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Interview with Don regarding Flame Lise Lyng Falkenberg did an interview with Don regarding Flame. You can read it on: http://www.donpowellinterviews.blogspot.com
Slade drummer Don Powell Q&A session May 2007 A long and great interview of the very great Don Powell on the Slade Forum:
Longtime Slade fans from Slade Forum made questions to Slade`s drummer Don Powell that were presented to Don by Danish writer Lise Lyng Falkenberg, http://www.liselyngfalkenberg.blogspot.com/, on Monday 7th May 2007.
Dave Hill about Slade musical by Mike Read Dave Hill talks on Radio Roedovre about Slade musical written by Mike Read. Dave Hill was interviewed by the Danish Radio in the beginning of February 2005, when Slade II had a concert at Roedovre. http://www.radioroedovre.dk/slade/intewmix_internet/davehill_3.mp3 The whole Dave Hill interview:
http://www.radioroedovre.dk/slade/intewmix_internet Slade Week all week in the Express & Star 9.-15.10.2006, Friday 13th October 2006
Hippy roots of Xmas classic
http://www.expressandstar.co.uk/2006/10/13/hippy-roots-of-xmas-classic/
Even those who aren`t au fait with Slade will know the group`s 1973 Christmas hit Merry Xmas Everybody, which even after 33 years is one of the most frequently played Festive songs.
But few people will know that it started life as a hippy song written by Noddy Holder in 1967 - and was initially dismissed by his bandmates.
“I wrote the original chorus and middle eight in 1967 in line for the psychedelic scene with our early group the `N Betweens,” he says.
“Originally it had a lyric that went: `So you won`t buy me a rockin` chair to watch the world go by - buy me a looking glass to look me in the eye`. It was very hippy dippy.”
When Noddy played it to his bandmates, he was told it was rubbish.
But Jim Lea, the creative driving force behind many of the band`s melodies, remembered the tune and later suggested reworking it as a Christmas song.
Neville John Holder was born in Walsall in June, 1946, and was always the showman, right from when he performed Frankie Laine`s 1953 hit I Believe at Walsall Labour Club at the age of seven.
“My dad was a singer in the clubs, part-time, and he used to take me round the clubs and I used to get up and do one or two songs, whatever were the hits of the day,” he says.
“I always knew I could sing, and I always knew I could get an audience going, even from a very young age.
“I used to put on puppet shows in the backyard for the local kids and charge them a penny.”
Noddy was the last member to join the line-up having previously played in a band called Steve Brett and the Mavericks.
While Noddy is proud of Merry Xmas Everybody, he feels the band`s place in history will always be overshadowed by that single song.
“People forget we had over 20 albums out and a lot of success with albums,” he says.
“Although we were appearing on television every week, on Top of the Pops and programmes like that, and we were continually in the charts through the 70s, we weren`t just a singles band.
“A little bit different to our contemporaries, we actually had a lot of success with albums, worldwide.”
By Mark Andrews
Do you have memories and pictures from Slade`s heyday?
Share them with us and you could win a four disc Slade box set.
It is Slade Week all week in the Express & Star - we`ve got a series of features on the band, one of Britain`s best ever.
Call or write to Mark Andrews on the Features Desk, 51-53 Queen Street, Wolverhampton, WV1 1ES or call 01902 319472. Email your stories, including your name and address, by clicking here
Alternatively, email pictures, including your name and address, to picturedesk@expressandstar.co.uk
This entry was made on Friday, October 13th, 2006 at 7:32 pm
and is filed under News, In-depth. Slade Week all week in the Express & Star 9.-15.10.2006, Thursday 12th October 2006:
Those crazee days recalled
http://www.expressandstar.co.uk/2006/10/12/those-crazee-days-recalled/
As Slade celebrates its 40 years together, Mark Andrews talks to drummer Don Powell about the early days.
“There used to be this drill hall, which was used by the Territorial Army,” says drummer Don, who could probably claim to be the founder member of Slade, having joined its predecessor The Vendors in the early 1960s.
“I was in one band, Dave was in another. Our band used to play weddings and things like that, and we found we wanted another guitarist so we asked Dave to join.”
Don persuaded Dave to join The Vendors, and the band became the `N Betweens, later recruiting Noddy Holder and Jim Lea.
As the band`s drummer, Don`s contribution was always overshadowed by the more flamboyant Noddy Holder and Dave Hill, but Don says he always preferred it that way.
Skinhead
“It was wonderful for me, it meant I could go out shopping as normal, and not be looked at. Somebody came up to me and said `didn`t you used to be Don Powell?` and I said `I still am, actually`.”
And Don recalls that while the clothing and outrageous imagery were always a central part of Slade`s success, it didn`t always go according to plan. When the up-and-coming band tried to raise its profile by adopting a skinhead look, it led to many venues banning the boys from performing.
“The one advantage was that we never had any problem getting paid then. They would often pay us before the show,` says Don.
