RS Band Promotions Present: Sacrilege with support from Who Knows Didley? and Eulogy
About Sacrilege
Founder member Bill Beadle Lead Vocalist/Guitarist and band songwriter formed Sacrilege in 1982/83 with best friend Alex Cookson. After advertising in Melody Maker they were joined by Rick Burgess on Drums and Steve Barrs on Bass.
The Band Recorded 4 tracks for a Demo in 1983. Bill’s dad sent off the Demo without the band knowing and it was picked out off many thousand of tapes and Records as one 6 bands to be the best new band of 1983 and appear on Television on the 6 episode David Jensen show which on their week also featured The Stranglers and U2. From the TV appearance followed a UK tour of smaller venues finishing with a gig at London’s Marquee. The band were then asked to play on John Glovers independent compilation album which was to feature Saxon, Iron Maiden, Def Leppard and a few more bands that were being Billed under the banner “New Wave Of British Heavy metal”. Unfortunately this got cancelled at the last moment when one of John Glovers other bands, Go West, got a Number one hit and all monies were put into promoting them and the album was sadly put on the back burner. The band were also in line to support Iron Maiden but the day before the band were to play in front of Neil Harris, the drummer split his hand open so bad he couldn’t play the gig. In 1983 Sacrilege Recorded the Gates Of Hell Album, which at the time was classed as a Demo. Sacrilege had a line up change Late in 1984 and were joined by Max Chan (Bass) and Steve On (Drums) In that year they made their second Demo.
Sacrilege ended when Bill stopped playing for about 25 years between 1987 and 2012 after getting disillusioned with a number of things and decided to raise a family.
In 2007 Bill decided to rerecord the old Sacrilege songs and write and record new material. After meeting guitarist Pekka Loikkenan online and living in Finland, Pekka put the solo’s to Bills new work. In 2009 the album Sacrilege was released. Sacrilege were back and sounding great. Due to the distance between Bill and Pekka Bill sort after a more local guitarist and Met Terry Steward. Terry and Pekka can be heard on the bands 3rd album The Unknown soldier which came out in 2011. Late 2011 Bill wrote The Album The Wraith which is based on the TV Series Stargate Atlantis, he also asked friend Neil Abnett to play on this album. Neil was so impressed with all the Sacrilege music he persuaded Bill to play Live again.
In The 80s Sacrilege always had a theatrical stage show no matter whether they were playing a pub, club or festival and fans loved it. You will be pleased to know that the band still put on the show they were renowned for. Sacrilege made their return to the stage on 25th October 2012 with new band members. In 2013 Sacrilege released Sacrosanct. After a few member changes trying to find the right combination, Bill met with Neil Turnbull who was in NWOBHM band Dervish in the 80s and struck up a great relationship and both had the same vision to take Sacrilege forward. A deal was signed with Pure Steel Records in 2014 and as a result of that came the albums “Ashes To Ashes” and “Six6Six”, the latter full of new material and including current Sacrilege bass player Jeff Rolland.
2019 has seen Sacrilege joined by Paul Macnamara (ex Salem) on lead guitar, completing what they feel is the best line up in their history. With the new album “The Court of The Insane” issued in August and coming under the management of Valeria Campagnale, coupled with more dates in the UK and mainland Europe, Sacrilege show no sign of slowing down. Indeed, the most significant part of the band’s history may be yet to come.
