Photograph: Rik Walton
The demo... with Clive singing, I was able to talk the engineer into working for free and talked everybody else into working for free with my charm and managed to get the band in the studio for a couple of hours for those three tracks. So, the only thing I really had to pay at the end of the day was the tape costs.
- Conrad "Cronos" Lant / Venom interview, Voices from the Darkside
VENOM recorded their debut demo on this day in 1980 at Impulse Studios in Newcastle.
The line-up on this demo was:
Clive "Jesus Christ" Archer - Vox
Conrad "Cronos" Lant - Bass
Jeff "Mantas" Dunn - Guitars
Tony "Abaddon" Bray - Percussion
Impulse was owned by David Wood - founder of Neat Records - and many early Neat / NWOBHM classics were recorded at the studio including early VENOM LPs and records by JAGUAR, WARFARE, RAVEN, FIST, SATAN, TYSONDOG, BLITZKRIEG and others! VENOM's demo was engineered by Mickey Sweeney, who also worked as producer with most of the bands mentioned.
The featured band photo above is one of a session with photographer Rik Walton in Wallsend.
...the Venom session was arranged through Dave Wood at Neat records. We went around the back of Neat where there was some wasteland. One of them had white make up and was putting it on as it started to rain so it was just dripping down his face. We hid under a bush until it stopped.
Rik Walton interview, Alikivi, 2019
You can view more and order prints at Rik's website.