Description
At the onset of their functioning the band has not yet been ‘electrified’ and used acoustic equipment strings solo guitar and two 7-strings guitars of Russian origin which were modified by removing strings into accompanying and bass guitar). This set has been using a homemade sound system connected to soviet radio Ural 57. As a consequence of professional equipment being impossible to get on polish market, members of the band in the attempt to grow, developed two electric guitars and one bass guitar by themselves. As well as two column speakers and amplifier to which the whole equipment was connected. Guitar pickups were made of telephone coils, frets were made of toy-train tracks and the bodies from old doors. This might seem ridiculous today but coming by finding even these humble materials was a miracle back then. Even more humble, per today’s standards, was the drum set that The Demons used. It comprised of one drum, one cauldron and one cymbal. The band did not have a bass drum or a hi-hat.
The band did not get a chance to record their music accomplishments in a professional sound studio and would probably never have any sound material left if it wasn’t for a visit from an American aunt who, in the summer of 1965, came to visit her polish cousins. She brought a reporter recorder on which she captured The Demons performance. The recording took place in the garden of the Nawara family home in Sulejowo. There were no rehearsals and no corrections. Which also means that the material that we can now listen to on this record is the most authentic depiction of how The Demons played. American equipment did its job and what it registered is truly in good quality. The challenge was that all three guitars were connected to only one amplifier. That caused overdriving and made the sound of the rhythm guitar ‘dirty’. On the other hand, the solo and bass guitars ‘clipping’ are still quite intriguing and it is worth a thought whether this kind of sound back in 1965 hadn’t been truly innovative on our market. In the following years the band, similarly to other young formations, was performing on several events like school dances, prom balls and in student clubs like ‘Relax’ which is still open within Warsaw Academy of Physical Education. Toward the end of the 60s The Demons gradually decreased activity and terminated.
However, sometime later, three of the band’s members reactivated the formation (now including a vocal and brass section) and named it Preludium. The new band functioned under MZK at Chełmska street in Warsaw, which served them as a place for practice and equipment storage. They even recorded for the Polish Radio but that material got lost in the archives. After a few years the band dismantled in 1975.
Realizing that the album of half-amateur band is directed at a handful of most persistent fans of polish big beat, we hope that it will find bigger audience and bring a generous sense of collectors-retrospective fun.
