Screamin' Sam

Screamin Sam started as a spin-off of a later Viletones lineup in about 1981. Sam, Tony & Gideon hooked up with Brian Connelly (formerly of Crash Kills Five, and subsequently the guitarman in Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet) and started playing these really great Beatlesque pop songs at Ramones speed and Motorhead volume. The band went through a few personnel changes before I hooked up with Sam again in 1985. In good Viletone fashion, all the early Screaming Sam stories involve riots.

The riot squad had to break up a Horseshoe gig while Sam was playing 'Wild and Free', a 5 minute, 2 chord tantrum, and the crowd disassembled the club. We could never figure out how to spell the name, so the posters were all different… Screemin, Skreaming , Screaming, Screamin. However you spell it, nobody ever made bass feedback sound better than Sam. We were in competition with Groovy Religion for the prize of 'Cd longest in production prior to release' but finally in 95 we came out with 'Dust'

Screamin Sam Ferrara (Viletones, The Secrets): bass, vocals
Steve Koch: lead guitar
Chick Parker: guitar
Tony Vincent: drums