Don Powell interviews

Don Powell biography blog

2011-05-04T00:19:00.000+02:00

Hi all,
You're now able to follow the progress of Don Powell's biography here: http://www.donpowellbio.blogspot.com

Introduction

2011-05-04T00:14:00.002+02:00

In May 2005 I started a blog on Slade. Here you can find all sorts of Slade-related stuff such as biographies, concert reviews, reviews of books, videos and music etc. and also some interviews with Slade-drummer Don Powell. It can however be difficult manoeuvring on a blog and I found that despite links and indexes many readers were at a loss when trying to find those Don Powell-interviews. I've therefore decided to gather them all here on this blog. Dive into the archives (left) for old interviews (2005 and on).
I'll still publish short, edited interviews on my Slade-blog, but on this Don Powell-blog you'll find the long, unedited versions. Well, not totally unedited, come to think of it. I've left out most of the fits of laughter (many of them mine), the private/confidential remarks and then the comments from various family members.
Anyway, notice that it can be tedious work reading unedited stuff as I often have to ask the same questions and Don has to give more or less the same answers. We do it anyway, as I need different "takes" for different papers and magazines. Consider yourself warned!
As a "bonus" for those of you who read Danish I've uploaded images of the actual articles on Don that I've had published in various Danish papers and magazines. All articles are based on the interviews. Enjoy!

Don reading a diary

2011-05-04T00:13:00.002+02:00

Fan forum questions, April 2011

2011-05-04T00:06:00.002+02:00

I did a new Q & A with Don for the fan forum www.slayed.co.uk in April, 2011. All questions were asked by forum members and as usual I brought the questions to Don and the answers to the forum, but I’ve deleted the names of the forum members here order to protect the innocent. Have fun!

Q: I would like to ask Don about 'The Far East' 1973.... what does he remember? Before or after Oz? How many gigs can he recall? Does he remember where they were? Did they play Tokyo?
Were they considered successful? Any pictures from any of the Exotic Gigs? Any pics of the girls down at the 'wash house'
Don: We didn’t go to Japan until 1974 and that was after Australia. We did four gigs; two in Tokyo, one in Osaka and one in Kyoto. The gigs were okay, but we were a bit too late going there. The kettle had gone off the boil at that time, so we should have gone earlier. As for the photos, no nothing like that.

Q: What does Don remember of the Agencies... Astra Agency, Astra Allen Associates, Nita Anderson Agency... and who did The 'N Betweens leave when they joined Astra Allen?
Don: Astra Agency was where we were at the start, with the old bands The Vendors and The ‘N Betweens as well. What happened was that Roger Allen also had an agency in Wolverhampton and he and Astra came together and became the Astra Allen agency. While we were on the Bahamas we never had any help from Astra so when we came back we decided to leave and we went with Nita Anderson.

Q: I.R.A., Face 1 and 2, Aileen and Brin, Skaboo. Who are they Don and what did they do for the band in 1968?
Don: Face 1 and 2 were a couple who used to come and see us. We only played in Wolverhampton, then, and they were always in the crowd. We never spoke to them, so we just called them Face 1 and 2. Brin could be one we used to knock around with in Wolverhampton if that’s the same guy, but Aileen…I have no idea. I don’t know who Skaboo is either. I.R.A. - I got no idea.

Q: Does Don remember this Slade "Abbey Road enactment" photo. It seems to be around '73/4 and apes the Beatles album cover. The 'New Beatles' publicity stunt I guess but when and why. No specific related reason, I doubt it?
Don: I don’t remember doing it at all. We did record at Abbey Road, but that was in 1967. I don’t remember doing the photo.

Q: Back in '67-68 when you were playing the Love classic, She Comes In Colours....
Can you remember who played the woodwind solo. I was wondering if you covered the song straight or did it get the treatment. I imagine Jim could have used the violin for the solo but I can also imagine Dave playing it on lead guitar with Jim and Nod following in unison.
Don: It must have been Dave playing it on lead guitar, as we didn’t feature the violin in such things back then.

Q: Don, when you did the Hamilton concert in New Zealand, what was the schedual of arrival and departure? Did you fly into Auckland Airport then drive down to Hamilton? I'm not certain, but I think Hamilton was not an internation airport at the time. How did you and the equipment get from the Hamilton concert to Sydney concert within 24 hours?..... NZ concert 27 January, Sydney concert 28 January. It would take about 2 hours to drive from Hamilton to Auckland Airport, get through customs, fly 2.5 hours to Sydney, customs, drive to venue and set up. Did you arrive 1 or 2 days before the Auckland concert? Did you do any sight seeing?
Don: Ha-ha, I have no idea of the arrival and departure schedule or how and when we got there! And we didn’t do any sightseeing.

Q: I was wondering if this rings any bells? Quote: "....we used to support JJ Foote at the Three Rabbits in Manor Park, a guest drummer was Don Powell no less...." Do you remember what year this was cos I used to go and watch JJ Foote sometimes. I would have noticed, I'm sure.
Don: I’ve never heard the name JJ Foote before.

Q: There been an e-mail going around saying Slade are not playing Russia again and your all retiring....whats the truth in that or is it just gossip.
Don: That’s not true, ha-ha.

Q: DO YOU KNOW IF THERE WAS EVER ANY `EXTRA VERSES` TO `FIND YOURSELF A RAINBOW ` AND WHAT EVER HAPPEND TO THEM ??
Don: Not as far as I know. I’ve never heard of any extra verses.

Q: When will the "There will be drums" CD be released?
Don: I think the tapes have to be taken out and listen to again before that happens.

Q: What was 'Radio City' in Wolverhampton 1966, it sounds like a pirate station? The 'N Betweens played the first Radio City rave (Blues Ensemble too) in August at the Civic & Wulfrun.
Don: We played at the Civic and Wulfrun all the time, but I don’t remember playing the first Radio City Rave. In fact I’ve never heard of Radio City before.

Q: I saw the band back in Warren, Ohio in the early 70's. Glass Harp opened for you. The concert isn't listed on the tour dates online, but I was there so I know it happened. Is there any way you could: confirm the date? I think that it was 1972. It was a kick a## show in a small town. Perhaps it was a last minute addition to the tour schedule.
Don: I can’t confirm the date, as I don’t remember doing the concert and I didn’t keep diaries back then.

Q: I really like the Something Else Medley and always enjoyed it live. Listened to it on CD again today and wondered why it was included in the live set at the time when there was already a huge catalogue of original single and album material to choose from.
Don: A lot of people have asked us that. In fact it was Freddie Mercury who first said that to us. He couldn’t understand why we did these old rock’n’roll songs when we had such an amazing catalogue of songs. There was no particular reason, it was just a good stage thing to do.

Q: Nylon or wood tips? What was your first drum set (make, colour)? (C'mon, it's like the first girl you kissed, you NEVER forget.) Cymbals? Zildjian, Paiste, Sabian? What kind of gum do you chew? Anything available or do/did you have a preference for something?
Don: I use wood. My first drum set was white Pearl and I use Sabian cymbals. I don’t chew gum anymore, but when I did it was Wrigley.

Q: Original, Spearmint or Juicy Fruit?
Don: Ha-ha-ha! Original!

Q: Hi Don, I've two questions I'm curious about regarding the latter days of Slade. Firstly when the band played the six or so shows on the aborted American tour in early 1984, other than possibly My Oh My did they play live any songs from the then current new album ie Run Runaway, Slam The Hammer Down etc ? Secondly I have seen it mentioned that if the 1985 tour had went ahead that the band had considered using a keyboard player hidden at the side of the stage. Had any keyboard players been thought about or possibly lined up to play with the band on that tour?
Don: We played Run Run Away, but that was all we did really. We wouldn’t have needed a keyboard player. Jim always played the keyboard.

Q: Is it too late to ask Don if he remembers Jet from the Glasgow Apollo? Quote: "I remember Jet Mayfair from the Apollo gigs in the 70's ......Nod would introduce him near the end , and this odd wee man would woddle on , the last time wearing a gold lame jacket , I think........The band seemed to know him really well..."
Don: Yes. He had a plastic guitar and he used to come up and sing with us. He was just some guy who used to come to our gigs in Glasgow.

Q: What has been the highpoint of the last 15 years of Slade? What does Don think of the CD / DVD reissue programme on the whole? Is there any prospect at all of a new Slade album?
Don: That’s a difficult one…but I remember playing the Olympic Stadium in Moscow in 2002 and we met a lot of politicians and dignitaries. That was quite something. I find the CD/DVD reissue fantastic. They did a fantastic job. And I liked that they used photographs that hadn’t been used before. As for a new Slade album we have recorded a few tracks and we are talking about recording more stuff soon.

Don and his dog Rocky

2009-11-04T08:55:00.000+01:00

Fan forum questions, September 2009

2009-11-04T08:50:00.000+01:00

In September 2009 Don did a new Q & A for the fan forum www.slayed.co.uk. As usual I brought the questions to Don and the answers to the forum. All questions were asked by forum members, but here I’ve deleted their names in order to protect the innocent. Enjoy!

Q: Walsall Observer: Friday 27th June 1969 wrote: "We're Heavy/Hard Rock - but we also include quieter numbers like Martha My Dear." interjected Don Powell looking up from his cider." This article refers to Ambrose Slade's first tour with Dave Dee & Amen Corner beginning at Newcastle where they played to 2,500 people. Does Don recall anything about this "tour" and their time with Amen Corner?
Don: It wasn’t a tour. It was just one show. It was when we first met Chas and John Gunnell and they got this show in Newcastle City Hall. Amen Corner was THE teeny bop band and they were doing two concerts in one night. Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich were on the bill as well. We got booked up for the two shows on that particular night, but driving up to Newcastle from Wolverhampton the car broke down and we missed the first show. We got there for the second show but we didn’t have time to get our own drums out so I used Mick’s from Dave Dee and we only played about four songs, I think.

Q: Does Don have any memories of Ambrose Slade (famous as The 'N Betweens) playing Alton Towers on July 13th 1969 with Marmalade (straight from the Hit Parade). ATV Today's Lionel Hampton was the compere.
Don: It was before Alton Towers was a theme park. This gig came up in the grounds of Alton Towers. I remember there was this big, stately home where we could change and Dave was seeing the oldest daughter for quite a while and I had a brief affair with her younger sister. I remember when Dave went to Alton Towers for afternoon tea with the father one time, this small plane comes down and lands on the lawn in front of them. This guy gets out and says, “Hi! I just thought I’d pop in for a cup of tea!” We were a bit out of our league!

Q: Knowing how much Don loves America, I wonder if he has any memories of two particular tours that were advertised? The 'N Betweens American Tour 1966. This tour was due to begin after The 'N Betweens appearance at Walsall Town Hall 24th September 1966? Ambrose Slade US Summer Tour 1969. This one was due to start shortly after their 'Sunday Scene' appearance at Aldridge Community Centre on 18th June 1969.
Don: Those tours never happened. When we played the Bahamas in 1968 there was a possibility of going to Miami, but we didn’t want to as we were ripped off on the Bahamas. So we didn’t get to the US until 1972.

Q: Does Don have any memories of their agent (briefly) John Gunnell? Did they meet Rik Gunnell when playing his clubs and does he have any 'Slade related' memories about those various clubs. Play It Loud is a Montgrove Productions product whereas subsequent recordings (i.e. 7" B-sides) are Barn Productions. Montgrove is Chandler & Robert Stigwood and I assume that Play It Loud was recorded late '69 alongside the skinhead bad press. Would I be correct in assuming that when Wild Winds Are Blowing flopped, Stigwood dropped them and John Gunnell lost interest. Does Don remember how and when Gunnell pulled out on Slade and does he have any tales regarding the band and Robert Stigwood?
Don: When Chas came to see us, he and John Gunnell had the management company together. We used to go to the office in Brook Street where Robert Stigwood’s office was. John was always making fun of us coming from Wolverhampton. He’d say, “Do they have telephones in Wolverhampton?” He was always taking the mickey out of us. And then Chas decided to go on his own. I don’t think we ever met Rik Gunnell. John and Rik were the club-land bosses of London and we played quite a few of their clubs. Tales about Robert Stigwood: there was a charity football match once at a big mansion near Ascot. I don’t know how we got involved in that, because we weren’t part of the football game. I remember Ginger Baker in goal, though, but we just went around in awe of all the opulence. Robert Stigwood, a few of his associates and the Bee Gees were in the mansion and they sort of popped out to wave at us menial at the football. It was like Royalty coming out! Then they went back to the house again. And then there was always something about Robert Stigwood fancying Nod, but I don’t know where that came from!!

Q: What does Don remember about Robert Stigwood and in particular, does he recall why Stigwood dropped out of the Montgrove partnership with Chas. 'The Slade' were included in The Robert Stigwood Organisations Seasons Greetings on the back page of the Record Mirror: 27-12-1969 and Stigwood swiftly washed his hands of them. It's fairly obvious that the skinhead controversy played a part but I would like something kind of 'official-ish' if possible rather than my assumption?
Don: I remember the Montgrove company, but I didn’t know that Stigwood dropped out of it. When Chas decided to be on his own, that was when he moved out of the Robert Stigwood premises and got his own offices. I don’t know if Stigwood didn’t want to have anything to do with Slade. It could have been that way, but we wouldn’t know, as Chas was very good at covering things up. He never told us anything.

Q: It's a long shot, but does Don have any contact at all with Steffan Chandler?
Don: The last time I saw Steffan was at one of Keith Altham’s lunches, but that was some time ago. So no, we don’t keep in contact so to speak.

Q: Can you ask Don if he remembers back in The 'N Betweens days, which arrangement of You Keep Me Hanging On the group used to do. I know the group had different sets for different venues and they performed Motown songs as well as a psychedelic selection. So did they do The Supremes version or the BoxTops/Vanilla Fudge arrangement?
Don: The Supremes version

Q: It would be nice to know if the current band are planning any sort of album.
Don: There is talk about doing one in the new year and it’s a bit more positive this time. Ask Dave!

Q: Would Don like to pick a few songs that he wishes Slade had covered and say why? Thanks.
Don: What I would like would be the Lenny Kravitz song “Are You Gonna Go My Way”. It’s the kind of thing that the old band would have played on stage at the time before Nod and Jim writing. That would have been the kind of song we would have learned. And I’d have loved to play that as a drummer. I can’t think of any other at the moment.

Q: Were there any particular record producers that you would have liked Slade to work with at some stage of their career?
Don: Tony Visconti I would maybe have liked in the 1970s as he used to do all the T. Rex and I loved the sound, but I’m not sure it would have worked for Slade. And I would like actually as a challenge for this guy to have worked with Jimmy Page. I’d like to see what he would have made, working with us.

Q: If you were asked to recommend a definitive Slade studio album to someone discovering the band for the first time, which one would you pick and why?
Don: “Whatever Happened To Slade” because at that particular time we had nothing to lose. And also the “Nobody’s Fools” album which is my favourite. We did that in New York and it was so much fun doing that.

Q: Have you had any contribution to the new BBC sessions album due out soon, with regards to picking tracks and promotion of the album?
Don: Not really. I think the BBC album are the tracks that are there of the ones we did. That’s the tracks that are available.

Q: Who is the most famous person you have ever met? Following on from this, have you ever asked for any celebrities or musician's autograph?
Don: I suppose Paul McCartney. I asked him for his autograph and had his photograph taken with me. It was at Abbey Road Studios at a No. 1 party where everyone who had ever had a No. 1 record was invited. Cameras were forbidden, but the girl I was dating had brought one along and I spoke to Linda McCartney. I remember saying, “Would your husband mind if we had our photo taken together?” And she said, “No. Where’s the camera? I’ll take it.”

Q: Have you ever tried giving up smoking, if so how long did this last for?
Don: I don’t smoke anymore. I haven’t smoked since January 1st 2009. Before that I tried giving up smoking in the 1980s, but back then it only lasted for a few months. Now it is different, because I don’t miss it at all.

Q: Are you doing or have plans to do some acting?
Don: I’d like to do something, but there have been no offers. My name is not around in England any more, but if anything comes up here in Denmark I’d be happy to do it.

