David Edward Sutch (November 10, 1940 – June 16, 1999)

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How have I never heard of this guy until last week? David Sutch sounds like he was a dynamic person with a wry sense of humor.  Even though he had no connection with English aristocracy whatsoever, Sutch changed his stage name to Screaming Lord Sutch, 3rd Earl of Harrow.  Sutch was influenced by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and, despite his self confessed lack of vocal ability, sang Halloween/horror novelty songs and R&B covers that were more fun and entertaining than talented.  During the 1960’s Sutch would dress as Jack the Ripper for his horror-themed stage shows. Props on stage included a coffin, skulls, knives, and fake dead bodies. The album Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends was voted the worst album of all times in a 1998 BBC poll, regardless of the fact that Jimmy Page, John Bonham, Noel Redding, Jeff Beck, and Nicky Hopkins performed on it and helped write it.

Sutch was also a founder of a registered political party called the Official Monster Raving Loony Party (OMRLP for short), which satirized English politics and lost all 40 parliamentary elections that he ran for.  Their slogan was, “Vote for insanity – you know it makes sense.” He campaigned for pensioners to have heated toilet seats, to have January and February discontinued in order to have shorter winters, and to breed fish in a lake full of wine so they would come out already pickled.

According to his fiancée, Yvonne Elwood, Sutch had been on anti depressants for many years and had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. After the death of his mother in 1998 he became increasingly depressed. He hanged himself with a jump rope on the stairs at his late mother’s home in London.   Elwood found him hanging from the banister and thought it was another one of his dark jokes.  In an article in The Independent, Elwood stated that she initially took a photo when she discovered him. “He’d ask me all the time to take photos – I’ve got more than 2,000… He always wanted people to take photographs; he couldn’t be photographed enough. He was desperate for publicity…he had a public face and a private face, which was, most of the time, severely depressed. It would affect him physically, his whole face would drop, and he just couldn’t cope, he had to cancel appointments and nothing would make him happy. He would either go to bed, or sit being depressed, or walk about.”



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