Tuesday 31 May 2016

The Monster Munch Raving Loony Party

This doesn’t refer directly to a piece of Monster Munch merchandise so think of this as an additional piece of Monster Munch trivia relating to my previous post about The ‘new’ Monster Munch Monsters from 1995- 2008 and their past. While researching into the life of David “Screaming Lord” Sutch  (1940 –1999)  the founder of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party for another project (found here on my main site). I discovered this image in his book ‘As Sutch, the political manifesto of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party’. Lord Sutch can be seen campaigning with the Monster Munch Monsters! Unfortunately no information is given about the photo apart from a caption underneath that reads, “The 12-ton armoured personnel carrier approach, 1995 –The Monster Munch”. Wanting to know what his Lordship’s connection to the Monster Munch brand was I contacted Walker’s Crisps but unfortunately this yielded no results. Then the answer was eventually presented to me through former long-standing member of the party and now founder of the Eccentric Party of Great Britain Lord Toby Jug and John Tempest, David Sutch's PR Man and Campaigns Officer. It seems that back in 1995 (the year Walker’s re-branded Monster Munch and launched its 'new' monsters) Walker’s sponsored the Official Monster Raving party and the proviso was that the party’s name be changed to The Monster Munch Raving Loony Party for that year and that Lord Sutch himself stand as a candidate for the Perth and Kinross by-election in 1995. He did and he won 586 votes! (Coming in fourth behind the SNP, Labour, Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats). So there you have it, Monster Munch was a political party for one year and I am delighted to finally have the answer and I extend my sincere thanks to Lord Toby Jug and John Tempest for their help in clearing up this mystery for me. Naturally being associated with Screaming Lord Sutch I knew the answer would make perfect sense….