Q: Was there an inspiration to writing the lyrics for the songs on Play It Loud, such as Dapple Rose?
Don: Regarding Dapple Rose: I’ve always had a fondness for horses and where I lived with my parents there were some fields over the back and there were always gypsies camping there. They used to have these horses and donkeys and they always looked dead to me. They were not looked after which was sad. As for other songs, for instance I Remember…I don’t remember!!

Q: How pleased are you with the Live at the BBC set? Can you tell us of any memories you have of recording at the BBC in that period? Thanks.
Don: I’m amazed that the BBC still had these tapes and I remember we always had a lot of fun recording there. We would have a three hours session to record and mix five songs. It was so good. I liked the spontaneity of the tracks. But as I said to Jim – I saw Jim a couple of weeks ago – the song “Coloured Rain” means nothing to me! I don’t remember learning it or playing it. It’s so strange!

Don in front of his new house in Denmark, March 2009

2009-03-23T23:12:00.000+01:00

Don biography update

2009-03-23T23:02:00.001+01:00

Whoa! It’s been a long time since I’ve updated this blog! Sorry for that, but things have been quite complicated here with health, life, the universe and everything. But anyway….
A lot of people ask what is happening to Don’s biography and the answer is: it’s well on its way! It’s taken a lot longer to do than first expected as it has been very hard to get the different interviews within the original time-frame. But now things should ease up a bit. While you’re waiting here’s a list of the people who have contributed to Don’s bio so far:
- Don’s sister Carol
- Johnny Howells and Mick Marson (former ’N Betweens members)
- Carole Williams (The ’N Betweens very first fan club secretary)
- Vicky Pearson (her cousin who also acted as The ’N Betweens’ hair dresser)
- Tim Ramage and Robin Lavender (present Slade crew)
And then some guys (and gal) who shouldn’t need any further introduction:
- Keith Altham
- Andrew Birkin
- Craig Fenney
- Dave Hill
- Jim Lea
- Jona Lewis
- Suzi Quatro
- Francis Rossi
- Andy Scott
- Graham “Swinn” Swinnerton
- Len Tuckey
- Henry Weck
- Bob Young
The book WILL be finished this year, but for now I don’t know exactly WHEN it will be published. I’ll keep you posted! Until then I’ll try to keep in touch when my health, life, the universe and everything allow it!

Another Q & A session

2008-03-29T21:46:00.001+01:00

Once again Don had agreed on doing a question/answer interview for Ian Edmundson’s Slade fan forum, so when Don visited me on February 13th, we had a go at it.

Don and me at my place, February 13, 2008

2008-03-29T21:45:00.001+01:00

February 13, 2008: interview conducted at my place, Odense, Denmark

2008-03-29T21:41:00.002+01:00

The first question is from Birmingham and it goes: Would there be any chance you could make it to this years Sladefest?
I would do it if I was around, if it fitted into my schedule

Then Bloxwich Baths asks: What was the biggest thrill…recording the Vendors tracks or having your 1st No1 record?
That would be the same for both, really. With The Vendors that was the very first time we were in a recording studio so we were in awe of that, doing those four tracks in one afternoon. I’d say they are probably pretty equal.

From Holland comes the question: Who were the ladies in the Take Me Bak 'Ome video clip as on The very best of Slade DVD?
I don’t know. They were probably just some dancers. The clothes were made for them and that was made without us knowing. We didn’t know about them until we were there.

Then a lady from Devon asks: If you had to give one good piece of advice about drumming/being a drummer, to another drummer just starting out in a band, what would that be (Apart from a set of drums!)? Also, out of interest do your arms ever ache after a gig, like is there any difference at your age now say compared to doing a gig twenty years ago, as looking at you and Dave on stage today, it looks like you still have the same energy as in gigs all them years ago.
Ha-ha! [Don can’t stop laughing] Yeah, get some drums and keep at it! As for aching arms, the only time they do ache is when we haven’t been working for a number of weeks. The first night back they always ache a little bit.

Bolton asks: If you were to put one new Slade song of your choice (that hasn't ever been played by yourselves) into the group's set, what would it be and why?
“Okay Yesterday Was Yesterday”. I heard a live recording of that recently and I don’t remember playing it live, but there was a really nice groove to it, especially the slide guitars. I’ve actually mentioned it to Dave.

From Leeds it says: When the Band/Manager sat down to discuss the single release Gypsy Roadhog did you consider the Drug references might kill/restrict airplay, even if you did manage to sneak it on to Blue Peter before the BBC cottoned on.
No, we didn’t. The drug references were obviously there, but we didn’t really think about it at that time. So many things were going by that were probably a lot worse, but we weren’t considered that kind of band, so when that was heard it was probably more apparent to the powers that be.

Bournemouth then asks: If you could have a hit record again, what style would you prefer to record ballad or Rock and why?
Rock. Because that’s really where we come from. I enjoy the ballads, especially My Oh My, Still The Same and a few of those, but I would prefer a rock song.

The same person goes on asking: Are there any plans to play in Bournemouth or other south coast areas in the future?
I’ll have to wait until the date sheet comes in to see if we’re going there.

Someone from Kilmarnock has the following question: Which gig would you say was the highlight of your career in Slade? Was it Earls Court, or do you not have many memories of that coming as it did just days before the crash? Reading comeback 1980? Or something else?
I think Reading and the Lincoln festival were the highlights. Reading was in a way the biggest highlight, because we had more or less broken up the band. We had two days rehearsal and went on and did it. We had everything to lose and nothing to prove and it went fantastic for us. But also the Lincoln festival when we were finally accepted by the more serious press, because at that time we were just considered a Top of The Pops band. I rate both gigs higher than Earl’s Court.

From Chicago comes the question: in which American city (or cities) did Slade enjoy live success similar to what you experienced in England?
Chicago, Detroit, New York. I’d say the East Coast and the Mid West in general. The Mid West was always good for Slade, even on the first tours. It was the same as in the Mid West back in England and it probably had a lot to do with that. It felt the same way.

My favourite photo from February 2008

2008-03-29T21:40:00.000+01:00

The interview in use

2008-03-29T21:37:00.000+01:00

Don’s answers were uploaded to the www.slayed.co.uk fan forum in February 2008. This Q&A session is probably going to be the last one for quite a while as Don and I are busy working on his biography. Stay tuned!

Don with his diaries

2008-03-29T21:34:00.000+01:00

New question & answer session for the fan forum members of www.slayed.co.uk

2007-11-27T08:25:00.000+01:00

Once again Don accepted to do a question & answer session for the fan forum www.slayed.co.uk. Like in May I got the questions from the fans and passed them on to Don. This time we did the interview at Don’s place in Silkeborg on November 6th, 2007 and we managed to do some pics also. Some of them showsDon shooting pool in his living room. At the age of 8 I used to be a pool shark but this time I stayed safely behind the camera!
In the version of the interview that you can read here, I have not included all the personal comments and greetings from the fans to Don as that’s something private between Don and the fans. Also I have left out the names of the fans in order to “protect the innocent”, only their locations are kept in order to show the geographic spread.

Don and me in his home, November 6th, 2007

2007-11-27T08:23:00.000+01:00

November 6, 2007: interview conducted at Don’s place, Silkeborg, Denmark

2007-11-27T08:14:00.000+01:00

The first question comes from a fan in Hull. He says: You co-wrote some of my favourite Slade songs including Dapple Rose and Man Who Speaks Evil. As the Holder/Lea partnership took over, did you continue to write for your own creative pleasure - and if so did you ever offer anything to the band?
Not so much, because a lot of the stuff that I had written with Jim at the time was still there, on file so to speak. The things that I’d already written some things with Jim which were used as B-sides, things like Candidate and Wonderin’ Y, things like that. I think we had already recorded them, actually, but after Nod and Jim wrote ‘Coz I Luv You, that was it basically, I didn’t write anymore.

From Holland you have this question: In your first answer you told us that the master-tapes of the B-sides are still around. Do you know who owns them and why they weren't used for the great series of re-releases?
I was let to believe originally that the master tapes were going to be used for the USM re-releases, and that one of the albums were going to be called A-sides of Back-sides, but they weren’t for some reason. As far as owning all the stuff we as a band all own that.

Birmingham wants to know if you remember why the track Coming Home was left off the Slade Alive! album?
Coming Home? I don’t think we actually played it, did we? I don’t think we played it at the time. I remember when we recorded Slade Alive!, but I’m not quite sure that we actually played it.

A fan in London asks, after John Punter got involved with producing the band in 1983, did you make demo's for all of your new songs, or just the ones that you (the band) thought would be good singles?
I think we made demos of everything that Nod and Jim had written and then we made a short list of what to record, really. The demo tapes must be in the office somewhere. A lot of times like when I heard My Oh My for the first time it was just Jim playing and Nod singing and we listened to it while having a coffee or something.

Bournemouth asks, have you anything privately owned by yourself by Slade that has never been released or is it true that everything ever recorded was put out?
I think more or less everything that has been recorded has been released. There may be something there but it couldn’t have been that strong because then it would have been used. No, it would have been used, either as a B-side or on an album. I don’t think there is anything that hasn’t been released and is just lying around.

He continues, you have become the most approachable one of the band. Is there anything that fans do or have done that annoys you? I only asked this as I have seen Dave, Nod and Jim take off at certain people who forget to be polite!
Polite? I don’t know…. No, it only takes a few minutes to talk to people and it really doesn’t bother me. The funniest one was once before we had any success and we were playing at a university in England. I was in the bar having a drink and this guy came up to me and started to talk about guitars. And I said, you talk to the wrong person, I no nothing about guitars, go talk to Dave and Nod. He said, will that be all right? No problem. He went away and I forgot all about it. Then later we got on stage – it was the days before many roadies and security – and we started the set and I was playing along and then suddenly I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked up and it was this guy! He said, is it okay if I talk to them now? [Don starts laughing] And that’s the truth! That actually happened! [Don is still laughing, while shaking his head] I mean, it was so far out!
I’ll try that the next time!
It was so… Oh my god! Don’t people think? It was obviously before the days of the roadies. They would have thrown him off stage!

A fan in Chorley asks plain and simple, was it a sad day when you called it a day? I guess he means with the original band.
We didn’t really split up, it sort of more fizzled out. We stopped working basically. Nod wanted to do other things. We were recording at the time but nothing was happening success-wise with the records and there was no light at the end of the tunnel. Nod wanted to do other things and he gave us his blessing to carry on. But we had done everything that we could, we had released a few albums and they did nothing. Nothing was happening, really.

Then we are back to Bournemouth and the question is, when Slade effectively disbanded before Slade 2 was formed did you ever consider joining or forming another band?
No. [Don looks as if he has never ever considered that] No…. [long pause]….no! At the time I worked in the antiques with my ex- wife and then Dave called me up. He had talked to Lenny - Len Tuckey - and they wanted to see if they could get Donald back in and Dave came down and saw me and I said, yeah, let’s give it a shot.

The next question you get all the time. It’s from California: Will Slade ever consider coming to the states to do a few shows maybe do some festivals our play a few club dates like the Whisky or the Roxy. I’m sure they could easily sell out a club tour. We would love to see Slade in the States.
Oh….I would like to. If the right thing came up, if we got the right offer I would love to. To do a 2 week tour there with somebody. A big name, you know. We couldn’t tour on our own there.

A fan in Sweden wants to know if you ever did a promo video for Ohh La-La in L.A., because he seems to remember Nod mentions something about it in the Get Fresh appearance?
There wasn’t a promo-video as far as I remember. We only did the My Oh My video for America, you know the one on the truck, with the girl on the motorbike, that was shot FOR America by the MTV in England, but we didn’t shoot any videos in America at that time.

From Essex it says, on the subject of Ooh La La In L.A. do you remember an extended version?
Not what I can remember, but what happened a lot was when we recorded with John Punter we always did the songs a bit longer, then he said, I can edit that to a single and make it a bit shorter. Or edit it to a 12” single and make it a bit longer. It was like that. So there are extended versions of quite a few of the tracks because that was the way that he worked.

A London-fan refers to when you dated Bob Dylan’s daughter by asking, did you ever get to meet Miss Zimmerman's old man ?
No! No, but I remember somebody making a joke; wouldn’t it be funny if Dylan recorded Cum On Feel The Noize? And they started singing like Bob Dylan. It was quite funny, [Don starts singing “Cum On Feel The Noize” in a Bob Dylan voice, then breaks down laughing] I couldn’t stop laughing! [he can’t stop this time either, and neither can I!]

Manchester asks, given the chance, (or even just on your all time wish list), who would you like to work alongside and play live with? I seem to remember you were (or perhaps still are) a big fan of The Eagles, so would they be on your wish list?
I would love to play with the Eagles! Somebody has asked me that question before, and I said I’d love to play with the Eagles. I probably know their songs better than they do! [Don laughs] But I don’t think I could play so loud, I would be allowed to play like I play with Slade!

From Wales comes the question, as you get older - as we all are ! - do you find it harder hitting those drums as hard as you do ? He says he can't believe the power in your playing, and it doesn't seem to wane as the years pass.
No, it doesn’t get harder. What happened was that when we started, Lise, in the 1960’s, everybody got bigger and bigger equipment, and it was the days before monitors so I had to play louder to try to keep over them and I though that was the way to do it. I had to keep up with the rest of the band and it just carried on. I’ve always played like that basically, there’s no formula, no hidden thing, it’s just the way I play. Once in the seventies we stayed in the same hotel as I think the Manchester United, the football team, and we were talking to their trainer an were asking about the same thing, about stamina and he just said, honey. Before the Manchester United players played a match they had half a dozen spoonfuls of honey. The trainer said, then it’s in your system and when your adrenaline starts to go down the honey builds you up again. So I decided to do that, but I think I OD’ed on honey [Don starts laughing] because I needed to throw up on stage so it only lasted for a while. The way I play, there’s no formula there, it’s not conscious, it’s just the way I do it

Then we have Bournemouth again. He asks, have you ever been asked to endorse a particular drum maker and have you a particular favourite?
I was endorsing Ludwig and that was fantastic, like Christmas Day. Because if I needed anything, no matter where I were in the world I could call them in Chicago and they would find out where I was and they would say, okay, there’s a Ludwig drum distributor or whatever in, say if I was in Tokyo, go to this and that address. I could go to any show in the world, take whatever I wanted, sign for it and then they would sort it out by fax. It was by fax in those days. So I could just go along and take whatever I needed. That has sort of stopped now, I’ve got an incredible deal, but it’s only the Paul McCartney’s or Eric Clapton’s and people like that who get stuff given to them for free nowadays. But I have an incredible deal, it’s almost like paying nothing, anyway now. Ludwig was always my favourite, but nowadays I like Pearl, they are probably better than Ludwig now, and I also like DW. They make fantastic drums.

A fan from Birmingham asks, have you ever considered having a signature pair of drum sticks in production?
I actually have some now. On the old ones my name was just printed, but on the new ones it’s made like a signature

And then we are back to London again with this question, How much input did you have for laying down the drum track, when Nod and Jim first presented their songs to you? Was it a case of Jim saying this is how it is gonna be, and sound or did they just leave you to get on with it?
I was left to do it myself. I especially remember My Oh My, because as I said earlier it was only Jim playing and Nod singing. There was this song by Billy Preston called “That’s The Way God Planned It” and I think George Harrison produced it and he got Ginger Baker to play drums on it. It was like a ballad, but he really lets go on the drums and I said to Jim, I’d love to play that on My Oh My. And Jim said, fantastic! And I used it for the intro and at the very end. I played it on rotodrums. It’s like sort of narrow drums, highly tuned, you have more control over the different sounds on them. Those were the drums I used on the drumrolls on the intro and in the end. When we did that John Punter had a great way of working because if I wasn’t doing anything I didn’t have to go in the studio. He said, there’s no point in you coming in, sitting around. Just come in whenever you have a day and then we did the drums for My Oh My just myself and John Punter and it was good.

A fan in Spain wants to know who wrote the drum notes for the intro to Lay It Down?
I don’t even remember what happens there! It’s me anyway, but I don’t remember what it was, what I played there?
How’s it going…something like, “A beat on the drum, a drum on the beat…”
Oh, yeah! Yeah, that was me just playing.
Because you never did make use of drum notes, did you?
No, no, no!

