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Chuck Berry and Little Richard headline the London Rock & Roll Show 1972

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The London Rock and Roll Show was the first major pop concert to be held at Wembley Stadium, the sports arena later famed for LiveAid and the Freddie Mercury tribute concert.

Headlining the show that day on August 5, 1972 were the undisputed Kings of Rock ‘n’ Roll Chuck Berry and Little Richard. These gods were ably supported by Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Screaming Lord Sutch and Billy Fury. Some of the booked acts couldn’t make the concert due to visa issues, but those who did turn up delivered a blistering set of rock ‘n’ roll classics. The whole event was filmed by Peter Clifton, who later directed Led Zeppelin’s The Song Remains the Same, and given a brief cinema release. The performances are interspersed by an interview with Mick Jagger who gives his thoughts about the show—something he claims could never have happened a decade before—and watch out for a young Malcolm McLaren selling T-shirts at his Let It Rock stall.
 

 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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07.21.2014
12:15 pm
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Before Alice Cooper and The Cramps there was Screaming Lord Sutch, rock star, British politician
07.16.2014
11:31 am
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It seemed that Screaming Lord Sutch ran in every election and by-election in the UK from the early 1980s until his untimely death in 1999. There he would be on every election night, standing on the podium with his leopard spot jacket, top hat and rainbow rosette. Sutch was the perennial candidate of the Official Monster Raving Looney Party, which he founded in 1983. In fact, he had been standing for parliament on a regular basis under different guises since 1963, when sickened by the hypocrisy and corruption of British politics as exposed through the Profumo scandal, he started the National Teenage Party. Alas, Sutch never won, which was a shame, as his presence always ensured some anarchic, intelligent fun was added to the usual gaudy proceedings.

But Screaming Lord Sutch was more than a prickly whoopee cushion in the lives of unaccountable politicians, he was a well-loved sixties rock star, an early pioneer of shock rock, garage rock, psycho-billy who mixed monster movie aesthetics with rock ‘n’ roll long before Alice Cooper and The Cramps came along.

David Edward Sutch was born in Hampstead, London on November 10 1940. He left school at sixteen and worked at a variety of jobs, before he started his performing career at the 2 i’s Coffee Bar (the “birthplace of British rock ‘n’ roll”) on Old Compton Street, Soho in the late 1950s. Sutch took his name from Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and with his eighteen inch locks, bizarre outfits (a giant headpiece of cow horns) and outrageous stage act, Sutch and his band The Savages soon attracted the ear of legendary producer (and future murderer) Joe Meek leading to their pioneering singles in the early 1960s.

When I first heard Sutch’s early recordings with The Savages, such as “Jack the Ripper,” “‘Til the Following Night” and his cover of Johnny Burnette’s “Train A-Kept A-Rollin’,” I couldn’t understand why he never became a major international star. Sutch appeared to have done most of pop’s rebellious things before anyone else (long hair, the wildest clothes, act, songs, etc. ) but never received the credit for any of it.
 
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Screaming Lord Sutch and The Savages recorded and performed from the sixties to 1999, when Sutch tragically committed suicide, and during that time the line-up of The Savages included future actor/singer Paul Nicholas, guitar legends Ritchie Blackmore, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, bass player Noel Redding, drummers Keith Moon and John Bonham, and piano-wizard Nicky Hopkins.

Maybe Sutch relied too much on his “shock” tactics shows, or did too many covers of old rock ‘n’ roll classics, or was held back by his own personal problems (he suffered from depression all his life), who knows? But for sheer power, energy and good times rock ‘n’ roll, there’s nothing to beat Screaming Lord Sutch.
 

 

 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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07.16.2014
11:31 am
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