We got offered this interview by Mat Price from his WhatsApp Metal group where he posts ‘INFREQUENT SURPRISINGLY GREAT ALBUMS’ … so what you may say? well when the band in question is Brighton Thrash Kings Deathwish, and their album Demon Preacher, and Mat caught up with drummer Brad Sims for a chat…why would we not want to share… so here goes!!

 DEATHWISH – Demon Preacher – 1988

This was a band I discovered back in the day when label samplers (compilations from bands in their roster) were frequent, and metal magazines had cover mounted casettes with songs from featured bands. I remember the first time I heard them. The track, Prey To The Lord, was on the 1989 double lp, Metal Hammer: The Best Of British Steel. I also remember it being around 7 or 8 quid… for double vinyl!

I also know I purchased Deathwish’s album (their second full length) in Shades in Soho. So, a bit late to the party. I’ll get to the point. This Brighton band did proper old school thrash, even for 1988 standards. It has that Show No Mercy, Kill ‘Em All vibe but with a British brutish swagger. David Brunt (guitar), Jon Van Doorn (vox), Stuart Ranger (bass) and Brad Sims (drums) pulled off a truly British thrash sound.

 If this album came out now, it would be an instant retro classic. Information is, unfortunately, scarce for Deathwish, writing a retrospective was an almost impossible challenge. So I did a bit of digging and pleading, I was given Brad Sims’ email address, and I asked if he could enlighten us.

 His response..?

Hi Mat. Yes, no problem at all. Ask away.

Thank you. I’ll try not to make it banal.

To start, how was it working a band back then before the internet? I can imagine a lot of literal footwork was needed to network your brand.

Networking a brand wasn’t something we would have even considered to be honest. When I joined Deathwish, I was just 16 and Dave [Brunt. Guitar] was going on 18. We just wanted to play harder than the majority of the NWOBHM bands and include influences from the second wave of UK punk.

 We teamed up with Dave placing ads in the weekly music paper Sounds which, prior to Kerrang, was the only mag that took heavy music seriously.

 Terms like branding, marketing, networking etc were alien to us. To be honest, nothings changed as that goes.

It’s funny you mention Sounds magazine. I was recently remembering the record shop Shades in Soho from when I was a spotty little mid teen in the late 80s. They had a knack for getting hard to find music, and you had to do the legwork.

 Is that something that is lacking now with streaming, or would you agree that Spotify could be viewed as a faster version of tape trading and dedicated record shops?

 Are we removing a more personal connection with metal?

Like most things to do with the tech revolution of the last 20 years, there’s good and bad with the easy access to music. The financial aspect of it is of course not good for the musician. You don’t get much compared to the standard 12% you used to get from record sales which means that merch is really the big earner for bands now. Spotify makes finding new music so much simpler than the old tape trading scene where you had to write letters and send cassettes to people after replying to ads in fanzines. I had friends that were really into all this so I used to get to hear loads of the early thrash and crossover bands. You had to put some effort into getting info on new bands so, in some ways Spotify and its like is a good thing and in some respects not so much.

Speaking of effort (and putting us back on topic), Deathwish is a tricky band to get info on.

 One of the first places that comes up when searching Deathwish is Encyclopedia Metallum. It’s a very good resource for heavy metal and, according to them, you went through bass players like Spinal Tap went through drummers.

 Stuart Ranger seems to be the constant bassist since the Sword Of Justice demo (1986).

 It also states Damon Maddison played bass and his Brother, Nathan was a drummer with Deathwish.

 With yourself credited as drummer on everything. Could you put some clarity on this information?

In 83, we had a bass player called Stuart Parmenter, he left in 84. I left soon after as we couldn’t find a suitable bass player or singer. Dave kept looking but I went to Switzerland joining a band there for about 3 weeks before I decided to come home as it really wasn’t for me. I formed another band here with a whizz kid guitar player which went nowhere. In the meantime, Dave got Damon and Nathan in on bass and drums and met Jon Van Doorn. After a while Dave asked me if I would play on a demo just to help out as Nathan was gone (I can’t remember if he jumped or was pushed, depends on who you ask!).

Anyway, I did that as me and Dave were still pals. This was a demo before the Sword Of Justice demo, so I reckon it was about late 85. The sound was shit, Damon threw a wobbler about something or other and he fucked off and joined his brother. Dave and Jon then poached Stuart Ranger from Eastbourne band Taor, and after hearing and meeting Stu, I came back full time and did the SOJ demo which got us the deal with Metalworks records. Much later on, we got Ben Rumble (what a name for a bass player, and I believe it was real) to replace Stu, but it was never the same really as Stu was my boozing and getting into trouble buddy.