A fan in Sweden says, when reading Slade biographies on different websites I found out that many of them mention you doing session work for other artists in the late 70's. My question is, Did you end up on any albums or singles (A's or B's) by other artist (credited or uncreditted)? One name that is often mentioned is Sue Wilkinson.
I did do session work for Sue Wilkinson, but it was only cabassa and those click-click-click, whatever they call those things. And I played on the record, because Sue Wilkinson was on Chas’s label and he told her, Don’s the guy to do that for you and it only took 2 seconds to do it!

Bournemouth again. He says, You appeared in Lorna Doone in 2002 I believe it was. Have you had anymore offers to act or is it something you would like to do more of?
Lorna Doone was something that I did in England and now I’m not in England anymore. I haven’t done any acting since then, but I would like to. I meant to talk to Mikael Helmuth, the director of Oliver T., if he knows of anyone or if he can use me. I would definitely bear that in mind.

Then a question from Devon. It’s actually the only question from a lady this time.
Oh, yeah?
She asks, was there ever talk of a sequel to Flame? And if you were approached today do you think you or any of the original Slade would consider it?
No. But John Steele wrote a script, what was it now?
That’s the one with the trifids.
Yeah, The Quitamess Experience, yeah, but it never amounted to anything. We were all a bit scarred from making Flame, because of how long it took. I mean, it didn’t take any time really, but it did to us. It took a long time out of our touring career at that time, anyway, so it never happened. It got shelved. And I think Dave was written out in the first scene anyway, so he wouldn’t have that! [Don laughs].
But there was never talk about an actual sequel to Flame with the same characters?
No. There never were talks about a sequel, but it would be funny to do one today.
The Monkees did something like that at their 30 years anniversary. They made a one hour episode of their old TV-series, the same characters and all.
Oh, did they? I’d really love to see that, Lise! It could be funny to do something like that with Flame. It could work out really good and I would definitely do it!

And a question from the Bolton: What were the highlights of the recent musical for you?
That’s a difficult one! Highlights? I don’t know. I think I used more time watching the play from sitting behind the drums than actually playing drums in Oliver T.! But highlights… that was just being involved. I saw the production when Michael Helmuth first did it 2½ years ago and that was when I showed interest in playing with the band. It was all great fun. Everybody there involved with the production, the actors, they were all great. It was like one big family, but there were no particular highlights as such because it was all great fun.

London wants to know if you use the internet and if so, have you looked at You Tube or any of the other Slade related websites?
No. I sometimes look up a few things, especially old rare records like the foreign releases because their track formats differ, but I’m not really into computers. But back in the old days in certain countries they used different track formats, especially for singles. For instance sometimes they would put two singles on, like say Cum On Feel The Noize on the A-side and Squeeze Me Pleeze Me on the B-side. Some of the countries used to do that, but if they still do it, I don’t know. I haven’t looked for ages.

Bournemouth says, I remember seeing Slade at Bournemouth Winter Gardens on 15th December 1983. Towards the end you appeared to be constantly holding your head and you left the venue straight after the show. Do you have any long term difficulties as a result of you accident besides the memory loss, and the loss of sense of taste and smell?
Oh, I don’t know. When I first went on stage just after the accident my rib cage was really hurting whenever I stretched because I broke five ribs in the accident. And I thought there was still something wrong with the bones. I went to the hospital in Wolverhampton and they did X-rays and they said, there’s nothing wrong with the bones, it’s just the tissue in between that is still stretching. And they said, there’s nothing to worry about. And later it stopped and that’s about it, really.
You don’t have problems with scars? I once had my appendix removed and my scar hurts whenever the weather changes.
That’s quite common, isn’t it? But no, I’ve never had that as far as I can remember. I used to have head aches a lot, but that was because of the fractured scull, but I guess that’s a normal thing and that was just for a few months after the accident. I don’t really feel that now. I still find it hard to brush my hair because I have to be careful because of the scar on my head, but I seldom brush my hair, anyway! [Don laughs]

The final question is from Lancashire. It says, You spend quite some time in Denmark I believe, have you managed to learn much of the language?
Yes and no. Everybody speaks English here in Denmark and it’s not good for me! I understand more Danish than I speak. When somebody speaks Danish I know what they are saying but as both my family and everyone else speak English here so I don’t practice my Danish that much.

Well, that’s it.
Really good questions this time.
I’ll tell the forum!
Yeah.

My favourite photo from November 2007

2007-11-27T08:12:00.000+01:00

The interview in use

2007-11-27T08:09:00.000+01:00

Don’s answers were all uploaded to the www.slayed.co.uk fan forum on November 7th. As usual it was a lot of fun doing it, so Don will probably be up for something like that again in the future.

Don shooting pool

2007-11-27T08:07:00.000+01:00

Question & answer session for the fan forum members of www.slayed.co.uk

2007-06-06T13:26:00.001+02:00

This interview was very different from what we’d done before, because this time it was the fans asking the questions with me as the middleman. I got the questions from fan forum members of www.slayed.co.uk and I then passed them on to Don. He came over to my place in Odense, Denmark on May 7th, 2007, and we went through the questions together with me taping his answers on my Dictaphone. The day also had us running in and out of the house in order to do new pics of Don between rain showers. Of the ones you can see below, 2 were shot by Odense River and one at a playground behind my house.
In the version of the interview that you can read here, I have not included all the personal comments and greetings from the fans to Don as that’s something private between Don and the fans. Also I have left out the names of the fans in order to “protect the innocent”, only their locations are kept in order to show the geographic spread.

Don and me by Odense River

2007-06-06T13:23:00.000+02:00

May 7, 2007: interview conducted at my place, Odense, Denmark

2007-06-06T13:02:00.000+02:00

The first question comes from Bloxwich Baths and it says: what music did your parents play to you when you were small?
Saturday and Sunday my mother and my sister did the housework so that was when the records went on and it was always the albums from “Oklahoma”, “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” and “South Pacific”. It was always those albums from the shows. It was not until I met Johnny Howells that I heard anything like what we ended up playing.

Bournemouth asks: Did you ever consider learning to play any instrument other than drums and are you mainly self taught or did you have lessons?
Jim was teaching me to play guitar in the middle or late sixties. I bought an acoustic guitar off Nod for £ 40. That was typical Nod. I think I was paying what he paid! [laughs]. And Jim taught me to play a 12 bar in e and c, a minor, f and g. I wish I had kept at it. Because I can’t sing or anything, I would have problems to tune the guitar for starters, [laughs] but I wish I had kept at it now. Then I’d had that now that I can’t sing. But I tell you what, Lise, I CAN tell if something is out of tune. One time in the studio we listened to playback and I heard something and I said: “Is something out of tune? I’m sure I can hears something out of tune.” Jim sat by me and we played it and then I couldn’t hear it. Then we took some things out and then we heard it. And he said, “None of us heard it!” With things like that I have a certain ear. Like harmonies. When we first started I used to sit at the front when the others were doing harmonies and I was saying this needs to be done or that needs to be done or something like that. I don’t know the terms musically, but I have a certain ear, I suppose.
I am self-taught as a drummer but I went to lessons. It was a guy in Wolverhampton, I was still in the boy scouts actually, and I went to him, but I only went twice, because he couldn’t teach me anything that I didn’t already know. What it was really was to learn to read drum music. What do I have to know drum music for? [Don sounds baffled].
I read drum music…
Yeah, I know, Lise! And he was trying to teach me that, but what do I need to learn drum music for? They don’t have drum music in all the different scores.
It’s more for classical orchestras.
That’s it. It’s probably more like the discipline it’s needed for.

Sussex says, “your drumming style was so much different on Play It Loud, than any other album, tighter etc., so different that you must have had a change of influence.
I probably played a lot more in those days and one time we were doing something, rehearsing, and it was such a tiny room so if I had played we couldn’t hear anything, so I just went on the snare drum. And Jim said, “Remember that”, because he got an ear for that type of thing, and I used that particular style on all of our early records. Only snare drum and bass drum on the records and occasionally a cymbal crash, but basically it was only snare drum and bass drum. That’s what the thing came from for “’Coz I Luv You”, by the way. Then I realised afterwards, that was not until later, that Ringo used the same thing on “Get Back”!
Leeds asks: what happened to the lovely silver Ludwig kit(s)?
That went in the rock’n’roll sale from Sotherby’s. I was let to believe that the guy from the Hard Rock Café chain bought them. I have never heard anything about them since. I have never been to the Hard Rock Café in London, so I don’t know if they’ve got any of it shown. There’s a Hard Rock Café in Copenhagen, maybe I should have a look there! [laughs] Maybe I should start looking! Walk in, try to be all nonchalant! [laughs] Oh, I’m only looking! [laughs] Someone did mention once that some of the things are in the Hard Rock Café in Tokyo, but if it is true, I don’t know.

Lancashire says, “I was wondering if you know of a store that you would recommend as selling pro standard cymbals at decent prices?”
Cymbals are very expensive, so he should try junk shops and things like that. Cymbals are often up to £ 400. I would go around junk shops and try to look for some there.
I didn’t realise that cymbals were so expensive.
Oh, it’s horrible! You can buy the whole kit and then if you have to add cymbals, that’s where the expenses grow.

Here’s a question from Melbourne, Australia: Do you have any particular recollections of the tours “down under” that you would share?
At the first tour in 1973 when the plane landed in Sidney we saw all these TV-cameras and we thought, “Who’s on the plane?” [laughs] “Who are they waiting for?” and obviously they were waiting for us! Because at that time “Slade Alive!” was triple gold. “Slade Alive!” was number one and had been so for a while and “Slayed!” was no. 2. And we had 3 singles on the charts as well. That was a great tour with Status Quo, Lindisfarne and Caravan. That was great. All the open air sports stadiums. But back then in the seventies every second song on the radio was one of ours and Lindisfarne always said, “Oh, shit! Not you lot again!” We got played all the time, Lise. The second time we went we did many indoor venues and when we went 10 years ago, that was when we were there for 8½ weeks, we played everywhere and anywhere, mainly based on the West Coast. We went to Adelaide for just one concert, but we were based in Perth for about the first 3 weeks and we went out from Perth. And then we moved to the Northern Territories. And we were just travelling out to all sorts of places, some were not even on the map. It was a wonderful experience.

Here’s another question from Australia, this time from Bendigo, Victoria: how different did you find Australia and the fans each time you were there and what regrets have you got over the last 40 odd years of your career. Would you have done anything differently?
The first two times we were there everybody knew all the records, because the records were on the charts, so the audience were no different than others, although the land was, obviously. I don’t think there was a change over time, except obviously when we went there the last time, people who had seen us in the seventies now brought their children with them. And they were still talking about “Slade Alive!” That was THE album.
The only regret I have was the approach to America. The first tour was great for us in America. What we should have done was we should have carried on in the same track, just supporting. We were supporting on the first tour and on the second tour we went top of the bill and we should never have done that. The first tour we were third on the bill. There was Humble Pie, mainly J. Geils and some other bands and on the second tour The Eagles were supporting us! We shouldn’t have done that. We should have carried on supporting on the second and the third tour as well instead of going top of the bill. That’s the only regret I can think of. In all other territories we were having massive success, anyway.

Manchester wants to know if after many tours with the band there was a particular happening that stays foremost in your mind. Sorta Spinal Tap perhaps?
There is quite a few, I think! [laughs]. Well, one sticks out. At our second America tour we had just signed to Warner Brothers. We were with Polydor on the first tour, but Chas wasn’t happy with that so we signed with Warner Brothers after the second tour when we went over. We went to San Francisco to a guy who Chas knew from the Animals days and this guy was still an old hippie, you know. And he lived in this small chapel in San Francisco. And we stayed for two nights, so we were there for the weekend, and he had a party in his home, so to speak, one night in this chapel. And it had a pulpit and all. And I just went to have a look around and there was this rope fixed to the roof and it came to like the balcony. And I had this girl with me and I said, “Are you up for a laugh? Get on my shoulders!” We could look down at the party, there was a few hundred people there and we would just swing down between the people. But what Chas told me later was that because we had just signed to Warner Brothers there were 2 or 3 of their executives there. They were standing talking to Chas and they were asking him what the characters were like, what we were like in the band. And when it came to me he said, “Don never really says anything, he’s pretty quiet,” just as I swung by! [laughs] Oh god! With this girl! And the executives said, “Who’s that?” “That’s Don.” “But he’s the quiet one!” [laughs] The quiet one of the band swinging by like Tarzan with a girl on his shoulders!

A lady in Belgium wants to know if there are any differences in the audiences in the different countries?
No. It is more or less the same all around the world. Even in Russia. It takes a little time to get them going in Russia, but it’s not because of the show, but they have restrictions. They have the police there and they are not allowed to stand up. But after a few songs, the police give up. It takes a few songs before the audience starts to stand up and go mad. They really want to, but it takes a bit, because the police is there. That’s a bit of a deterrent.

Now we go to San Francisco in California where the question is: Will Slade ever play in the United States again?
It would be great to go, if we could get the right tour offered to us. Where we could obviously support a big name of the same kind of act in a way. Like on the first tour with Humble Pie, because it was a rock audience. And that is great with us. But I think it needs to be something like that, supporting.
And then it says: give Lise a big hug from me for all her outstanding work!
[Don laughs – I usually get my fair share of hugs, when we see each other.]

Then we’re off to Finland with pretty much the same type of question: are you gonna do any gigs in Finland this year and if not, why?
I can’t remember the last time we played in Finland, but we’ll always go if the offers are there. We’ll always play there, but I don’t remember the last time, who we worked for, which one of the agents. At the moment nothing is scheduled, but anything can come up. If an agent contacts us. Finland has always been good for us, even with the new line-ups over the last few years, I’m sure.

We’re back to Leeds where it says, what songs did you play live or maybe rehears with the intention of playing live off Nobody’s Fools?
The songs from Nobody’s Fools were a bit too light for stage, for how our stage show was at the time. It would have been like sort of chalk and cheese to include any of the Nobody’s Fools material. It was a shame, though.
The same person also says that he remembers you all sound checking with Nuts Bolts And Screw and Sign of Times but you never actually played them during any gigs?
As for sound checking with Nuts Bolts and Screws and so, I don’t remember doing that.

From the East Midlands and from Hardley near Norwich comes the same question, namely don’t you get bored with playing the same playlist night after night and is there a possibility for a gig with songs from Slade’s catalogue away from the chart music and same weekly routine?
That’s what we are going to do this year, Lise. We start to rehears as soon as possible, the first thing on the agenda is to put in new songs in the show. Our plan is to add fresh things.

Another member who is also from Leeds asks how many more years you and Dave can go on touring?
I never even think of it. People have asked me that same question since 1973! [laughs]

Now we go to New York City and the question is: where did you come up with the idea for the heavy breathing in the chorus for Look Wot You Dun?
I think that was Chas’s idea. Don’t ask me why! It just came. I just did that, the heavy breathing, and I also used a matchbox well. Making the sound on like the “sandpaper”. So it’s me doing it with my voice and a matchbox [laughs].
Nowadays they laugh instead, Dave, John and Mal. I’ve been wondering why they have changed that.
I think they did that for people to be able to hear it. When they did the h-h-h, people weren’t able to hear it!
But that gives the song a different twist.
Yes, I know what you mean! [laughs]

Back to Bournemouth and the question: you wrote some credible songs in the beginning of Slade, have you written anything since?
I wrote some for Slade II, which we recorded. Then Dave and myself started to improvise a few things, obviously it has not been recently, but that’s all in the pipeline. Hopefully it can be put together.

From Lancashire comes this: there was some material written in the early days of Slade II, partly by yourself which exists on a rehearsal cassette. Was this material ever submitted for consideration for recording by the group?
Ahh, I forgot all about that! I probably have it, actually! [laughs] I have to look for that, I forgot all about that!

A member in Leicester asks: have you ever thought of asking Jim or Jim or Nod if they have any songs that Slade could use for a new album?
Dave did once ask Jim if he had any songs, that we could use, but I can’t remember what the outcome was. I think at that time Jim wasn’t particularly doing anything.

