Curse of the Demon

When it comes to music, I’ve always had something of a soft spot for championing the underdog. There’s something about befriending a young, struggling band in their bid for stardom that warms my heart. In the past, I’ve travelled to see indie kids ‘Ludicrous Lollipops’, largely because they sent me a nice letter once, accompanied by a lollipop. I also bought a record by local band ‘The Marabar Caves’ after meeting them on holiday in Greece. They were lovely guys. The record was rubbish.

However, no band has received the unwavering, partisan support from yours truly more so than the most famous rock band you’ve never heard of……Demon!

Last year, my best mate and I attended the last ever UK Demon show, which finally brought to a close a favoured devotion of mine, that has spanned nearly 3 decades. In typical ‘more a whimper than a bang’ style, they were the special guests on a festival bill, and all the other bands sets over-ran….. resulting in their glorious swansong performance being cut in half. It was somehow a fitting end.

The teary-eyed nostalgia of the occasion led me back to the first time I ever went to see them, and I revisited a piece I wrote a few years ago, which reminded me that the more things change, the more they stay the same……….

Glastonbury, Reading, Woodstock, The Isle of Wight......err, Wyatts Lake!

No, I don't suppose you have ever heard of it. Never will again either.......

Let me set the scene. It's August 1990, and our intrepid heroes from deepest Stoke-on-Trent are about to release their classic double live album, "One Helluva Night". Some small ads appeared in the press in the weeks leading up to the release, culminating in an ad in Kerrang! featuring snippets of glowing reviews from a variety of German metal mags........and something else. In the small print at the bottom of the ad are the immortal words ....."Demon also play live, Sept 22nd festival, Wyatts Lake Rock '90" along with directions to a site in Wiltshire that I'd never heard of. Now this announcement in itself was enough to send me into the kind of frenzied excitement normally reserved for badly dubbed Swedish movies of an adult nature! The following week an ad for the festival itself appeared, confirming the fact that yes, unbelievably, Demon were about to play their first ever UK festival date! As headliners!!! It mattered not that the supporting line-up was almost completely unknown to me (the sole exception being vocalist Steve Grimmett, who I'd been a big fan of from his Grim Reaper and Onslaught days, appearing with his new band, Lionsheart), DEMON WERE PLAYING!!!

September 22nd couldn't come quickly enough for me. This was not going to be just any old gig - this was to be an event! This was to be the day that the rest of the rock audience of the UK came to realise that I'd been right all along - Demon were our finest musical treasure. Today Wyatts Lake - tomorrow the world! Myself and my girlfriend at the time set off for darkest Wiltshire in search of the musical second coming.

And that's when it all started to go a bit pear-shaped..........

First off, the weather was not good. Freezing temperatures and ominous black clouds did not bode well for an outdoor rockfest. Secondly, when we eventually arrived at the gig, it became pretty clear that this was not exactly going to be on a Castle Donington scale! The site itself appeared to be little more than a sloping field adjacent to a farm, and the stage was hardly the enormous hulking monster I'd hoped for - it appeared that a Pink Floyd style light show was not on todays agenda! Finally (and most worryingly), the small groups of punters scattered on the grass when we arrived seemed to number a couple of hundred at best. My dreams appeared to be unravelling before my very eyes. Still, the atmosphere was friendly enough, and there was plenty of food and beer. Plus, pretty soon a coach load of punters turned up, swelling the crowd numbers somewhat, so maybe things were going to be alright after all.

The first two bands came and went without leaving any trace on my memory whatsoever. Not a good start. Third band on, according to the ads and tickets were called Head To Head - but the lads that actually played were a mob called Skeleton Swing instead. Seem to remember that they were pretty good as well - certainly got the crowd interested for the first time. However, the festival gods were not going to make this easy for anyone, and chose the Skeletal ones set to prove this. For no apparent reason, the power went, and everything came to a silent halt! After much scurrying around by hapless roadies, an announcement was made that there was a problem with the generator, and all would be fixed shortly. True enough, the power returned, and the band played on (like the song says!) It was still bitter cold, but the rain had stayed away so far. Like I said, so far.....

With darkness falling, and the crowd having filled up slightly more, Lionsheart put on an excellent set of melodic metal with strong choruses and a slighty bluesy feel, that went down very well with a crowd that had finally decided that, hey, this was actually not a bad day out - all things considered. Forget the nervous start, the stage was now set for Demon to take command. And then the generator packed up again.....

And it started to rain............

A lot.

An announcement was made from the DJ that the power would have to be turned off completely for a few minutes while everything was sorted out, and that the place would be plunged into darkness - but don't worry, Demon will be on soon! We headed back to the car with a couple of cups of tea and some grub, to try and stay warm and dry while they fannied around outside, listening to the wind whipping up a frenzy.

After 15 minutes or so, we ventured back out........to witness the unthinkable. It was absolutely pissing down, the stage was soaked, and gear was being hastily removed and loaded up into waiting vans…….. and in the middle of the abandoned stage stood the solitary figure of vocalist and band mainstay Dave Hill. Now, in the years that have followed, I've met Dave many times and we've become good friends, but this was my first chance to exchange words with my undisputed hero. Our conversation went something like this.

Me - "Dave, what's happening? Are you playing??"

Him - "No"!

And so it was. Wyatts Lake Rock '90 was over without Demon playing a note. Call it bad luck, call it the perils of the English weather, call it the presence of the Unexpected Guest! Looking back it was a pretty funny day and I'm certainly glad I went, but at the time I was absolutely despondent, and we drove home for two hours in almost total silence. If ever there was an event that could sum up Demon's struggle against the odds, and my blind devotion to them at the same time - this was most certainly it!

Pete Galer

Added Feb, 2008