The most famous Vampire-based pop band of the 1960s, The Dracula-la-las were famous for poppy hits and draining the blood of their fanbase during their sleep.
With hits such as I Want to Suck Your Blood, All You Need is Blood, Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Dracula, and Lucy in the Sky With Dracula, the band stormed the charts. But it went very wrong at a music festival in 1979 when exposed to daylight, ending their career there and then.
What remains is a rock and roll story of fame, fortune, blood, vampires, teeth, and blood. This… is the story of the band.
The Uplifting Blood-Based Pop Hits of The Dracula-la-las
The Dracula-la-las formed in Shephard’s Bush, London, in 1965. Due to the general illegality of vampires, all of the band members had to wear a disguise in their early years. The first band name was We Want to Suck Your Blood, but as that was a bit of a giveaway it was soon changed to The Dracula-la-las.
Their debut album, I Want to Suck Your Blood, launched in 1966 and was a chart sensation.
It stormed to number one and led to the band appearing on Top of the Pops, a disastrous performance as the members stormed the audience and began biting everyone in sight. The BBC has since eclipsed the footage from records and had the tapes destroyed.
Due to continuous occurrences of the blood sucking variety, The Dracula-la-las soon gained a reputation for being troublemakers.
With notoriety came increased public interest, all despite the hopeless and twee nature of the band’s music. Lead singer, Greg Vampireimus, told the BBC in 1969:
“When we go on stage it’s as if magic happens. That is black magic. The occult. The Dark Arts. It’s difficult to hold everything together when the audience is out there, their necks ready to be relieved of blood, and so we rarely are able to get three songs into a set. It’s good value for money, considering the tickets only cost three quid.”
However, after music fans complained about the bloody sucking the police got involved.
The band was jailed for six months in early 1970, all except drummer Henry McVampire. He was escaped prison as he’d been drinking ketchup instead of blood in an attempt to improve the band’s image.
He attempted to tour the band in this one-man guise, but few people were interested in hearing his boring drum solos. As such, The Swinging Sixties became The Blood Sucking Sixties.
The Bloody Sucking Sixties
Once released from prison, The Dracula-la-las wrote a new album: Blood.
This seminal record contained what would become the band’s biggest hits, including numbers way ahead of their time. Such as:
- Sunday Bloody Sunday
- I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For (blood)
- With or Without Blood
- Where the Streets Have no Blood
- Blood Day
The album was a smash hit, but due to its excessive focus on blood the BBC banned it in 1971 and the band members were all arrested. To calm a sense of growing moral panic, they were stuck into the Tower of London and told to control their devious ways.
For 24 glorious hours, The Dracula-la-las behaved themselves.
However, on the morning of March 3rd 1971 Greg Vampireimus sucked the blood of several Tower of London guards. Re-arrested for murder, even though no one had died, Vampireimus subsequently defied court orders by singing With or Without Blood during his trial.
He was sentenced to a million years in jail. As of 2025, Vampireimus is still serving his sentence (due to a million years having failed to pass thus far). He will be eligible for parole in 500,000 years.
Final Album: Exsanguination
Despite Vampireimus’ absence, the other band members recorded what is widely believed to be their masterpiece. Exsanguination launched in 1973—the only way for music fans to buy the album was to donate blood. Three litres to be precise.
To own the album, droves of music fans lined the streets to gift The Dracula-la-las their blood.
The blood went straight to the vampires, whom consumed the substance with much relish. However, as the police soon cottoned on to this racket, the band was once again threatened with legal action. The band insisted it was essential for their survival and, in 1975, they were granted a reprieve.
The Death of The Dracula-la-las
With legal matters seemingly finished, the band resumed touring. However, during an ill-advised daytime 1979 festival performance the band were all burned to a crisp.
Such a sudden end to the band led to widespread adoption of occult practices, leading to several Conservative music critics to note music was better in the good old days.
Greg Vampireimus, safely locked away in his jail cell, didn’t become aware of the fate of his band until 2023. This is when prison guards finally updated him. Vampireimus was documented as uttering a cuss word in shock, before requesting to drain the blood of a prison guard. His request was denied.