Back to Lancashire where it says that an acetate exists of a studio version of “Hear Me Calling” Is there any reason that this wasn’t released?
As far as I know we only ever did “Hear Me Calling” for the “Slade Alive!” album obviously and I think we did it a few times for BBC live recordings. I remember we tried to record it once or maybe a few times, but it never came together. It was like a live thing and we couldn’t get it together. I think the acetate was actually from a BBC recording. I can’t remember that we did it otherwise, or if we did, it must have been very early on.
The same person also asks if there is any prospect of a release of “Respect” from the last sessions at Rich Bitch and finally is there ever going to be a version of “Love Is” that fans can hear?
As for “Respect” I don’t know anything about that and regarding “Love Is”, it IS down on tape but where it is, I don’t know.

A guy from Essex says that he’s aware that “Hear Me Calling” was recorded in the studio for intended single release and he asks who decided to pull it and why? Also he would like to know if there ever was an unreleased studio recording of “In Like A Shot From My Gun” or “Comin’ Home” other than the BBC recordings?
I don’t remember us recording “Hear Me Calling” for single release, but I think that “In Like A Shot” was recorded. I’m sure, the master reel must be somewhere. I’m positive that we did that. But “Comin’ Home” we only recorded for the BBC sessions. We never made a studio recording of it.

Then we go to Norway where the question is: what was your favourite studio to work in and why?
Oh, a difficult one….I liked the Record Plant in New York where we did Nobody’s Fools, and I always liked the Angle at Islington in London when we worked with Roy Thomas Baker, when he produced a few things. It was great for the band, it was a really live sound. The Record Plant that was more a studio album than anything and that was a new experience for us, to record like that.
The same person seems to think that both Nobody’s Fools and We’ll Bring The House Down were recorded in the United States, so he is wondering why there’s such a big difference in those recordings?
Only Nobody’s Fools was recorded in the United States. The Nobody’s Fools was very produced with the girl singers as well. It was very different.
Finally he asks, what was Chas’s actual role in the studio as a producer?
As for Chas he was in the studio basically for discipline, really. With Chas it was like we used to record from twelve non-stop until six o’clock and that was it. Six hours and that was it. And it made sense. We wanted to carry on, but he said, “No, leave it. Stop now and you’ll be fresh tomorrow. You’ll have the evening free now to do whatever, go to the pictures or whatever,” you know. And he really proved it, because when we finished with Chas we did some recordings throughout the night and we got back the next day to listen to them and we said, “Oh, it’s a pile of shit!” [Don sounds surprised]. Because we had been half asleep and we had let things go. There is no discipline there. So Chas proved himself wise on that, it was so true. Only work from twelve to six.

From Holland the question is: what happened to the master-tapes from all of the B-sides. Are they still around or are they gone forever?
They are still around, they are still there. Why they weren’t used for the B-side album I don’t know, because they are still around, they are still there.

A member from Shropshire asks: do you think the current line-up will ever record anything new?
We’re going to have a talk this year about going in the studio

From Northern Ireland is this: what are your thoughts on the mid 80’s Slade sound?
The sound was a bit clinical some of it when we worked with John Punter, because he was very much a recording man.
He also says that both the Rogues Gallery and the You Boyz albums employed a heavy use of drum machines, what was your thoughts on this?
What we used to do was, we used the drum machine just for the click track and I put the live drums on afterwards. Because it takes away the live-thing when you use a computer, basically. And we didn’t bother with that. It was just a phase we went through, that came from John Punter, really. But on You Boyz we didn’t use drum machines.
He goes on asking, with the band stopping touring in the Mid-eighties could you foresee the demise of Slade or did you just think it was another cycle that you would come out of?
Being in it, it was the demise in a way, when we stopped touring, because our forte was touring. The recordings came in between, sort of. So yes, I could sort of see the demise back then.
Finally he asks what was the biggest managerial/business mistake that the band ever made?
I don’t know about managerial or business mistakes, but our biggest mistake was how we tried to crack America, going in as top of the bill instead of sort of like creep into the back door, so to speak, like we did in England, basically.

Then we have a lady from Essex asking how old were you when you started writing Bibble Brick and what inspired you to write it?
I was 22 when I wrote it, it was in 1968-1969. I always had the idea, even when I was a teenager. Because when I was a young child I used to sit with my father, watching cartoons and I couldn’t understand why he was laughing at different things than the ones that I was laughing at. I was laughing at the obvious things, but Dad was laughing at different things and I couldn’t understand that until I started to get older. Then I could see the humour things that he was laughing at and that was really what inspired me to write it. To try to do something that appealed to both audiences, both ages.
She would also like to know if you have made any changes in it now that you are a lot older and bringing it out, or if it is still how you first wrote it?
The basic story of Bibble is the same now as back then. We’ve done a bit of editing, but the basic story is still the same.

We stay in Essex but we’re back to the bloke from earlier on. He asks: are there any plans to release your “Let There Be Drums” solo work?
That’s all in the pipeline. I’ve got the tapes and I just need to really get the musicians together and really sort of sit down with it. It probably needs a bit work, it probably needs to be emptied out a bit and sort of start again.

A member in Birmingham says, due to the superb Slade footage lying gathering dust in TV archives all over the world, would you like to see them again, and which one out of all of the missing footage would you like to see most and why?
Oh god, I would like to see all of that! [laughs] Anything really, I want to see anything!

From Chester comes the plea: could you relay the things that fans ask and hope for to the people who have the relevant stuff i. e. master tapes, video footage etc. and tell them that there’s an audience out here eager to purchase it?
Ha-ha! Well, it’s a matter of the market. I’m sure there’s some great stuff out that doesn’t have been exploited, really. It’s strange. Some say that the quality of what is out there is not good enough, but with today’s technology you could enhance it in certain ways.

Finally we end up in Leeds with the question: did you really have a stall at Portobello Road?
My ex-wife, she had a stall there and I used to help out there. It was in one of the arcades.
He says that he and his wife tried to find the stall a couple of times but the best they got was somebody right at the top end saying that he thought you were around!
There was quite a few arcades, so you had to take a long time if you didn’t know where to go. It would take a long time to find.

My favourite photo from the fan forum session

2007-06-06T12:33:00.000+02:00

The interview in use

2007-06-06T12:30:00.001+02:00

Don’s answers were all uploaded to the www.slayed.co.uk fan forum on May 8. It was a lot of fun doing it, so Don will probably be up for something like that again in the future. While doing the interview we also taped a greeting from Don to the fans. You can see it here.

Don by Odense River, Denmark

2007-06-06T12:27:00.000+02:00

Flame interview

2007-05-10T10:40:00.000+02:00

When doing interviews with Don we have often talked about Slade’s film Flame from 1975. In April Union Square Music re-released it as ”Slade in Flame Special Collector’s Edition” and I was to do a bit of promotion for that. But when I looked through my notes from former interviews I felt that something was missing. As Don was to visit me anyway on May 7th 2007, we used the occasion to tie up the loose ends and the day after we finished the interview over the phone, because there was still ”something” missing. Below you can see our efforts from May 7th and May 8th. The pics were shot in my home in Danish town Odense on May 7th.

Don and me, May 7, 2007

2007-05-10T10:36:00.000+02:00

May 7 and 8, 2007: interview conducted at my place, Odense, Denmark and over the phone.

2007-05-10T10:24:00.000+02:00

What do you think of the film Flame?
It’s amazing to think that after all this time how it suddenly comes back again. Because if I remember right, Lise, it only had a short span in the cinemas. It wasn’t around for very long. And not everywhere showed it, either, only certain towns showed it. The actual general release wasn’t everywhere like you’d see with a major film, that gets a nation-wide distribution. But that didn’t happen with “Flame”. And then in the late seventies it was shown in a few special cinemas, like a tiny cinema in Wardour Street in London, there was a month when they showed things like “Performance”, and “Flame” was shown there. And I think in Cardiff as well. But I think the film is good. Because of the story, I think it still stands up.
And the cast is very well chosen.
It is. The casting director was fantastic, really. All the actors were perfect.
Johnny Shannon as the agent, that was pretty much the same part he played in “Performance” wasn’t it?
That’s the part that he always played! [laughs] He was on television quite a bit and he always played exactly the same type. He did a lot of sitcoms in England and it was always the same kind of character. He looks the part and he carries it really well.
People always talk about him, Alan Lake and Tom Conti, but people seldom mention Kenneth Colley who played Tony Devlin. He was good.
Yes, he really fitted the part.
He went on to do Star Wars, didn’t he?
Yes, he was in a few episodes of that and he did some other work, I suppose.
And what about the women? I know that Nina Thomas who played Jim’s wife was has only done two films, one with Judi Dench and one with Michael Kitchen and then she was in an episode of Dr. Who as well, but what about Sara Clee, who played Dave’s girlfriend?
I don’t know what happened to her. She was in a few things of the time, although I don’t remember the names of any of the films, I think she was in “That Will Be The Day”. She also always played the same part as well! We had that joke that whoever worked on Flame never got any work afterwards. [laughs]. One shot himself and the rest didn’t work! [laughs]. But…at least Tom Conti came out well.
And the screenwriter Andrew Birkin had quite a good career with “ The Name Of The Rose”, “Joan of Arc”, “Perfume” and all the Peter Pan-work.
Oh gosh, yeah! At the time I thought he had it with his career. I would like to see him again. He was a type…he was always in the background, wasn’t he, he never stepped forward. He never sort of pushed himself.
No. But he cameos in almost all the films he has been screenwriting. In “Joan of Arc” he plays the part of Talbot and in “The Name Of The Rose” he is Cuthbert of Winchester.
I have to have a look!
And he has had a few parts in other films as well.
A kind of Hitchcock type of thing?
No, it is a bit more than that.
I would like to see him now. What he looks like now. It was strange seeing Richard again. He hadn’t changed at all. Andrew probably looks just the same as well. He was almost a wee gentleman when he came with us to America. He never pushed himself. When we asked him about his sister, Jane Birkin, and that record she made “Je t’aime”, he never rose to the bait. He was probably bored about that question. He was probably fed up, because all that people did was talk about that record. I really would like to see him again.
Well, I’ve passed on your e-mail address to him, so now it is up to him!
Yeah. I wish I had kept the script, by the way, for Flame. But I haven’t.

Who played the part of Noddy’s grandmother? You never see the face.
Oh, that was one of the technical crew! And then the voice was overdubbed later on.
Did you do overdubbing?
Yes! When there was background noises or if the diction didn’t come off right, we would sorta overdub in the studio. And it is strange, actually, you have the screen in front of you and you stand with some headsets and when it is your turn to say something, the line goes across and when it comes to the end, then you say it and then it fits in sync with the lips.
I was wondering about that because in the film, when people turn their backs to the camera you can’t hear what they are saying. Why wasn’t that overdubbed?
I know! That is strange! There’s quite a few things like that, actually.
But at least the picture is so much clearer on the new version. You can actually see what is happening!
It was terrible when the original video came! It was so dark, almost all of the film. Even in the outdoors scenes, they were sort of dark as to what they should to have been. Now it looks like it did in the cinema, which is so much better. They should have done that before, because it was a big criticism that it was so dark.

My only option is that in the film the illusion of time is not very good. In the book the story expands over like four years, but in the film it seems to all happen within a few months. You can only tell that years are passing because the hair-styles and clothes are changing.
Yes, I know! Especially with Sara Clee with the headband and everything.
I guess it is difficult to create that illusion of time.
It must be difficult, but it is so important!

How come the film only runs like 86 minutes?
Yes, it ought to last 10 more minutes, doesn’t it? Probably the rest was cut away. We had to cut something out obviously for the audience. We couldn’t have anything disdained in it, that would restrict the age group. I remember there was so many things that had to be cut out for that reason. Like in the party scene at the hotel where Nod’s drunk and that girl picks him up, there was something more there, that was cut. There were quite a few things where we were told, “You can’t do that.” With the censorship and everything we had to be so careful.
And also the scene with Alan Lake, with his toes.
That could not be shown because of the censorship. It would have been totally different if that had been shown.
It would be interesting to see what has been cut out.
Yeah. I’d love to get the outtakes. But I don’t know where they are! If they are there. At least back then if you had done a take or two they just wiped them because of the cost of tapes. And that was amazing when you think of the Beatles material. The foresight to do that and to keep it, obviously. To just record when they were playing along in the studio. That would never have happened when we started recording. It is so ridiculous. It’s the same with the early BBC recordings, the sessions we used to do for radio. They were some great ones! The guy who was the engineer, he actually became a presenter at Top of The Pops, and he really liked us and he was really great working with in the studio. Because he wasn’t afraid of trying things as opposed to the rest of the BBC, or the image of BBC with the producers wearing collars and ties, but the tapes from that were wiped anyway.

How was the budget for the film?
I think it was half a million pounds. It’s difficult to see where the money goes, but of course it’s a matter of the crew and all of the equipment and expenses like that. It probably was a pretty low budget.
And it was done in six weeks or something like that?
Yeah. And then we spent so much time afterwards with the promotion. We didn’t think it’ll take that long, but the promotion it would take forever.
The press was good to you, wasn’t it?
They were fantastic! All the TV-reviews, all the sort of film programmes on TV, they had fantastic reviews for us.
That must have meant a lot.
It did. If they had dumped it in some papers we would have been really down about it.

When you made Flame, some of the band members were more pleased with it than others. What was your opinion?
Oh, I loved it! I loved every minute of it! When we decided to take that story line, when we decided to take that plot, that sort of thing, I thought, “Great!” At the time it probably wasn’t the right thing to do, because at the time it wasn’t what Slade were, but in hindsight I’m so glad we did that.
It really was the right move.
Definitely! I remember we talked to Robin Nash who produced Top of The Pops, he said, “I really admire what you have done. You’ve done the right thing, but do you really think that the kids want to see that? That side of the business?” I know what he meant, because when it was released it got very mixed reviews from the general public. We weren’t really down, we were more contemplating, have we done the right thing? We were proud of the finished product, but was that the right direction? People hadn’t expected that kind of film from us.
I was 13 when it came out and I liked it because it was not just the usual, like “A Hard Days Night” and it was nice to see something with a little depth. But I think most people had expected something else.
Definitely. Because people couldn’t separate the band Slade from Flame. They didn’t understand that we played characters. So every time we did TV-interviews or whatever we had to say, “we’re not Slade in the movie!”
It was probably difficult to separate Slade from Flame, because the characters you played in the movie were more or less based on you and some of the elements, you working in a steel factory and Jim carrying his bass in a plastic bag, that came from real life.
Yes. That was some of the things that Andrew got off us when he went with us to America. I remember Chas saying, it was so easy doing “A Hard Days Night”. It was so easy, that was no problem, but!
If you’d done that it would have sunk without a trace.
Exactly. It would have been like the Dave Clark Five-film, they made “Catch Us If You Can” and it sunk as soon as it had been released.
It would have made fans happy for a short while and then…
Yes. There would have been no way that it would have been released again. As I said before, I’m proud of it. I’m glad we did it. And at that time it was possibly the first one to show the backside of the industry. David Essex did some, but they were a bit more glossy, I think. Because he was that kind of character, you know. With Flame, it has kind of set a standard. Also for “The Commitments”. That was a great film, that was, and it’s sort of a parallel to Flame, isn’t it?
Yes, it would be interesting to talk to the writer of the book or the screenwriter about their influences. I would like to do that. They must have been influenced by Flame.
I have the film at home. I’ll have a look at the credits to see who did that.

How did you take to that in the band, that you suddenly had to act?
We didn’t think of it like that. It was just a bit of fun for us. [laughs] None of us took it THAT serious. It was great and another string to the bow, so to speak, doing that sort of thing. Everybody wants to be in a movie. And when it came out it was fantastic. But of course it was a different routine to work like that. But after a couple of weeks you get into the flow of things. Like up at 5, get ready and be on set around seven-ish and work and then eventually Andrew or Richard would say, break for lunch. Break for lunch? I though it was the end of the day! [laughs] We did around 6 hours, that was a full day for us or it would have been in the studio, and then you had all afternoon to go! Plus you must remember that most of the time we spent hanging around, just sitting around while they set lights, set the cameras just for 2 seconds on the screen basically.

