It feels like rock veterans DEMON have done nearly as many farewell and reunion shows as BLACK SABBATH. After their latest UK farewell show at Firefest last year, the DEMON is resurrected yet again and tonight’s show in their home county of Staffordshire felt like a celebration of nearly 30 years of good old fashioned British rock.

Having left at the end of the TOWERS OF LONDON gig (just up the road), I jumped out of the taxi and arrived just in time to catch the full DEMON set, and was pleased to see a healthy sized crowd, with many a Stoke rocker coming out for a night of local nostalgia. The dust was blown off classic 1980 debut album opener ‘Night of the Demon’ to kick start the show, with the venue literally shaking with the volume at ridiculously high levels – MOTORHEAD are as quiet as a mouse compared to this – thank God for ear plugs. Fortunately, the sound did improve slightly throughout the gig, as the band marched through more vintage songs like ‘Into the Nightmare’, ‘The Plague’ and ‘Nowhere to Run’.

Charismatic vocalist Dave Hill remains the group’s only original member, and despite continuously complaining about the lack of sound coming through the on stage monitors (i.e. sweet FA), Hill delivered a solid and accurate vocal performance. He’s never had the greatest of ‘rock’ voices, but like Phil Mogg of UFO, his voice just seems to work with the music – and with a great on stage persona, Hill has always remained popular with DEMON’s loyal fan base. The rest of the current line-up is a very tight unit, seemingly still on top of their game following their recent show as part of the Sweden Rock Cruise.

It was no surprise that the night was brought to a close with stirring renditions of the magnificent ‘Don’t Break the Circle’ (a song covered by German power metal giants BLIND GUARDIAN), and DEMON’s fist-pumping anthem ‘One Helluva Night’. After tonight’s terrific performance, one hopes that DEMON will keep on playing these occasional shows, and if they can keep the energy levels as high as they did tonight, I would fully expect their to be another night of the demon sometime in the future. Watch this space.

DEMON Rating: 4.0/5.0

Review by James Allman

Photography by Alexander Shaw (click here)