“But many venues didn`t want us around. They wouldn`t have us on Top of the Pops - the director`s son had been beaten up by some skinheads, and he didn`t want to know.”
In December 1969 the band had two bookings at the Wolves Social Club cancelled, and although the club denied it was because of the lads` appearance, the boys themselves were not convinced. The football club had previously made headlines when it asked skinheads to remove their boots before entering the stadium.
The idea for the skinhead look was born in a backstreet London pub, where Slade`s manager Chas Chandler and publicity officer Keith Altham were debating how to raise the band`s profile.
“We had to find some way of drawing attention to the group so people would be curious enough to discover how good they were,” says Altham in a history of the band which accompanies the new Slade Box set.
“Chas and I had a council of war in a pub behind his London office, and after a few pints I came up with what felt like a brainwave.
“`We have to ally them to something that is in the news now to generate publicity`, I said to Chas.
“`Something that is fashionable but dangerous and causing controversy. The answer could be the skinheads.` “Chas`s eyes lit up. `Brilliant,` he said. `Yoos leave that to me.`”
The next day, when he had sobered up, Altham had serious doubts about the skinhead look, and rang Chandler to voice his concerns. “We can`t do this to them,” he said. “They`re nice guys, not nasty skinheads. We might alienate the Press with this.”
“Too late,” replied Chandler. “We`ve got the boots and braces, and they`re in the barber`s now getting the hair shaved for a photographer.”
The hair was not particularly short by today`s standards, but in the days of long hair, anything shorter than a Beatles mop-top was controversial.
Waiting
Don Powell has been living in Denmark for the last three years, after marrying Danish fan Hannah Lumdby. “It`s quite a nice story,” he says. “We did a concert in Denmark in 1973, and she was a fan there then.
“I met her again at another concert six years ago, and she had a drumstick I gave her in 1973.
“She said `I have been waiting all these years to see you again`.”
After travelling to and from to Denmark for a couple of years, Don decided it was time to marry Hannah, and he went to live in Denmark.
“The world is such a small place these days that it doesn`t really matter. When I need to go back I`ve got a choice of six flights every day, as well as overnight trains.”
To this day he suffers from the effects of a horrific car crash in 1973, in which his girlfriend Angela Morris was killed, and which left Don with occasional amnesia.
He was on the critical list after his Bentley smashed into a wall in Compton Road, and only survived because two passing off-duty nurses kept him alive until an ambulance arrived.
His memory loss was so severe that he was unable to remember day-to-day events.
The problem also meant that when on tour, he would suffer memory lapses and forget the songs.
Noddy says that if Don had not recovered, it would almost certainly have broken up the band.
“Without Don behind us there was no Slade for me - he was an anchor.”
* Slade, with Dave Hill and Don Powell, perform at the Robin 2, Bilston, on November 28.
Do you have memories and pictures from Slade`s heyday?
Share them with us and you could win a four disc Slade box set.
It is Slade Week all week in the Express & Star - we`ve got a series of features on the band, one of Britain`s best ever.
Call or write to Mark Andrews on the Features Desk, 51-53 Queen Street, Wolverhampton, WV1 1ES or call 01902 319472. Email your stories, including your name and address, by clicking here
Alternatively, email pictures, including your name and address, to picturedesk@expressandstar.co.uk
This entry was made on Thursday, October 12th, 2006 at 8:58 pm
and is filed under News, In-depth.
******* One of the things that the fab and groovy Slade In England youtube group is designed to do is to bring small idiosynchronatic clips of film from the archives and give them a vehicle as they dont really fit anywhere else.
Here is such a piece featuring H and Yob 1 talking mechanics with Professor Suzanne Dando ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THZwQWD4Zjk October 9, 2006: interview conducted at Don’s place, Silkeborg, Denmark Interview by Lise Lyng Falkenberg: What do you think of the Slade Box?I’m very impressed. When we visited Union Square a couple of weeks ago to do the comments for Flame, the guys there, Chas Chandler and Steve Fruin, told us about it being remastered by Tim Turan and he did a fantastic job! Especially when they said that a lot of the tracks, they hadn’t access to the original masters, so they remastered them from the singles of the time, like the B-sides and he did a great job, Tim Turan did. And when we went there, Dave got home before I did, and he called and mentioned to me, play them, because they sound REALLY good and they’ve done a great job. And he has. And I called Nod to say the same thing, because he hadn’t played the new box set. I said, when you play them you’ll be really impressed what a good job the guys did on them. It is really good. When you think some of these tracks go back over 30 years and they’ll obviously sound a little dated, but sometimes that’s quite nice because that’s like the appeal of the thing. But again, that’s different for me being in the business, but the way records sound nowadays, it’s incredible. The kids expect that when they buy records. They expect an A1 incredible sound and I think the guys did a great job. Copyright@ Lise Lyng Falkenberg Read the whole interview on Lise Lyng Falkenberg`s blog: http://donpowellinterviews.blogspot.com/2006/10/october-9-2006-interview-conducted-at.html SEP 2006 DAVE, DON AND JIM TOGETHER - FOR INTERVIEWS ! http://www.unionsquaremusic.co.uk/slade/news/index.html Dave, Don, Jim and Tom record interviews For New Flame DVD
Three members of Slade and actor Tom Conti were in West London yesterday to film interviews about the 1974 movie `Flame` for the forthcoming expanded DVD. An interview with Noddy Holder was already in the can.
