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Screaming Dead

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Early-eighties British horror punk turned goth, formed in Cheltenham in 1980 — B-movie imagery and graveyard theatrics played at punk speed.

Screaming Dead formed in Cheltenham in 1980, taking their name from the English title of the 1972 horror film Drácula contra Frankenstein. Guitarist Tony McCormack put the band together with singer Sam Missile, bassist Mal Page and drummer Mark Ogilvie, playing fast, guitar-driven punk dressed in horror-film imagery, graveyards, monsters, the atmosphere of cheap late-night cinema, with the reverb and minor-key melodies later associated with goth.

The band built a local following that spread through fanzine coverage and sales of a demo tape. Their next release, the cassette Children of the Boneyard Stones, came packaged with a badge and the band's own fanzine, Warcry.

The debut vinyl single, 'Valley of the Dead,' was self-released on the band's own Skull Records and picked up by No Future after selling out within a week. The follow-up, 'Night Creatures,' reached number 22 on the UK Indie Chart in 1983, part of a run of releases on small independent labels played mostly on the small-venue circuit.

Missile rejected the goth label sometimes applied to the band, insisting they were a punk group with an interest in horror themes. They covered the Rolling Stones' 'Paint It Black' as a tribute to Brian Jones, buried in the band's home town. In 1984, inspired by X-Ray Spex, they added saxophonist Nick Upton and signed to Nine Mile Records, a change that cost them fans; with punk's popularity fading, Screaming Dead split in 1985.

McCormack later formed the pagan gothic rock band Incubus Succubus, then reformed Screaming Dead in 1997 with a new lineup, touring Germany twice and recording the album Death Rides Out for Resurrection Records before splitting again in 1999. The band reformed once more in 2014, and is remembered today mainly among collectors of horror punk and deathrock records.

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