The scenes of the movie are all based on events that happened to Slade or other bands, like the coffin scene was from Screaming Lord Sutch and the shooting at the radio station was also true.
Yes, that did actually happen, but not to us. Back then people used to pay money to have their records played. Emperor Rosko, he used to be on one of those pirate radios. Probably Tony Vance as well, because a lot of them came from the pirate radio. That was so exciting back then! [laughs] An illegal station!
We had a bit of the same in Denmark, but I don’t think it lasted very long, then everybody tuned in to Radio Luxemburg!
Exactly! That was what they did in England with Radio 1, to try to get about the waves so to speak.
But which events in Flame actually happened to Slade?
There was the drums at my parents’ where I paid the money in instalments, and what else happened to Slade? There was the agency, when we used to go to the agency to try to get our money and like that. All the bands around Wolverhampton used the same agency, and we were all there Friday to try to get our money. And then with the Screaming Lord Sutch, there was a band around Wolverhampton that used to back him, you know. And Barry has his 21st birthday again.
Yes, you were also lied younger in real life.
Yes, we were. And then the steelwork and Jim with the bass in the plastic bag as we talked about. And then Johnny, our original singer Johnny Howells, you met him in Wolverhampton last year, in those days he looked a bit like Alan Lake. He was not happy with it, he said about Alan Lake, “That’s supposed to be me, isn’t it?” [laughs].
But Alan Lake more or less played himself, didn’t he?
Exactly. When he came to do, like things in the studio, he was dressed in the same way as in the film. And we thought, “What!” [laughs] He looked like in the film and we thought, “God!” And then there was this girl in the concert scene. The one who throws herself at me on stage. In real life she proposed to me! In a letter! She was one of them girls who used to hang around no matter where we went. Later on she sent me another letter saying, “You’ve had your chance. Now I’m marrying someone else.” [laughs] That was wonderful, that was! You’ve had your chance!

I was wondering about Nod’s character, because that didn’t have very much to do with him, I mean with the sales and living with his grandmother and the pigeons and all.
About those pigeons, they had never really anything to do with anything. It’s a bit a northern thing, that is. A shed in the garden with the pigeons.
Maybe it’s an acknowledgement to John Pidgeon who wrote the book!
Yes, that could be it! [laughs].
I found out who he is, by the way. He was a BBC1 producer. You know we once talked about how well he seemed to know you, although you’d never met. Well, maybe you did meet, after all!
Maybe we have done interviews with him. We’ve possibly worked with him, then, done programmes or something without realising. There was a lot of that in England at the time, we were always going in to do interviews for different programmes, that kind of thing.
He based his book mostly around you and Jim and why would he do that, if he didn’t know you, because it would be more obvious to base it around Noddy, who was the front man, anyway.
That’s interesting, that. Because I said in advance that I’d have trouble learning lines because of my amnesia, and Jim…
He was probably too shy to front a film.
Yes, and Noddy was really great in that film.
He was. I noticed that when Nod is in the coffin singing, there’s a third hand in there with him as well.
Yes. The one that’s doing the [Don waves his hand]. I don’t know where that came from! It’s like…he gets locked in the coffin with a glass of beer, doesn’t he? Where does that go?
He probably gives it to the third hand!
That’s it! [laughs]

We’ve talked about the book before.
Yes, we have and as I said then, we should have filmed the book instead of the screenplay. That was so much better.
Yes. It got more into things. And to the backgrounds of the characters as well. What about Dave’s character? You never get to know him that well in the film.
That was a criticism of the time. In the film I was living with my parents, Jim had his wife and Nod was living with his grandmother but Dave? I just sort of fell from the moon! You never hear anything about his background. That was criticised.
It’s the same in the book. I think it has to do with him being “Barry”. You know you were called Charlie like in
Charlie Watts, yes, and Jim was Paul like Paul McCartney.
And Nod was Stoker like Bram Stoker who wrote “Dracula” and then Dave is Barry. I think it derives from J. M. Barrie, the writer of Peter Pan. Andrew is the official biographer of J.M. Barrie who wrote Peter Pan, and well, neither Barrie nor Pan were able to commit to women, just like Dave’s character!
That’s true. Dave’s character is like that. And he was just there. He comes from nowhere! But of course they couldn’t use his real situation in the film.
No, Dave was already married at the time, wasn’t he?
Yes, he got married in Mexico in 1973, but that was kept away from the fans.

Was Flame ever shown on British TV?
Yes, it was shown on TV, but that’s some time ago.
It never was in Denmark.
What would they do here? Overdub or put on subtitles?
Subtitles! We always do subtitles in Denmark!
That’s interesting. I don’t know why they haven’t shown it, then. Maybe it’s a commercial thing?
One of the things I’m working at is…they have like this music programme on Danish TV called “Musikprogrammet” and they often have theme-nights about a single band, and it would be good if we could get Slade on there. Show “Flame” or some of the documentaries like “It’s Slade” or “Perseverance”. I’ve actually had fans from all over the country writing in, asking for a Slade-night!
Does that still work? [laughs] They used to do that in England, they used to write, all the fan club members.
But the problem nowadays is, that the fans are 40 and up and the people who are doing the programme are in their twenties, so they don’t know who Slade is! But they have started making programmes about people like The Doors and David Bowie, so maybe we’ll get there one day!
That would be interesting.
They also use to have musicians in to talk about how they’d been influenced by the band in question.
That’s the same in England. So many people have been influenced by us, that we didn’t even thought of. I think Richie Blackmore was one of them. I think he has a quote on the back of “Slade Alive!” A lot of people have been influenced, but you don’t realise until they come out. And Gene Simmons, he always acknowledges our influence on Kiss. A lot of people have been influenced, but some won’t admit it! [laughs]

You never though about making a second movie? A lot of people have done, you know, films following a band on tour or something.
We never talked about it, that’s strange, that is! That SHOULD have been done. Like the BBC Radio documentary. But that was only like half an hour, like a short thing, we never really went into it, it was just the surface things. We SHOULD have done a real full time film with us on the road. That would have been great, I think. And that would have been what people would have liked to see as well. What is going on in the background. The lead up to the concerts and so on. I like to watch those kinds of films myself. I always buy those and watch those.

What do you think about the package, the Slade In Flame Special Collectors Edition?
I’m impressed with this. I’m glad that the CD is with it. That’s good. And the interviews. You know, we did them last year. Tom Conti, Dave, Jim and myself did ours on the same day. I did mine just after Tom Conti and he said to me, “Who would have imagined that after 30 years?” Thirty years! It’s hard to believe that it is really thirty years! It was great seeing him again, though. Richard Loncraine wasn’t able to make his on the same day, so they did that later and Nod’s, that was the old one from 2002. I think they should have done a new one with him, though.
Yes, the fans would have liked that. I think that featurette as they call it, is what fans have been looking forward to the most, because it was something new.
Exactly.
And many were curious about how you look today and what you were going to say, so it would have been nice with a new interview with Nod. I mean, most people know what you and Dave look like now, but that’s not so much the case with Nod. Or Jim.
No…Jim’s new album is really good, by the way.
It is.
Do you know how it is selling?
No. But I think it’s doing okay. At least it’s been received very well everywhere.
That’s good.
And it was nice seeing him participate in the featurette. But apart from the featurette there’s not much extra material with the Flame DVD.
No, there ought to have been some more. There should be quite a bit of footage somewhere, outtakes and things that went wrong. There should be quite a bit of that, but I don’t know what happened to that.
Fans were led to expect the alternate lyrics version of “This Girl” to be on the CD as well.
I don’t know what happened to that.
Maybe they couldn’t lift it from the film?
They didn’t have to, because we actually recorded that. There’s a studio version of it, but I don’t know what happened to it.
And then there’s the booklet with the photos from Andrew.
I’m glad that they’re still around. That Andrew kept them. Nice to see the photographs of Chas as well. There he is reading. Even in the studio when he went to the toilet he would bring a book with him. That’s him gone! [laughs] And look at those Flame-suits! I actually got a rash of them! [laughs] It was almost like a paper-type stuff. You could hardly bend in them, that’s why we pose like that!
Well, you’re not that bad off with only a vest!
No, thank god!
How come it is Jim who has commented on the photos?
I don’t know.
He’s very direct at times and you seldom see that with Slade.
I know. We were always known as the clean boys. That was the only thing that got through, actually, you know.
I was wondering why Union Square released the movie as “Slade In Flame”?
I know. It’s only called “Flame”.
It’s a bit confusing that they use the name of the CD for the DVD.
It is.
It also got me to think how much the CD is going to sell as the CD is now also included in this collection as well.
It was probably a wise move to release the CD prior to the DVD package! It would have made it more sellable if there had been bonus tracks, though. Now the two CDs are identical!

My favourite photo from May 7, 2007

2007-05-10T10:18:00.000+02:00

Flame-interview in use

2007-05-10T10:15:00.001+02:00

The interview was used for promotion of Flame here in Denmark and furthermore it was the core of a review of Flame that I was asked to do for www.dvdbeaver.com.

Don with Flame

2007-05-10T10:13:00.000+02:00

Interview, October 9, 2006

2006-10-15T14:40:00.000+02:00

I went to Silkeborg on a crisp October-morning and Don picked me up at the station. We then went to the house where I was introduced to Rocky, Don’s 10 weeks old Golden Retriever-puppy. It was just so cute! We went to have lunch in town (excellent buffet, by the way) and then back home to do a short interview and some pics. After that we had some other work to take care off and as the day progressed more and more family-members got home from school and work. We all had a lovely dinner together (thanks to Don’s lady Hanne) and in the evening Don and Hanne drove me to the station. As usual a superb day in superb company.

2006-10-15T14:38:00.000+02:00

Don and me, October 9, 2006

October 9, 2006: interview conducted at Don’s place, Silkeborg, Denmark

2006-10-15T14:30:00.000+02:00

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.

What do you think of the pick of the tracks?
I think they also did a great job there, choosing the tracks. All the hits gotta be on them, but that’s quite good with some of the other tracks, they actually work well with the hits. Things from the late seventies and the eighties, “Knuckle Sandwich Nancy” and things like that. They are quite nice, the tracks they’ve chosen. It’s good. It’s a good collection of them. Especially what works nice is…we did the album which is actually my favourite album, the “Nobody’s Fools” album, and there’s quite a few tracks from THAT. That’s quite nice. For me anyway!

I read some review that said it was strange that both CD 3 and CD 4 consisted of tracks from after the heydays.
I think that is quite nice. I think they HAVE to. A box set has to include those.
It also said it was strange that there were so few live tracks, but…I thought, the live-collection has just been released…
Exactly! It is there on the live-CD with Slade Alive 1 and 2 and the other live albums. Anyway, it must be a pretty difficult job, when they are doing that, releasing other albums like they were, and they have to sort of chose tracks for this particular project. Just take the first side or CD1 rather, which I was quite impressed with, there are some nice songs there. Some of my favourites like “She Did It To Me”, there are some wonderful songs there. I’m a bit disappointed that we didn’t do MORE of that. Because when we recorded it I was quite impressed, it’s a lovely song.
Different reviewers also complain that there is nothing new there, on the box.
Well, it’s not a new release. It’s a box set. The thing with a box set is to have the big ones. It is more like the history of the band, basically. Spanning Slade’s entire recording career. That’s what it is.

What do you think of the way that the box looks?
[Don bursts into laughter:] You know, at first I didn’t even noticed that at all! Nod’s hat! It’s so obvious! Not until Chas at Union Square said, noticed something? [still laughing] Of course! [laughs a bit more, before continuing:] But I think it is quite effective. Especially the black and white with the red Slade. And also what is nice as well is the photographs in the booklet. Photographs that haven’t really been seen before. Like when we made the Flame-movie and Andrew Birkin and Richard Loncraine came with us to America, and Andrew took a LOT of photographs obviously when he was on the road with us. And it is SO nice to see new photographs. It would be so easy to use the usual photographs that you see everywhere, so I think that is SO good. Some of them I remember. Like the one where we get on a plane and the guy at the bottom, Russ Shore his name was. He was from a record company in America and was travelling with is. He was like their promotions man. So when we arrived where ever we were travelling to, he would have interviews for radio-stations lined up, so we spent the afternoons splitting up and do radio shows and press.
It is nice seeing new photographs and it is nice seeing Chas as well. I like that Chas is there. He was always travelling with us. Mmm…it’s nice seeing the photographs of Chas…And the clothes, of course! [laughs] You waited for that one, didn’t you? [laughs again] And the clothes, of course! I think that is what I look for more than anything. What were we wearing? It’s like when you read the dialogs of the booklet about Dave changing in the toilet and we would give him a shout, what’s he gonna wear? It is SO true, that!

I like that it is Keith Altham who did the essay and not somebody hired without knowing the band.
Yeah. Yeah, that’s good. He got sort of like a closeness to the band, obviously, being our publicist in those days. And he did sort of know us. He’s not somebody from the outside. And he’s writing as he sort of saw things. But at least Keith DOES know us. And he can write. [laughs] That makes such a difference. I haven’t read the whole thing, just skipped through it. I always do that, skip through it at the moment and then sit down at some point and read it properly. But I’m glad it is someone like Keith that got the job to do that. He is a writer and he DOES know the band. Plus the fact that he was responsible for us being skinheads! [laughs long]

Well, I don’t have much more, because we talked so much about the tracks the last time and I can just use that with the box as well.
Yes. And as I said, I’m very impressed with the box set. And I think it’s what the fans have been waiting for. The general sort of comments that I get is: About time! And it is quite nice. Okay, they’ve released 2 hits albums, or 2 versions, within the last decade or whatever, but this is the whole thing. Of course on the box they have to use the obvious tracks of the hits, but they’ve chosen some of the other things, some of the B-sides and some album-tracks that were never really…you know, that were totally wasted, like I said, “She Did It To Me”, like that, and that’s nice.
Oh, by the way, something I have noticed in most of the reviews is that “Wonderin’ Y”, which you wrote, is one that gets special mention.
Yes, that’s true! I saw, I think it was in MOJO, that somebody said that it had been overlooked or something.
Record Collector also mentions that it should have had more exposure.
Did they? Okay. That’s good. Yeah, that’s good. I always remember when we first started working with Chas, because in those days the B-songs were considered throw-away-songs. Like a song you would never ever use on an album or whatever, then put it on the B-side. But Chas said, NO. It’s gotta be just as strong, it’s gonna stand up in its own right. He actually used the Beatles, what they did. If you think, Beatles records, all the B-sides were almost just as good as the A-sides, so when kids bought obviously the A-side of that time they’d get just as good a product on the B-side. And it is so true. When I would buy records and the B-side was a great side as well, that was like a bonus. I got two great songs for the price of one. And it is so true, what Chas said. He sort of got it from the Beatles, there’s always such a great B-side as well on every single record. You got value for money, basically. I think it is a good policy to have, I think. In stead of what they call like album-fillers. Arhh! [Don looks horrified] Arhh! Why? Album-fillers? You’re supposed to be out making a product, every song is going to stand up on its own and not be throw-away things. It’s simply…it’s just a CON. It is a total con! When I buy albums, I like to sort of put an album on and get something out of each track, not put the album out and go, oh that’s just a filler. It’s a horrible description, I think, it’s just a B-side, it’s just a filler or whatever.

Well, I think that was about all….
Yes. Well, I’m just generally impressed with the box set. I just hope that they do what they said, the way they said they’d go with the promotion, because they promised, and I hope they do that. I assume it was released in all the European territories and Scandinavian territories at the same time. Was that last week?
Originally it was supposed to be in late September, but it was postponed. I think it was out last week.
Okay. Because I took some of the flyers round and in the record shop they asked when it was released.
Well, it is out now.
That’s good.

2006-10-15T14:29:00.000+02:00

My favourite photo from October 9, 2006

The October-interview in use

2006-10-15T14:27:00.000+02:00

This short interview was made to tie in with the August-interview aimed at the Danish promo campaign. More about the actual use later, so for now you just get another photo of Don, this time with his Golden Retriever-puppy Rocky which 10 weeks old on the pic.

2006-10-15T14:26:00.000+02:00

Don and his puppy Rocky

The remaster interview

2006-09-03T11:46:00.000+02:00

Tuesday the 29th of August 2006 I went over to Don’s in Silkeborg to do an interview with him regarding the re-issuing of Slade’s back catalogue. It had been very cold and rainy, when I left home, but in Silkeborg the sun was shining and everything was perfect for doing pics later on.
As usual Don picked me up at the station, and we drove to the new, beautiful house where he now lives with his lady Hanne and her 3 kids. At first we had ”office-hours” where we went through the e-mails that fans have sent me for Don, and then we were ready for lunch. Superb as ever, Hanne! Hanne then gracefully retired and Don and I did a 90 minutes interview followed by a hilarious photo shoot. As Hanne said, “You’re not supposed to land on your head when you come off the trampoline, Don!”
As usual I hung around after ”work” and we all had a nice time and ended up watching ”Slade on holiday”, the Reeves & Mortimer-spoof!