Don Powell flew in from Denmark and Dave Hill, Jim Lea and Tom Conti (who played Machiavellian record company boss Robert Seymour – one of his very first film roles) joined him at the K-West Hotel in Shepherds Bush to impart their thoughts on the making of the highly acclaimed movie. The fruits of their labours will be released in February on Union Square Pictures.
K.O.R. - Ilpo How Dave came to feel the noize, Express and Star To celebrate Slade’s 40 years together, a new CD box set has been released of every record Slade has ever made. In the first of a week-long series to mark the occasion, Mark Andrews talks to the band’s guitarist Dave Hill. Dave Hill was a teenage office boy working in Wolverhampton when his boss warned him there was no future in his dreams of pop stardom, and that he should concentrate on his day job. That was in the late 1960s, and the extrovert Slade guitarist who still pulls in the crowds wherever he performs, recalls his employer’s advice with some amusement. "I worked at Tarmac as an office boy for three years," he says. "I started to grow my hair, The Beatles were in the charts, and I was playing in the group in the evenings. "My department head called me into his his office, and said ‘we notice your hair is growing long. We understand you’re in a group, and I think you need to choose - is it the office work or the group?’ "He said there were more prospects with the office work than the group. He said it was a passing phase, that it wouldn’t last." Dave went home to consider his future, and asked his father for advice.Flamboyant "He said: ‘Well you aren’t very good at the office work are you? You’re good at the group.’ I was lucky I had the support of my old man to take a chance with it." Even in these early days the young Dave was developing a taste for his outrageous costumes, getting changed in the toilets at work before leaving for a gig. "It was great until somebody spotted me, then it became a bit of a problem," he says. In Slade’s heyday, Dave was probably the band’s most flamboyant member, his outrageous costumes even outshining those of frontman Noddy Holder, with his flowing locks, silver suits and bizarre hats. After 30 years, there is still no mistaking him as he strolls into the reception area of Wolverhampton’s Novotel, clutching Slade’s new four-CD anthology of all the band’s recordings from 1969 to 1991. The Rolls-Royce with the YOB 1 number plate may have made way for a more discreet Audi, and the hair may be a little less wild, but you are still in no doubt who he is. The Midlands accent is as pronounced as ever, too, although he was born in Devon. "Mum and Dad were Potteries people, from the Stoke area, but they moved to Kingswood, Devon," he says. "I was born in Fleet Castle. It was just after the war, and they turned part of the castle into a hospital because the maternity hospital had been bombed," he says. When Dave was two, his parents moved to Wolverhampton, and lived at a few addresses while they waited for a council house. "My dad was a mechanic, and he worked at a garage. We lived in the Dunstall Park area. I remember living in Jones Road, and we later went to live on the Warstones estate in Penn." Dave has fond memories of Wolverhampton’s council estates, saying they were great places to grow up. "The council estates brought people together, there was a great community in those days. "When I’d come back after a gig, I could leave whatever fancy car I had at the time outside. I never had to worry about anybody taking a key to it."Trained Dave was 14 when he started playing the guitar, trying to emulate skiffle stars such as Lonnie Donegan and Tommy Steele. "We used to go to the Gaumont, where we would play on a Saturday morning - we used a square box with a hole in it as a bass." Surprisingly for such a showman, Dave says he lacked confidence at school, where he struggled to fit in. "I wasn’t good at school, and I didn’t play football or anything like that. Some kids are good at sports, others do other things, but I was neither. If you were a clown at school, which I was a bit, nobody wants to bother with you." But it was his love of music which allowed his self-esteem to grow. He believes music is in his blood, his grandfather David Bibby having been a classically trained pianist. "They say the genes sometimes skip a generation, and I think that might be possible. My father was a mechanic, and my son is, so I may have inherited the music gene." Not that the piano was ever his favourite instrument. When My Friend Stan, featuring Jim Lea on the piano, only got to No 2, Dave was heard muttering in the dressing room: "Piano equals failure." Slade went on to become the biggest selling UK act of the 70s. See also: Dave Hill interview 1 : http://www.expressandstar.co.uk/video/news/061003_dave1/ Dave Hill interview 2 : http://www.expressandstar.co.uk/video/news/061009_dave2/ Dave Hill interview 3 : http://www.expressandstar.co.uk/video/news/061009_dave3/ Win a crazee Slade box set : http://www.expressandstar.co.uk/2006/10/09/win-a-crazee-slade-box-set/ http://www.expressandstar.co.uk/2006/10/09/how-dave-came-to-feel-the-noize
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