 12” and ‘A Dream Of Yesterday’ 12” on the Angel label. The change in sound lost a lot of fans, and with interest in punk rock declining, the band eventually split up in 1985.

Cobbled together from various sources we have four of the five singles (click link above for Night Creatures) all in one MP3 @ 320kbps folder.

 

Screaming Dead; Valley Of The Dead 7”

A.     Valley Of The Dead

B1.  Schoolgirl Junkie

B2.  Lilith

Paint It Black 7”

A.     Paint It Black

B.     Warriors

 

The Danse Macabre Collection 12”

A1.  The Lovers

A2.  Serenade Of Suicide

B1.  The Night

B2.  Sister Crow

A Dream Of Yesterday 12”

A.     A Dream Of Yesterday

B1.  Jonnie The Bastard

B2.  Tower Of Babel