2006-09-03T11:45:00.000+02:00

Don and me, August 29, 2006

August 29, 2006: interview conducted at Don’s place, Silkeborg, Denmark

2006-09-03T11:43:00.000+02:00

What do you think about the remastered CDs?
It’s amazing. Especially the live albums. “Slade Alive!” did so well, when it was first released. All over the world, not just in England. And it’s amazing, people still comment on that album NOW. Such a classic, I think, that one. I don’t think “Slade Alive vol. 2” did so well. I don’t know how well “Slade On Stage” did, but the Reading-one did really well. From the Reading Festival. We bought the tapes off the BBC in England because that whole concert was recorded by the BBC and we bought them off them on our part obviously to release, and that charged in England. But “Okey Cokey” was not on Reading, it’s not even live, as it is from Xmas Earbender EP.

I’d like to talk about what do you remember about doing these recordings?
I remember most of them. When we did “Beginnings” it was just the four of us in the studio with the engineer. That particular album was our stage-show at the time. You see, the songs that were written, “Roach Daddy” and “Mad Dog Cole”, they were just made in the studio of the time. The guy, Jack Baverstock, he said, you need to write your own songs, and we said, we don’t write our own songs. And that was when Nod and Jim wrote “Pity The Mother”. That was their first attempt on writing. But all this was basically our stage show, it was made not long after we got back from the Bahamas. “Everybody’s Next One”, I think that was Ted Nugent, “Knocking Nails Into My House” that was Jeff Lynn, “Ain’t Got No Heart” Frank Zappa, “Flying High” The Moody Blues. It’s amazing when you think of it. It’s just so wide, such a diversity, oh my God! [laughs] Strange!

You didn’t have much time to record albums, did you, because you were always on the road?
No. If I remember correctly “Play It Loud” was done probably in less than a week. We released “Beginnings” and that’s when we met Chas during that recording, and we went over to Chas. And then he was on about making an album with our own writing. And we were just racing around writing when we could, Jim and myself used to write a lot then, and Nod and Dave, and then we used to come together for certain things, but that album…we really hadn’t found our direction, then.
We were just sort of battling with writing at the time. So there’s a lot of influences from a lot of different artists on that album. We were obviously finding our way. We hadn’t found the formula then.
It’s actually my favourite album, though. I like that feel of it, kind of like cynical, melancholy and poetic at the same time.
Yeah, a lot of people like it. I remember when we did that. It was the 16 track studio at the Olympic and it was just about to open. They had a normal 8 track studio 1, and studio 2 where we recorded that album was the new 16 track studio. The new baby. So we basically christened that studio. And of course we had 16 tracks, and we were going mad, weren’t we? [laughs] We did everything, cow bells and sort of door slamming and things like that, anything just to use the tracks up! [laughs] So we were the first ones in that studio to do an album. That particular “Play It Loud” was done pretty quickly. Because we were still finding our way in the studio. We didn’t really understand studio techniques then. We would just go in and do it basically. With all four of us playing at the same time. And then the overdubs, piano or whatever it was, were done afterwards.

On the “Slayed?”-album, “How D’you Ride” that was a big contender to be a single at one time, when we recorded it. Chas really loved that song, he wanted it to be a single, that one.
“Gudbuy T’Jane” is on that album as well. That was recorded in half an hour! [laughs]. We had a little time left in the studio and Chas said, do you have anything else? You know, just to use up the studio time. And we had this, it wasn’t even really finished, and we got it together and recorded it, and that was “Gudbuy T’Jane”!
And on the album…on “I Won’t Let It Appen Agen”, if you listen to the start of that one you can hear somebody shout, Yeah! That’s me shouting, yeah!, because it felt so good when we started, that I just couldn’t help saying, yeahhh! And it was kept. And that’s the kind of thing that I like. The human thing, if you like.
You should have been credited for vocals!
There was one time in the studio…because we used to put a lot of hand-clapping and stamping on the records and shouting. And I was doing some shouting once, and even that was so BAD, that I was told to be quiet! [laughs] Just clap and stamp your feet! Don’t shout! Or sing, because it wasn’t singing. Don’t do anything! Keep your mouth shut! [laughs].
But you are credited for vocals somewhere…Wheels Ain’t Coming Down on Return To Base.
Out of tune vocals! But I enjoyed making that album.

I like when I look back on the tracks of the remastered CDs…I remember the track “Just A Little Bit” on “Old New Borrowed And Blue”. If you listen to that, just around the quiet bit, Nod does a little giggle. Because I pull a face at him! He tried to be so cool, that I just pulled a face at him, and he did that little giggle [laughs] We could all see each other, we always liked the closeness, and I just pulled a face at him, and he just laughed and it was just kept. And Tommy Burton is on that album, on “Find Yourself A Rainbow”. We were just jamming in the studio, me, Jim and Tommy, to put the track down, Tommy on piano, Jim on bass and me on drums. While the sound engineer was getting the sound together we were just like playing around, and Tommy was an amazing pianist. We were just jamming and it was great! I think Jim has a copy of it, actually. It was SO good!

Which album did you enjoy to do the most?
This one! “Old New Borrowed And Blue”! It felt like a live thing, when we did it. And I like “Nobody's Fools”. We did that in New York at the Record Plant. And that was when we had the girl singers. It’s an easier album, if you like, I think, but I enjoyed doing it. I liked the songs as well. They weren’t particularly Slade-songs, but it was a nice change.
When you did “Nobody's Fools” you lived in New York, in Greenwich Village. Where exactly?
I lived on East 24 St. just on the edge. What happened was that we went over there and we decided to stay there, and I hadn’t got a clue! What do I do? [Don sounds timid, then laughs]. But a lot of people over there when they are going to work somewhere else for a few months or what they sub-let their apartments. And that’s how I got my apartment. Our tour manager Swin, his girlfriend was from New York and they had an apartment together and they sort of mentioned it. So I said to Jackie, his girlfriend, do you know of anyone, do you have any friends who are like leaving and she asked around. And it was perfect. Because this lady, that she knew, was an actress and she was going to the West Coast to work for a few years. So she said, go around and meet her and have a look and see if you like the apartment, then she’ll let you have it. And it was wonderful. Everything was there. I went down to see her, and she said, this is it, if you need the apartment, you just pay the money to my bank account and I’ll leave the keys with your office. We were in Canada at the time and when we got back that’s when I moved into the apartment. She just left the keys at the office in New York and I just took it over. The day I went back to see her, everything was there in the apartment, everything you need, and a laundrette downstairs in the basement. And she took me around in the area just to show me different places, and that was it. Done! It was incredible. A great way of doing it! That was quite a common thing over there, so they don’t lose the apartment.
We do that in Denmark as well.
Do you? At the time it was never done in England. And we just did the contract the same, obviously so I wouldn’t have her back in while I was there, and it was good. Everything was there. Did you like it, when you lived in New York, Lise?
I was there in 1983 and I liked it, but I like L.A. better. I was there later, in 1991.
L.A. is okay. We spent quite a bit of time there, but we would always be at hotels. I like the weather there, but New York wasn’t bad, but it’s so hot and humid during summer. Oh, the worst! Where did you live in L.A.?
I lived in Hollywood. It was really run down.
I’ve never driven through Hollywood. I’ve never actually been there.
It was quite an experience with all the bikers and all the prostitutes.
That’s what I could never get together when I came to New York, with all the hookers on the streets. I’d never experienced that before. It was so OPEN! It was amazing. And they were like talking and joking with the cops!
Well, before I had my daughter, my apartment was situated in the red light district in my hometown! So when I’d been out in the evenings and came back late, so many men stopped me and asked how much I charge! There was no way you could get them to understand that you weren’t a hooker, so I just said, closed for business today.
Or, I only take credit cards! That was amazing. Some of the hookers I saw in New York, they were telling me that most of them would only take credit cards. [laughs] Incredible!
It’s a job! Well, when living in Hollywood, I actually spent most of my time in Santa Monica and Venice.
When we first started touring we always stayed on Sunset Strip or behind that or a little further down on the Sunset Marquee. And that was quite nice. Especially the ground floor rooms because they had like small apartments. They had like little kitchens and things like that. The hotel is like a square with a pool in the middle. Outside, it’s all outside, but get a ground floor room and straight by the door that was the pool. That was quite nice. But it didn’t have a restaurant, that place. But you could order food in, if you wanted to. Or there were all the cafés and restaurants, only 5 minutes of walking. It was quite nice. I enjoyed that.

The next album was "Whatever Happened to Slade" and when we released that album, that was funny. I don’t know if I ever told you that, Lise, but we had flyers and posters around on walls and boards and then [Don laughs so hard that we have to take a break before continuing] and then on one of them next to the title “Whatever Happened To Slade” someone had painted: “Pass”. [Don laughs again] Wonderful! Pass!

It’s also going to be interesting to see if on “You Boyz Make Big Noize”, if that track is actually there. Because it wasn’t when it first came out in 1987.
Wasn’t it? I never knew that! I never realised! You know where the title came from? It was a lady who worked in the studio. It was at the Angle Studios in London. And she was always there. And she was there and she was like a cleaner or something, you better be careful and check this!, and when we were rehearsing one day she came in and she said, you boys make big noise. And that was it. We said, Yes! Take it down. And that’s where it came from. But I never knew that the track wasn’t on the album. I never really looked. I never really thought of that. I never really play them when I get them. I’ve had enough of recording them. [laughs] I’ll sometimes play them later on, but I’ve never realised!

The later albums have a harder sound I think.
It was after we had decided to try to record properly. Just do the drums or just do the guitars and whatever and the vocal on top of that. [sighs] They don’t sort of swing so much. It sounded too clinical. It wasn’t the band in there playing. Especially “The Amazing Kamikaze Syndrome”, it took a long time to make. We used John Punter, he was a proper engineer as well, so he took a lot of time getting sound. Good sound, but the way we used to work was so much quicker. We used to [sighs], we could have done this half an hour ago, instead of messing around with machines. But he was okay. We didn’t have to hang around all the time. He’d say to me, you don’t have to be in before 3 o’clock or 4 o’clock in the afternoon, to do the drums. Nod always did the vocals in the evenings and then they did guitars or whatever earlier in the day, and I didn’t have to be there until they needed the drums. That was good. So much better than sitting around all day, waiting. When you’re there, you want to do something! I’ll put on the kettle! I’ll do the sandwiches! Anything, instead of just sitting there! And then when you’re finally on, you have lost all enthusiasm. So that way John Punter was good. He was okay, but he wasn’t the band.

What was your usual routine when you recorded?
When we were with Chas, what we did was, we used to go out to Chas’s house and play the songs to him and rehears in his house near Gatwich Airport, basically run them through, so he knew the songs as well. And when we were in the studio Nod nearly always sung live. So we basically put it down as a band. Nod sang live as a guide vocal to get a nice live feel, if you like. More often than not we actually kept that vocal. He maybe did another couple of takes afterwards, just him doing vocals, but then Chas said, forget it! We’ve already got the vocals. That was the guide track, basically. He did that so many times, Nod did. Where the guide track was the finished one. So we recorded ALL together, ALL together. We all got together and just did it. And it was MAYHEM in the control room, trying to control things, but that’s what it was. It was not until much later on that we maybe recorded like piano, drums and Nod singing and then put on guitars afterwards. When we worked for Chas, it was so nice. He had us in the studio every day from 12 to 6. And after that, go home, he said. Go to the cinema, relax, get the studio out of your mind. And get in the next day with new energy. It was so good. I liked his discipline.

How much time did you have for rehearsals before you went into the studio?
Basically we rehearsed in the studio! When we had the songs written. We were still living at our parents at the beginning, so I’d go to Jim’s parents’ house or he’d come to my parents’ house. Or we’d meet all of us, and then we just sort of did it like that. We sort of rehearsed like the basic thing, but basically we left all that to the studio, not realising how much studio time we were wasting! We could have done four albums! Normally what would happen was Dave, Jim and myself on the instruments and Nod would always sing on the basic track. He’d always wear his guitar to get the feeling that we were on stage, but he never really had it plugged in. Then he would overdub his guitar later. Sometimes he played it live, but he really wanted to concentrate on the vocals. So it was more because of a feel thing that he would have his guitar.
And then we started doing overdubs after that on later albums. Just bass and drums, some vocal, or piano and drums. Then do it like that. And overdub the guitars afterwards.
There’s like a little village hall or church hall where we always used to rehears back in Wolverhampton and sometimes we would have an afternoon there, just to go over things or get the basic idea and then leave it to the work in the studio. And get more ideas there. And then we started to form that format like I said with maybe just bass, drums and vocal or piano, drums and vocal. And a lot of the time the drums would be put on again. Depending on what kind of sound we wanted. If we couldn’t really get it in the studio, we started to put the drums in the toilet or in the stairway, things like that, to get the big echo sound. But that was when it started to take a lot longer, sometimes too long. Something that we could have done in probably 1/3 of the time. It was the time of learning, of experimenting, really. We were the kind of band, that…it was much better when the four of us just went in and played. Playing like we were playing on stage, really. We weren’t very good at being clever [laughs]. We were never good at being clever!

Do you know who picked the bonus tracks for the remasters?
I’m really not sure unless it had something to do with Nod and Jim. It probably was Nod and Jim.
About the bonus tracks: I think, many people had hoped to get something they hadn’t heard before. So that had me wondering, how much is there, that we haven’t heard?
I was just about to say it, how much IS there left anymore? That people haven’t heard. That’s the thing.
Something I’ve often seen mentioned is a song called “Love Is”. But I don’t know what it is.
“Love Is”? I don’t know that one. Never heard of it.
And then “Red Hot” with Noddy.
Yes! That was done like a demo tape with Nod singing.
I think people had hoped to get something like that as bonus-tracks. But I think the mix of single-hits and b-sides work well, though.
Yes, that’s nice, isn’t it.
It has been noticed that at least some of the bonus-tracks seem to have been lifted from singles, not master tapes. Do you know why?
No, I don’t know why. Unless the master tapes have been lost! [laughs]. I’m surprised that they have been sort of lifted from the original records and then they have probably taken them to the studio to bring them up again. To a proper level or something like that. That makes you wonder about the master tapes.
It sure does.

If most of the “official” Slade-tracks have already been released, could you see any bootleg collections coming out?
I’m sure many people have something on tape from the concerts. I think there’s quite a bit out there. Probably more so from America. Because when we went on stage, then we could see the arms come up with the microphones. So I’m assuming there’s quite a bit of stuff out there. If they still have it! But also the problem is, that no one will admit if they have it. It could be interesting if people would come forward. There must be some good things out there.

