Demon

Celebrating The Unexpected Guest 36 years on.

Frontman Dave Hill (no relation) checks in as the veteran British hard rockers prepare for six extremely rare British appearances.

When did Demon last undertake a UK tour of this size?

We still do a lot of work in Europe, but it would have to be about thirty years ago [laughs]. Incredibly, this will be my first Scottish gig.

An appearance at Firefest in 2007 was billed as “the last British show ever”.

It was meant to be part of a last tour, though now of course we’re touring again. It got out of hand. What can I say? We’re not alone.

Were Demon unfairly written off for their earliest occult and horror-based shows? We’ve been quite misrepresented pretty much every step of the way. The band only ever did about a dozen of those shows. We were around when the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal broke, but after two or three albums Demon became something unique to itself. We’ve now got fifteen albums and most people accept that we’ve moved on.

These gigs celebrate Demon’s second album, The Unexpected Guest, which thirty-six years on still sounds fresh. Thanks for that. Promoters keep on asking for us to play shows based on those first two albums and I’ve now reached the point where I’m more comfortable with the idea. So we compromise; I’ve still got some of the outfits and props.

How far will you go in terms of revisiting those shows?

When we played at the Bang Your Head Festival [in Germany] I walked out in the gown of a high priest, wearing the demon’s head, and we did the whole Father Of Time thing. There will be a live album and film of that same show later in the year.

The Unexpected Guest was recorded at Bray Studios, home of the wonderful old Hammer horror movies.

I’ve really fond memories of that. Nick Elder, who was responsible for the special effects on many of those films, still had the original pendulum from The Pit And The Pendulum. Jethro Tull were also rehearing for a tour there, so the place was full of these fascinating people from the worlds of cinema and music. It was quite magical. DL

The final date is in London on September 29.