The Savages were the backing band for the late Screaming Lord Sutch during 4 decades.
Between their formation in February 1960 and the decease of Dave Sutch in June 1999, hundreds of musicians have been through their ranks.
The Savages had been a breeding ground for many great luminaries of the British rock scene including, Nicky Hopkins, Freddie Fingers Lee, Matthew Fisher (Procol Harum), Ritchie Blackmore, Nick Simper (both of Deep Purple), Adrian Gurvitz (Gun), Danny McCulloch ect., but also for actors Paul Nicholas and Dave Adams.
When musicians joined his band, Screamin' Lord Sutch invariably changed their names:
Roger Mingay was known as "Scratch and Scrape Bailey"; Ken Payne as "Hopping Ken Rupert Payne"; Bernie Watson as "Strawberry"; Ritchie Blackmore as "Bluebell"; Tony Dangerfield as "Tulip".
All his pianists were called "Freddie Fingers Lee The Flea" - but Fred Cheeseman kept the name forever.
In fact, They were nicknames given to them by Tom Littlewood, Dave Sutch's manager in the early days.
However it's difficult to determine who were the true Savages because Dave Sutch sometimes used pick-up bands instead of the established line-up of Savages for financial reasons.
When The "Original" Savages couldnt make a gig or if the gig was up in the north of England, The northern Savages would step in to back Screamin' Lord Sutch from 1978.
Throughout the years, The Savages had so many different members and various line ups which usually lasted only some months (See "The line ups of The Savages" section).
Drummers "Wild" Bob Burgos, Carlo Little (who deputised for the Rolling Stones in the early days), and bass player Tony Dangerfield, were the longest serving Screaming Lord Sutch's sidemen. They considered The Savages as their Rock 'n' Roll spiritual home.
Curiously Screaming Lord Sutch well remembered some great names of the British Rock history such as Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), Jeff Beck, Albert Lee, Mick Abrahams (Jethro Tull), Keith Moon (The Who), Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell both of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, as fleeting members of his band but he forgot less known Savages who even were very skilled musicians.
We have to distinguish "Regular" members from the "Occasional" Savages, who had only backed Dave Sutch once or twice (just depusing for unjuried musicians).
During his long career, Screaming Lord Sutch also worked with other well established bands (Vince Taylor's Playboys, The Flee Rekkers, The Echoes, TNT, The Houseshakers...) who didn't back him as his Savages.
The following list is NOT exhaustive. Sorry for people we'd forgotten.
In brackets: the years during which they were in The Savages [...]; and the other bands in which they were (...)
Staff
Regular Savages
Occasional Savages
Other Musicians/Bands Who worked With Screaming Lord Sutch
1 comment:
Hello, my band from Liverpool "Bilf Slat" became "The Savages" for a whole year and acted as David's backing band, this must have been around 1974/5. We toured colleges around the country and most notably did a tour of Denmark which included "Live" Danish TV.
Band members;- Dave Lorentz-Bass, John Thompson-Guitar, Derek Rose- Guitar, Joey Morris-Drums..
Sutchy & his american girlfriend "Than" both stayed at my mum's house in Liverpool on one trip north.
"Bill Slat" prior to becoming "The Savages" recorded an EP for Columbia Records, recorded in there famous Denmark St Studios and Produced by Bilf Slat's co Manager, the legendary "Billy Fury" & the band notably also performed the final night of the Cavern Club which was recorded for posterity by The Rolling Stones Mobile!
cheers!
dave lorentz (now a long time resident of NYC)
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