To get back to the remasters…they sound great and the booklets are good.
There are some great things in them. Great photographs. I don’t know where they get them from? Some of them I have never seen before. [Don sounds surprised, then laughs]. For instance that black and white one of me on the live anthology. That must be from the late sixties because it is shot at The Boathouse and it was like a pub or a club that we used to play. And the one with Nod, it looks like a radio-thing with an audience. We used to have in England, Jimmy Savile used to have a radio-show with an audience and we did it a couple of times, but I don’t know! But I don’t know the guy who wrote the notes for the booklets, either, though. I think they should have used someone like Chris Charlesworth, someone like that, who understands the band and KNOWS the band. In order to avoid inaccuracies.
Like your songs being credited to Nod!
Exactly.
When you wrote for Slade, how was that done? When Nod and Jim wrote together, it seems that the melody came before the lyrics?
Yes, they did that a lot of times. When Jim and myself would write together….because I can’t play any other instrument but drums, and I can’t sing, either [laughs], so when I got an idea for songs, lyrics-wise and everything, I would sort of sing it to Jim, my idea, and get him to sing it back to me.
So you did the melodies, too?
Yeah. It was not just the lyrics. There was a melody there or the basic idea for it, anyway. And then Jim used to take it from there. But it was a long process, in a way. It was much better when Nod and Jim started writing, because it just happened so quickly, then. It was like the perfect formula, then. Because in those days when Jim and myself wrote, then sometimes we couldn’t quite finish it and then we’d take it to Nod to sort of help out.
So that’s why a lot of your songs are credited to Holder/Lea/Powell?
Exactly. And then Jim and Nod started writing like with “‘Coz I Luv You”, basically. And that was it! Signed and sealed, then. That format was kept then.
Didn’t you miss writing?
I still sort of kept on writing a little bit, but they did it so much better and quicker.
But you’ve written a bit for Slade II?
Yeah, there’s a few things there. I’ve started to do it again. We’re going to start with the new band, with the line-up at the moment, we’re going to start recording in the new year and I’ve started getting things together for that as well. We’re all gonna sort of pitch in and see what we come up with. That could be interesting, I think.
Yeah, that would be nice. Also because there was such a difference between what you and Jim wrote and what Nod and Jim wrote, and I actually like that difference, because there’s a little more depth to your lyrics.
Yes, I know. I think Nod was more sort of down to earth, sort of what the guy next door did, what the kids could shout on the streets sort of thing.
And that was great for the band!
It worked! It worked fantastic. When you see some of the things. It makes me laugh, some of the things. Even Chas used to laugh so much over the things Nod used to write. And sometimes Chas said, no, no, no, you can’t say that! When it got a bit too close to the mark. [laughs] That’s gonna get banned! Forget it! You get banned from radio, so forget it, you have to rewrite it. That was quite funny some times, because Nod was always trying to be so adamant. He wanted to keep them in. But no, we can’t do that, it’ll get banned, you won’t get radio play [laughs].

The B-sides are finally getting out later this year.
Yes, there’s been a lot of comment on B-sides before. When Chas was producing us he took the thing from the Beatles. Their B-sides were just as good as the A-sides. And he made us do the same kind of thing. Not just a throw-away song. But something that meant something as well. It’s going to be interesting when the B-sides CDs are out because there’s been a lot of comments. Why we don’t play them on stage and things like that. And I’ve written a lot of the B-sides. “Candidate” I did the lyrics to, “Wonderin’ Y” I did the lyrics to, “Man Who Speaks Evil” I did the lyrics to and so on, so it’ll be interesting to see which ones they are going to use. And I still get asked a lot about the B-sides. And I enjoy so many of them. Especially “She Did It To Me”, Nod’s and Jim’s song. I really enjoy that. It’s a NICE song, such a NICE song.

I don’t think the CDs are going to be released in the United States, by the way.
Really? I didn’t know that, Lise. That’s strange. That’s odd, that is. Can’t they find an out-let?
I’m told that Union Square Music doesn’t own the rights to America. Or Japan.
Oh! I thought it would have been a good vehicle for us.
Yeah, especially if John Hessenthaler is looking for venues in the States.
Yes, it would have been good to have them out there. It’s funny because we still got a lot of interest over there. Certain albums and so on. Because all these albums from the seventies weren’t released in America. Only a few of them. “Slade in Flame”, obviously. “Slade Alive!” wasn’t originally. But basically compilations, hit-albums. And “Beginnings” was released under a different name. “Ballzy”. I don’t know why. It was strange releasing that one and not the others.

And Flame will be out again on DVD. I read that when it is being re-released in February next year, it is with comments from the band and the director?
I know we’ve done interviews in the past, certain TV-things, at the time it was released, but I don’t know if they’ve sort of lifted those off to use for the DVD.
Because I was wondering if it was something new?
No. Unless I have forgotten about it! [laughs] There’s only something from when we were making the film. The commentary-thing, We did do something ONCE, for some other interviews and that was just used as an insert where we talked about the film. Whether it was lifted from that I don’t know. We have to wait and see. But it says band members, so it must be more than just the interview with Noddy that was there the last time it was out on DVD. We have to wait and see. But it’ll be interesting to see if the interview with Richard Loncraine is a new one. He lives in Hollywood now, apparently, and is working on his first film over there with Harrison Ford. I saw an interview with Richard. I bought a DVD with Harrison Ford just recently and there was an interview with Harrison Ford and Richard Loncraine! He didn’t look any different! That’s the first I’ve heard of him since Flame! We always used to make a joke: Everyone from Flame never worked again! One shot himself and nobody else ever worked! [laughs]. And I know that the original tapes of Flame, the film, that’s gone missing! And when I learned that, I was like, “How do you lose that??” [laughs]
When you did the film, were there many out-takes?
Oh, yes! It would be so great to see them! I remember in the film when we are racing from Nod’s band…it was shot at a proper club and there was this house right next door, and this guy popped out and yelled, “WILL YOU F*CKING SHUT UP! I’m trying to get my kids to sleep!” He didn’t know what was going on. [laughs] Things like that would be great to see. Also at the start of the film with me in the factory when I walk out of the driveway because I’m leaving work…. All the workers were proper workers from the factory and they kept looking at the camera! And Richard said, “Don’t! Don’t!” And what he did, he was fantastic, he stood on a wall on the opposite side and he started singing something stupid on top of his voice so that all the workers looked at him to see what that was. [laughs]. Things like that would be great to get out. I would really like to see all those things. It’s so sad if they haven’t got it. It’s like this film. I don’t remember what film it was, but it was an English film. There was no one particularly well-known in it. And there was this scene where the guy is sort of like really coming on to this girl, like talking really serious and looking deep into her eyes and you could hear this duck! Quacking! And he just kept on talking and when he finished his business he said, “I’m gonna kill that f*cking duck!” [Don laughs so hard that he can hardly speak] And it was so great, he never alter his tone of voice or his expression, “I’m gonna kill that f*cking duck!” And I love that kind of thing! But back to Flame: some things were cut out to get a PG rating as well. Things were toned down. I think in the one take where Jack Daniels gets his feet molested, I think that was actually shown. And at the time it was said that we couldn’t do that.
Yes, because compared to the book…
I’ve just stared reading the book, the copy you got Hanne for her birthday. I’ve never read it through before. I’ve only read snippets before. But on the train from Germany to Denmark a few weeks ago I read Nod’s book that you got us. There’s a lot of things that he has left out.
They only had 3 months to do it!
Oh, really? I don’t know how well it went when it came out, how well it sold, anyway. It’s only snippets. He left a lot out there. I though that’s the whole point in doing the book, to get it all there. There was so much of his childhood in there and people were expecting more Slade. At least I think so, because that’s the comments I get. They’d expected more. They wanted to read a lot more about the band. And it ended very abruptly. I though, when I had just a few pages left, I though, how is this going to end?
Speaking about “books”, I’ve heard rumours that you’ve had some of your diaries stolen?
No. But I think there are some missing, because my girlfriend of that time when I first started them, I think she took a couple of years. That would have been like 1974-1975. I met her in 1974, I think. And she took them and it was so funny when I told the others, they went: WOT? WOT? Because everything is in there! [laughs]. WOT? [laughs] But it’s 30 years now!

People have been wondering why there is no active promotion from the band regarding the re-issuing of the back catalogue?
Oh, you know why that is? We haven’t been approached! Whether Nod will do it, most of it, I don’t know, he tends to do a lot. But I haven’t really heard about the sort of programme for promotion. I don’t know what kind of promotion they’ve got planned for it. It would be good with interviews and so, but we haven’t been approached. So I think Nod will do most of it, but I really don’t know, Lise. I’ve only seen the flyers that you brought me from Union Square Music! I like the bit that says that we were the missing links between the Beatles and Oasis. I like that. But I don’t know how to take that! [laughs]

Finally, Philippe from the Amazing Slade, he asked…you know, your favourite drummer, you always say John Bonham, but don’t you have any favourites who are still living?
[laughs] Well, Ringo. And Steve Gadd, he has just played with everyone, like Paul Simon and such, he’s basically a session guy. He plays with the people he wants to, obviously, as he is such a big name in that particularly field.

2006-09-03T11:33:00.000+02:00

My favourite photo from August 29, 2006

The August-interview in use

2006-09-03T11:31:00.000+02:00

This interview was mostly aimed at the Danish promo campaign, but what exactly it is going to be used for, I don’t know, yet. I’ll keep you updated, and leave you with yet another pic of Don until I know more about the faith of the interview!

P.S.
Since the recording of this interview, Don, Dave and Jim were invited to do new comments for the Flame-movie for Union Square Music. The comments were taped in September along with comments from actor Tom Conti, who played Mr. Seymour, the manager. As for Nod’s comments, USM reuses the 2002 interview done by Gary Crowley for the 2003-release of Flame on DVD.

2006-09-03T11:29:00.000+02:00

Strong man Don on the trampoline!

2006-06-14T13:23:00.000+02:00

Don and me, March 31, 2006

A photo shoot in March

2006-06-14T13:22:00.000+02:00

On March 31 I went over to Silkeborg again, this time to shoot some new photos of Don to be used later for Danish papers. I was there around noon and went out to lunch with Don and his lady Hanne at a restaurant in Silkeborg town. Then we went to their house for some cake (of course), before we started working. I took a ton of pics of Don at Hanne's childhood home in order to get some new surroundings and then also a few in their own home. We didn't do an interview this time, as I only needed the pics, but we spent the rest of the day chatting, anyway.

2006-06-14T13:21:00.000+02:00

My favourite photo from March 31, 2006

March-photos in use

2006-06-14T13:19:00.000+02:00

My favourite photo was used in connection with Slade's gig at the Nord-Als Festival on June 10, 2006. Here it surfaced in Sønderborg Ugeavis, June 7, 2006 along with an article that I'd based on the January interview.
The pic of me and Don was used in a cut version for an interview in Ugeavisen Odense, July 5, 2006 along with some older pics and an article based on the January 2006- and July 2005-interviews. Below you can see the results.

2006-06-14T13:17:00.000+02:00

"Sønderborg Ugeavis", June 7, 2006

2006-06-14T13:15:00.000+02:00

"Ugeavisen Odense", July 5, 2006, part 1

2006-06-14T13:13:00.000+02:00

"Ugeavisen Odense", July 5, 2006, part 2

New year - new interview

2006-04-07T09:53:00.000+02:00

Slade did a 6-gig tour of Denmark in January/February 2006 and (of course) I was to come up with a new interview. So on Tuesday the 11th of January 2006 I went over to Don's place once again. Apart from me only getting 4 hours sleep the night before and the train being late so we were all starving when I arrived, it all went great. After a superb lunch (thanks to Don's lovely lady Hanne), Don and I retreated and did a 2 hours interview as well as a really hilarious photo session. I almost wet myself from laughing! Or maybe it had something to do with the huge amount of camomile tea, that I'd been drinking?
Anyway, after the interview we actually had a little time for just chatting and I borrowed some videos before Don and Hanne drove me through the snow-clad streets to the station.
Below you'll find the unedited interview.

2006-04-07T09:49:00.000+02:00

Don and I, Silkeborg, January 11, 2006

January 11, 2006: interview conducted at Don's place, Silkeborg, Denmark

2006-04-07T09:40:00.000+02:00

We have to cater a bit to the Danish audience as this is going into a Danish paper.
Yeah.
I would like to talk about the 40th anniversary, that would be interesting. Your first official concert this year will be in Birkerød, but you can't really say that it's your 40th anniversary tour that starts there, can you, because it isn't.
Well, this year is our 40th anniversary and although it isn't the exact date it is the 40th year and this is our first tour of that particular year so in a way this is the start of our 40th anniversary tour. The real 40th anniversary tour in England at the end of the year, that'll be the Christmas tour, November/December, where there'll be at least 40 shows.
Are there any particular plans for that?
At the moment what we are talking about is maybe we could try to get different guests from different groups who'd said that they're big fans of Slade. That would be nice with a few people maybe at certain shows. That has to go into motion, obviously, because they have their own schedules as well, so we'll try to work it so we can get guests on stage with us. That would be good.
Where are you going to play this year? You're going to Russia and all over Europe?
Yeah, you can mention Russia and Europe in general, Germany obviously and all over the Scandinavia and the European countries. That's where we'll be going. And we'll be coming back to Denmark later this year to do some more shows. I think we're going to do some of the Danish festivals as well this summer. That'll be nice.

Are there any plans for new releases?
Yeah! There are talks about it. Because, okay, we have the CD that was released in November/December last year and there are talks about doing some more of the obscurer tracks. The B-sides and some of the tracks that we have never really used and then some more new clips for DVD that haven't really been used but that WERE filmed in the seventies. And then maybe more stuff from live concerts, some live concert footage, and some of the other TV shows that have never really been featured, that have never really been used before. That could be good. With the CD they are talking about a lot more of the tracks that have never really been featured, you know, especially some of the ones that we DO have film of as well, you know. So some of the B-sides like I said and some of the things that were filmed, that has never really been shown because either there weren't A-sides or there weren't singles, so that's why they have never really been used. We did some live concerts on English TV and some of the material from that could be good.
What about the present Slade? Are you going to have a new CD out?
That's what we are talking about now. We want to do a new album now. We are talking about doing it this year, definitely this year. Len, our manager, is in talk with different companies and apparently there is quite a bit of interest. I think because of the old Slade, the last CD and also the new stuff coming out so there is sort of a profile on the name at the moment. So that's a good time for us to do a new CD.
Would that be a studio CD?
Yeah. With all new songs.
That would be interesting.
Yeah, especially now that we have the line-up sorted out with the band it would be nice to do a CD with all new material.
You'll be writing again as well, then?
Yeah, we'll do it together. What we'd like to do, Lise, is lock ourselves away somewhere in one of the residential studios where we live and record, so we can record when we get inspirational, when we get ideas, so we are not like stuck to a time thing like say, from 12 lunchtime to 6 o'clock we can record. At a residential studio when we get ideas, we can go record THEN, when we have an idea: let's go put it down NOW. That would be great. We did that once before with the old band in Tittenhurst Park, the one John Lennon used to own and then Ringo took it over, and we did some recordings there once, so when we got ideas; QUICK! Let's go record it! And that's so good. We could walk from the TV-room or whatever and just go record something. It happens SO many times that if you don't put it down on a small tape, you lose it. You forget it. At least in this situation it's; quick! While we have it at present. Let's go, let's go! Even if we just record you know half a minute, 30 seconds or something, at least we have it down on tape, so we can finish off on a later date. So that's what we think we might do with the new line-up.
If you're gonna have the time for it!
Yeah, that's also the trouble! We have to take maybe 2 or 3 weeks, otherwise you know, you don't achieve anything. You need to be there and get inspiration.
Yeah, also if you just have normal studio time it's difficult to be creative on demand.
Yeah, like watching the clock, I think you have to finish now, WHAT!! Oh no!! [laughs].
The CD that got out last year, it got into the charts, didn't it?
It went into the charts, yeah. Initially when it first came out, it went into the charts. I don't know if it's on in the moment, but I've been let to believe that there's a lot more promotion work to go on now. It was fun to see that in the charts, actually.
Is the any hope for a reunion of the original Slade?
Well, they say, never say never, but to be honest I can't see it, Lise. From the bottom of my heart, I can't see it happen.

