Influenced by the big beasts of Metal – Sabbath, Priest and Purple – singer, songwriter & guitarist Bill Beadle formed UK heavy rock band Sacrilege in London in 1981.….

Sacrilege’s first ever gig was at the 101 club in Clapham Junction, London in 1982 then we played across the South East and London including the Ad Lib club in Kensington, Green Gate in Bethnal Green and the famous Marquee in Waldorf Street. We also supported an early Iron Maiden line up.

Were the band labelled as NWOBHM and what did you think of it ?

I think we are more tagged with the NWOBHM label now than we were then. I didn’t think of us as a particular genre I thought we were a heavy rock band. It didn’t worry me at all but people like to categorise.

I liked the Spellbound album by the Tygers of Pan Tang but didn’t really listen to many other bands of our age really as I was still into Sabbath and Priest then.

I knew Weapon were doing really well supporting Motörhead. They are a top band and nice guys. But I was so preoccupied with Sacrilege I didn’t get that much time to go to see other bands.

What bands were gigging at the same time as Sacrilege in the 80s ?

Warrior, Tobruk, Demon, Vardis, Spider, Dervish and Angelwitch to name a few. Bands I was still going to see were the bigger bands like Lizzy, Whitesnake, Kiss and Motörhead. They were all great bands.

Are there any recordings of your first line-up ?

We recorded a demo tape for £100 at Elephant Recording Studios in Wapping, London. We recorded it through the night as it was cheaper to do it then.

We also recorded a track called Ratrace at Teddington Studios. The song was to go on a compilation album with Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Saxon and Angelwitch to rival the Metal for Muthas album, but unfortunately it got shelved.

There was a pop band on the record label called Go West, they just had a number one, so the budget was poured into them.

Were Sacrilege active in the media, any newspaper stories or appear on tv shows ?

Yes, we were in Melody Maker and Sounds and the odd magazine. We played on the David Jensen Rock TV show as one of the new bands in the metal genre of 1983.

In fact, we were chosen out of thousands of tapes and records and were billed as the band of ‘83. Also appearing on that show were U2 and The Stranglers.

After that show we were booked to play in a club in Dover. We got down there done a sound check then went for a quick beer.

We found a Heavy Metal club about 100 yards away and it was packed so we thought they must all be having a beer and then coming to see us. When we got back to the venue the bouncers on the door said no jeans or trainers!

We said ‘we are the band and its heavy metal!’ They let us in, and we found it was a Disco! We thought we are gonna go down like a lead balloon here.

But after playing a couple of tracks and letting off a few pyros the crowd seemed to really enjoy our show, even if they weren’t exactly head banging (laughs).

Sacrilege called it a day in 1987 but Bill started writing and recording again in 2007 and by 2012 looked at starting the band again…

Yes, now with different members who are based across the South East. Gillingham, Whitstable, Andover and Bristol.

We’ve got Neil Turnbull on drums, he was with The Dervish. He joined in 2013 along with Jeff Rolland on bass. Paul Macnamara joined this year on lead guitar. Paul was former guitarist with UK rock/metal band Salem.

What has the new line up got planned ?

We have been busy lately appearing in Fireworks magazine and have played alongside bands like Hell, Quartz, Onslaught and Witchfynde. Earlier this month we played a couple of dates in both Belgium and Germany.

We have Court of the Insane, our seventh album coming out on 16th August on the Pure Steel label and we have a couple of dates booked in at The Musician in Leicester 27th July and The Carlisle in Hastings 3rd August. More are being planned.

 Interview by Gary Alikivi   May 2019.