Darryl Read

Darryl Read, a British musician handling both drums and guitar, has embodied the personas of poet, agitator, pinup, and early punk trailblazer across four decades of activity in music, film, and television. At age fourteen he first drew attention by receiving an award for his performance in the film Daylight Robbery. In 1968 he pursued a rock career as drummer in the psychedelic punk outfit Crayon Angels, a group overseen by pirate-radio figure Emperor Rosko. The following year Read joined guitarist Jesse Hector to launch Crushed Butler, a loud power trio that endured two exhausting years in pursuit of a recording contract and earned the description “three ugly, heavy musicians, playing music to match.” The group is now recognized as an originator of punk, its material later compiled on the 1998 reissue Uncrushed. Following the band’s 1971 breakup, Read set aside his rock ambitions yet secured employment at Track Records.

He next secured a role that merged acting with music, portraying guitarist Keith Richards in the stage production Let the Good Stones Roll, which premiered at Scotland’s Edinburgh Festival. Another part followed in Bastard Angel, a play loosely drawn from the Kinks. When British audiences showed little interest, Read redirected his focus toward Germany and the United States, regions that have accounted for most of his activity since the 1980s. Among his many collaborators were former T. Rex drummer Bill Legend and the late percussionist Mickey Finn, partnerships that yielded the EPs Walking in Shadows (1995) and Gods ’n’ Angels (1996). A further important alliance developed with Terry Stamp of Third World War, resulting in the gothic-punk albums Book of the Dead (1990) and Beat Existentialist (1991).

As the decade closed, Read broadened his multimedia reach alongside Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek, who had appeared on Beat Existentialist. Their joint effort Freshly Dug (1999) paired Read’s poetry with Manzarek’s supportive keyboard approach. In 2000 an additional fifty-five poems were published in the volume Set. During 2002 Read worked with former Sex Pistols producer Dave Goodman on the album Shaved while also promoting the film Remember a Day, in which he portrayed Roger Bannerman, a figure modeled on Pink Floyd’s troubled founder Syd Barrett. By 2003 he was preparing a limited edition of the memoir Stardom Road, which chronicles his experiences in acting and music.