Ha! Brilliant. It appears integrity for Encyclopedia Metallum remains intact.

 I’m to assume your time in Switzerland was with Empire.

Yes, Empire. That was a waste of time. The guitarist became a porn star I believe.

So…  what I’m really here for.

Demon Preacher. Your second (and sadly, last) album as Deathwish.

You signed with GWR Records for this album, and they had Motorhead, Hawkwind, Anti-Nowhere League and Girlschool, among others, on their roster.

That must’ve been a buzz, right? Did they offer a good deal?

The GWR deal would have been great had they not been in litigation with Motorhead, and for all intents and purposes, folded just as Demon Preacher was released. We were really pleased with that album. We had learnt a lot about playing, how to get the sound we wanted and how the business worked between the first and second album.

The production on the first album [At The Edge Of Damnation. 1987] was diabolical so we decided to do DP ourselves. I still think it sounds good when you put it into perspective. I do sort of prefer the riffs on the first record though. We were more like a sped up doom band when starting. I’ve got rehearsal tapes from our first rehearsals in early 83 where we sounded a bit like the stooges. The motorhead connection was always there. The ad I applied to for Deathwish actually said that you had to be into Sabbath/Motorhead/Venom.

Philthy was one of my heroes. I first met him when I was 14 and they all moved into a house in battersea where I’m from. Lovely people and keen to give advice.

After the release of Demon Preacher, did you tour it? And if so, who with?

Other than 2 weeks out with Motorhead no.  

 The tour we did was so much fun, we thought, “this is it boys, it’s going to happen now…” Then the tour ended, and we didn’t tour as we intended to. Just do one off gigs round England before we split up in early 89.

What went wrong?

The label stopped pressing and putting DP out and we were back to the pub circuit.  Then we all started rucking over direction. Stuey got the boot and it all fell apart. Just as we were becoming a really good band, we let it slip away.

I feel bad now. I got that album in 89. Maybe just that one sale…

We did get few out before it all went tits up.

I’m told by a mate inside of the biz that we initially did sell well, especially in the United States. Who knows. Plenty of people seem to know of Deathwish, but not much info about us got out there. As I said, we’re not the greatest at networking or marketing.

That’s a rough thing to happen. Obviously, it was out of your hands. There was a reunion around 2017, wasn’t there?

Me and Dave did an album a couple of years ago. We couldn’t get a suitable singer, history repeating itself, so it’s been shelved for now. Its fucking good though, if I say so myself.

On the subject of singers. Have you tried the old flyers on metal pub walls or even social media? I ask because the world needs that new Deathwish album.

For some reason the only sort of singers we seem to attract are the type we don’t really want. We didn’t want to get together after all this time and do some clichéd version of what we were doing in the 80s.

The new album is not some digital ultra compressed metal sounding thing. We’ve sort of returned to our original idea way back, but bought to it better playing and much more focused anger in the lyrics. We have to have the right person to finish it off. We shall see. If anyone fancies a go, get in touch.

Do you still keep in touch with Dave, Jon and Stuart?

Jon is Jon…we did try to get something together with him but neither me or Dave like being told what and how to play so that had a short shelf life. I have no idea what he’s doing now. Stu gave up playing for many years. He had a go at playing with us, but his chops weren’t quite up to it due to not playing. We’re still mates though.

You’re a tattoo artist now with your own studio (Sims Tattoos, Croydon), and have been for a long time, right?

I started professionally tattooing in 1992 and love it. It also pays the bills, so I’m a lucky chap.

It seems music and tattooing make comfy bedfellows for you. You still played and performed too, I hope?

After we split, me and Jon stuck together and formed a band called Control, then Diatribe. We did some really good stuff but to be honest at that point I was more into tattooing so again, it went nowhere.

 We did some recording and a few gigs in the early 90s. Check out  Diatribe’s, Calibrate on YouTube [Mat’s note: it’s very good].

 In 96 I joined one of my favourite punk/metal bands, The Blood who recorded the album, Spillage, which came out in 98. Excellent band and real characters. I stayed with them until the guitarist and main songwriter, JJ Bedsore died in 2004.

Are you involved in any musical projects we should know about right now?

Right now I’m playing drums in a punk/oi band called Criminal Damage with John from Virus who we were mates with going back to the mid 80s, Steve who roadied and did security for them and Neal from MTA also from that time.

I think this is a perfect time to wrap this up.

 Thank you very much for taking the time to talk with me, Brad. I really appreciate it.

You’re welcome Mat. It’s nice that now and again people are still interested in the records we made all that time ago.  I’m a firm believer that it’s the quality in what you do that matters, not the reward.

Wise words to live by, indeed… do yourselves a favour and get a Deathwish in your lugholes.