Interview with Sam singer with The Screaming Dead
My name is Sam Bignall from Cheltenham, I've been a Punk Rocker since 1977. I was in a band called The Waste when I was 18 years old in 1978 followed by The Screaming Dead.
First Punk Rock band you ever saw Live? Where/when?
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No Dice, 1977 Malvern Winter Gardens.
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First Punk Rock Record you bought? What made you buy it?
Anarchy in the UK because it was fantastic!
Favourite Venue to play in? UK or abroad
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There have been so many it's very hard to choose, but possibly the 100 club which we have played on three occasions.
Influences?
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Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned, Ramones, X Ray Spex,
Buzzcocks, Stranglers.
Any new bands impressed you and worth a shout out?
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Not new but I love Hung like Hanratty, The Blue Carpet Band and The Wraith (from LA).
What’s the future look like for you and Screaming Dead?
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Future is very bright if the pandemic would disappear, we've just been named LA Gothaus band of the year and had been looking forward to returning to America & have been offered many other countries to tour.
Just had a joint cassette single brought out with the Wraith in America, recently been featured in a University documentary about punk rock, we have a German vinyl
release coming up of a compilation of all our best songs.
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We are due to go in the studio to finish off the album and will be doing some more live feeds like the one we did in November as well a UK tour with the Samples and Chinese Burn.
Where does the name of the band come from?
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Comes from a horror film but we also said it was a reflection of the youth of the day (when we were youths ourselves) we were Screaming from the neck upwards and dead from the neck down.
What is the craziest, most memorable thing which
happened on Tour?
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Many crazy experiences but flying 26 hours on multiple
flights to Canada and ending up on the floor in a squat was
memorable for all the wrong reason, having the plug
pulled on us 10 minutes before we were due to go on in Berlin
and ending up crashing another gig and being banned
from having any more drinks on a return flight home
from America.
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Also Jake Hout singer of Dead Boys and Alts de Fey coming on
and singing Night Creatures in its entirety in Oakland.
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If 2020 was a person?
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A bit like the mother in Psycho
Favourite Punk Rock album?
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Never Mind the Bollocks
If God was a Punk Rocker?
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He would be a youthful Johnny Rotten
Favourite band to share the stage with?
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Hung like Hanratty
Interviewed in January 2021