It is now publicly known that you live in Denmark.
Yes, it has been quoted in a lot of media things and a lot of people sort of know it. And when they know I live here they always ask how did you meet? How did you and Hanne meet, and we always tell them the story.
Right, tell the story once again.
Well, what it was is we were playing in Silkeborg probably about 5 years ago. I met Hanne later after the show and she said that she had a drumstick of me back in 1973 when we played in Aarhus. Her mother took Hanne and some of her school friends of the time and I don't know how it happened but Hanne got a drumstick that night. And she still has it! It's a different colour tape banding now [Hanne's is red, whereas the present is black, ed.]. And I thought she was joking when she explained it to me, that she still had it after all those years. And that was how we met. I DID remember that we played Aarhus twice I think in the seventies, 1973 and 1974, and she said that all her friends got together to go to the show, but they had to buy Hanne's mother a ticket for the concert as she was to drive them, obviously. And then the story is this, that Hanne's Mom was a speech therapist at the time and she forced the girls to put gum in their ears to protect them from the noise of the concert! [laughs hard] And the gum sort of melted, so later they got into trouble with the school nurse, because they still had bits of chewing gum in their ears! [laughs].
How do you like it here in Denmark?
Oh, it's wonderful! It's a beautiful place, and I'm not just saying that. I find it so peaceful, it's so peaceful living here and still there's so much going on. What I like is, that apparently in Denmark, the authorities whoever they may be, they really care for the young people, of their interests. Like I was asked to go to this music school and talk about Slade's career, and when I got there, they had all this equipment there, amplifiers and drums and guitars. And there were quite a few of the kids there, and they had lots there for them, and they swap ideas and go on play, taking turns and just jam, really. And I think it is wonderful. And I did a question/answer thing from the stage, so they could ask about Slade's career and certain things relevant to having a record deal. And I was explaining about certain aspects about recording, which they were interested in, obviously. Then I jammed with the young guys, and then one of them said to me, "You're a fantastic drummer for an old man!" [Don laughs hard] That was just wonderful!!! [Don can't stop laughing] It was SO good!! [still laughing for a while, then getting back to the conversation] But I think it is great that they are sort of given opportunities. They may get that in England now, but obviously when I was that age we didn't have anything like that, maybe they do in certain places now, but not as I know of. I think it is wonderful opportunities that are given to the younger generation of Denmark. And the young kids at the music school were so friendly. All together it was just so good, to see that kind of thing, that they respect everything. I think it's wonderful. And also there are so many concerts around in Denmark anyway, not just the old bands but everything, lots of sort of all across the borders of the music business, different things. The opportunities are THERE to go and see or listen or whatever to anything in the music business and I think it is great. The opportunities that the young people are given in Denmark are wonderful.
Slade has always had a big following in Denmark. You must get recognised when you walk the streets?
It's happened since there's been a few features in the local newspapers and things like that. I did a few interviews with reporters here in Silkeborg. I've been living here full time for 1½ years now. Nowadays since the features have been published, when I'm going certain places like the record shops or the cafés people say, we thought we recognised you, but we never imagined that it was you. And somebody once said, didn't you used to be Don Powell? And I said, I still am! [laughs].

Many of the old fans still go to you concerts. Isn't that a bit weird that the same people are still there?
Well, Lise, the thing is that they bring their children now! And many of them still remember certain things from when we toured here a lot in the seventies, they still remember so many things about it, the records and so on which is wonderful.
Maybe the fans sometimes remember more than the band?
Oh, yeah! They can pick you up and tell you things that no way I would ever remember, things about quotes and even articles from that period; you said this and you said that, do you still stand by that? And I don't even remember saying it! [laughs hard] But they remember these things. A funny thing was that at a concert, it must have been a few years ago, and there was this fan from the seventies and he was with his daughter and we met them in the street and he said, do you know who this is? And she says, no. And he says, that's the drummer with Slade. Do you remember them? You know Slade. She goes, Oh, didn't they sing about Christmas? [laughs] Of all the hit records we've had people remembers that. But that's the one, I mean, the Christmas record obviously appeals to every age group, so there's no way you can like ignore that particular record. You can forget all the hit records but people always remember Merry Xmas. Especially when we tour at Christmas time, when the contracts are made for the shows, there's always a clause that says they must finish the show with Merry Xmas. We would do that anyway, 'coz once you play that song you can't play anything else. You can't follow it with anything else. So we have to finish with that one. Which is wonderful.
And I think it's fun at a Slade concert when you look out at the audience these days you see all these 45 and up.
I know, I know! And it's great because a lot of these people said to me, I've just totally relived my youth! And like I said, they have their children with them and the children are embarrassed by their parents! [laughs]

About the anniversary should we say some more?
Well, there are also talks about us doing on-off things coming up, big shows in England that we may be asked to appear on because of the 40es anniversary.
It's a bit amazing that you're still here after 40 years, because not many bands are.
It IS amazing. I always quote that I said, when we first started having hit records, and people asked, how long do you think you'll go on for now?, I said, well, I'll give it five years [laughs] and here we are, we are still carrying on. But I've always said that as soon as I stop enjoying it, I WILL finish. I'm not gonna go on stage just for the money or for whatever, I'd rather stop myself personally as soon as I stop enjoying it. I've met so many bands over the years that don't want to go on stage! [Don sounds baffled] When they are doing a concert; oh, I wish I was at home watching TV and they MEAN it!! It's not just a silly quote! And I said, well, how can you DO it then? You know, you can't just go on stage as a robot and go through the motions of doing something.
I think that one of the reasons why people keep hoping for a reunion is that you are one of the only bands that actually COULD do a reunion, because you're all still alive!
Yeah, and I also think we all still have the ability to do it. It WOULD be nice, it WOULD be nice and it may only take a couple of mails or phone calls, to get it in gear, to put it back together again, but I think we have to wait and see. I'm not ultimately ruling it out.
When you think about the other bands of that time…they are not there anymore.
No, I know. It's amazing how many of them are dead. You don't realise it. Be it just natural causes or brought on by themselves, it is really the same. You sort of forget, you know. I think it IS wonderful that we can still go out and tour, especially now the world is such a small place these days and the borders have broken down a lot so we can go to Russia and places like in the seventies there were NO way we were ever getting there. It is SO good. I just hope the younger bands of today realise what an opportunity they have to really open their eyes to see the different cultures and different things around the world. As I've always said, it has been my education.
You're rather big in Russia and the former Eastern bloc, aren't you?
Yeah, in those countries and Russia as well they know so much more about the band than what you'd ever think, you know. And they say, why didn't you come here in the seventies? [laughs] It's obvious why we couldn't be there in the seventies. In the early seventies when we had all the big hit records we went to East Berlin to do a TV-show and I was kicked out of the TV-studio for chewing gum. That was Western decadence. I didn't know! They were shouting at me in German and pushed me out of the studio and I couldn't think what I had done wrong! And then I saw the guy who was looking after us from Polydor which we were signed to in those days, and I said; please, talk to them, I obviously did something wrong. And he said, take the chewing gum out of your mouth! It's Western decadence!

To get back to the CDs and the DVD, because as far as I know they're not going to be released in Denmark until Friday.
Oh, really? I didn't realise that!
I thought it a bit weird to release it AFTER the Christmas sales.
Yeah, I was under the impression that it was released in all the territories, Lise, but come to think of it I haven't seen it in the shops. I wondered why I hadn't seen it in the shops or seen any advertising or something like that.
I have to write a bit about the releases…well, what can we say about that? That's mainly the big hits, but on the double CD there's also some stuff, which is not just hits, some live things as well.
From the Reading Festival, or…
Yeah, I think so.
It was the Reading Festival that brought us back to focus, really, because we hadn't worked together for quite some time and Ozzy Osbourne pulled out of that particular festival, he didn't feel his band was ready and we were offered his slot of the show. Our manager at that time, Chas, said, you must take it. We said, but we haven't toured for a long time. He said, it doesn't matter. And we had like maybe 2 or 3 days rehearsal and went there and did the show and that was recorded for the BBC in England and we bought the masters of them and released like an EP as it was at the time with four tracks.
Yes, it's one of those tracks that is on the CD. I think it is Born To Be Wild.
Is it? Okay. There's one song from Reading, When I'm Dancin' I Ain't Fightin' that had a lot of radio play in England at the time when it came out.
And the DVD…that's pretty much Wall of Hits and Set of Six and some more. But there are some changes…Merry Xmas…
Yeah, it's a different version. Not the one where I'm drunk! [laughs] I think it was much more fun and I don't know why they decided to use another one there!!

There's just one thing, I have to ask you about that, that's not going to go into the Danish paper, but, when you did the Play It Loud-album you wrote a song with Jim Lea called I Remember. I've always wondered about the lyrics, because it's about a man who loses his memory.
Oh, yeah. I actually never thought of that.
And that was 3 years prior to your accident.
I never realised that! Well, that's strange…that's strange, isn't it!! I wrote the lyrics! That's spooky! I never thought of that! That's strange, that! I don't know why I wrote that. I don't remember what the inspiration was at the time when I wrote the lyrics to that one, but that is VERY weird! It IS strange. I never even THOUGHT of that. That is weird. I'd never even realised that, I'd never even given it another thought. [laughs] That IS weird.
As most writers will say, you have to be careful what you write, because sometimes those things then happen in real life.
Yeah, I must be more careful in the future about what I write! [laughs]

And then there's another thing…we just talked about that you always do Merry Xmas as the last one. But wasn't there a time when…when you went off stage it was to Singing In The Rain. Why?
I think it was Noddy Holder's choice. He's a big fan of that particular era. It's like nowadays we go on stage to the Thunderbird-theme. There's not particular reason for that. It's just a good one to go on stage to.

Right. Well...I don't know if we need some more on the B-sides…
We've always wanted to do a CD with some of the early B-sides. It WAS planned a few years ago to be called "A-sides of backsides", but it never happened. But I think the next CD will feature quite a few of the B-sides. It should get out this year, at least that's what the plan was. I like the title "A-sides of backsides" [laughs]

What else do we need…Sweet…I don't know if we need to go into that Sweet-thing again.
We can do that, Lise.
Because all the January/February concerts in Denmark are with Sweet…
Sweet will be finishing those shows. With Mal in our band and Andy in the other, it's like a marriage! We've done quite a few shows together since Mal has been in Slade and it's quite nice.
Mal could just stay on stage all evening, couldn't he?
Yes! [laughs] I never thought of that!
With Mal and then John on the violin you're approaching the original sound?
Yeah, we try to do that. What started that, Lise, was because of Mal's voice, he's leaning more towards the Noddy Holder sound. We had to change some of the keys back to the original keys, so that was when John decided to use the violin.
Yes, I wondered why he did that, because in Bilston he told me that he didn't particularly like to play the violin.
No, but it works good, though.
During the sound check in Bilston I heard him have a go at Run Runaway on the violin.
Yeah, maybe we will do that as well, try that. But even with the old band, Jim never played violin on stage during Run Runaway.
That's also why I wondered if a new CD was going to be new stuff or the old things with Mal.
It'll be all new things. There's no point in…with all that is being released… how are we going to top that? Why compete with ourselves?

2006-04-07T08:30:00.000+02:00

My favourite photo from January 11, 2006

The January-interview in use

2006-04-07T08:27:00.000+02:00

The January interview surfaced in the Danish "Birkerød Avis" on January 24, 2006. Although the editor had asked for several pics of Don and Slade, both new and old, she decided to go with the present Slade promo-photo as well as a pic of Sweet! Anyway, below you can check it all out.

2006-04-07T08:25:00.000+02:00

"Birkerød Avis", January 24, 2006

A September interview

2006-04-06T10:34:00.000+02:00

On a cloudy Tuesday in September I went over to Don's place in Danish town Silkeborg to do another interview. Don and Hanne picked me up at the station and took me to their home. We had an excellent lunch and afterwards Don and I retreated to do the interview.
This one was to be used for some on-line bios, both Danish and international, and we really got deep into the early years of Don's career up until the heydays of Slade. I have absolutely no idea how long we talked, but after several pots of camomile tea and a heavy dose of sweets, time caught up with us. Don and Hanne had invited me to the dress rehearsal of the play "Oliver T." at the Team Theatre in the town of Herning that evening, so eventually we had to stop. I was running out of tape for my Dictaphone, anyway!
We didn't do a photo-session this time, as Don provided me with some old photos of him from his childhood and early years in Slade. But Hanne swooped in from the kitchen to do some pics of Don and me talking. Thanks, Hanne!
Below you'll see the September 2005 interview in full.

2006-04-06T10:31:00.000+02:00

Don and me, Silkeborg, September 20, 2005

September 20, 2005: interview conducted at Don's place, Silkeborg, Denmark

2006-04-06T10:23:00.000+02:00

I'll need the names of your parents and the occupation of your father.
Yeah. My father's name was Walter and my mother's name was Dora. And Dad was a steelworker. He worked in a steel factory. When I was starting work, I worked about 6 months I think, I also worked in a steel work, in the laboratory of the steelwork, testing metal. You know, [Don puts on a parental voice] that's a good job for you. In "Flame" that's why I'm in the factory.

How many brothers and sisters do you have?
I have an older sister, Carol, then there's me, then I have a younger brother, Derek, and a younger sister Marilyn.

I have to mention your accident.
That's okay! That's okay, yeah.
You lost your sense of smell and taste?
Smell and taste. Yeah, that will never come back. And then there's the amnesia. That is sort of like unpredictable. It's never the same. It comes and goes. I remember one time in England I had parked my car. I had some errands, but when I got back I forgot where the car was. [laughs] And I went, Oh, no! I went around looking for it, but I couldn't find it, so there was only one thing to do. Get a cab, and then I explained the situation, and we drove around to find the car. And the strange thing was, the cab driver told me that I was only his second customer today, but the one before me, had been the same. He couldn't find his car, either! [laughs] And about the accident…the girl who died in the accident was a girl whom I had only known for a few months. She was the girlfriend of Dave Hill's sister. She was not my fiancée. It always says so, but she wasn't.
Right.

I also have to mention the Flame-movie and that bit about Lorna Doone.
Yeah, yeah. Chas Chandler financed the Flame-movie and hired Andrew Birkin and Richard Longcraine. The characters in Flame were based on us. We took the screen writer, Andrew Birkin, with us on a tour in America, so he got to know us. He was a weird fellow, used to write in church yards. [laughs]. He was always into like the supernatural. Fantastic things. But he based the characters on us. As I had once worked in a steelwork, and in "Flame" that's why I'm in the factory. We never got any money from it. Chas said, that once the original investment had been covered we would split the profits. But we never saw any of it! [laughs hard].
Wasn't it difficult for you making Flame with your amnesia and all?
No. Because they had stops all the time. Do one line and then stop. Also in the long scene where I talk to the boss from the factory. Just did a few lines, then they stopped to change the camera angles and then a few lines more. There was also a book out, "Slade in Flame" by John Pidgeon.
That is really good.
Yeah. It was made after the film, but if it had been made before, we would have used it. The story line is better and there are more depths to the characters. It was closer to us as we had been in the early years. In the book I'm teamed up with Jim. In the early years Jim and I spent a lot of time together.
When Flame came out in America…we were actually quite big in the Midwestern States of America, concert-wise. But when Flame came out they couldn't understand what we were saying. [Don laughs hard] They talked about subtitling it! [Don can't stop laughing] And I remember…it was before we were anything, we were booked to play at the Eastnor Castle in Heresford. It was at a film-wrap party of a film with Sammy Davis Jr. and Jerry Lewis. And we got there and played and afterwards some of the silverware was missing. I think it was both silverware and expensive artworks that were missing. And of course we got the blame. But we said, "No, we haven't got it." We were innocent. Years later when we were doing the Flame-film we met some of the film crew again, and they admitted that they were the ones who had taken it! But back then it was like, blame it on the band! [Don laughs]

Some story! Well, I have to mention that you have written some of the lyrics for Slade.
Yeah, on some of the old things. I did the lyrics to Look Wot You Dun and lots of the B-sides.

Then we have to have a description of your style of playing.
Basically I am a rock drummer. With lots of influence from Ringo Starr. And John Bonham from Led Zeppelin.

You have any hobbies?
Not really. Just music basically. In the sense I buy records. CDs and things. Although the Eagles are my favourite band my taste in music is very wide. I buy a lot of CDs. And I also have them given to me when I am lucky. One time when we did an American tour and Tower Records in Los Angeles, this enormous like warehouse, they said, you can help yourself to records. [laughs] And we said, are you sure? It was like a big factory full of records. It was pre-CD days, so it was records. I think I probably got 75 or 100 albums. It felt a bit strange just walking in there, but apparently Led Zeppelin, they took a big lorry down there and took EVERY record, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of albums. And after that it stopped. But at Tower Records they'd said, go help yourself and they did. [laughs]

Well, we've been through that with the boy scouts
Yeah.
But then somehow you got from the boy scouts to playing in a band.
I finished playing with the boy scouts and I didn't own any drums but I still wanted to play drums. And I was just a member of this youth club and I was playing table tennis when these two guys came into the youth club, and it was Johnny Howells and Mick Marson. Johnny was a singer and he played guitar and Mick was a guitarist as well. They'd heard that I played drums and I wanted to get into a band, so they came down just to introduce themselves and ask me if I would like, you know, to play drums with them. And I said that I would love to but I don't have any drums of my own. I knew a school friend, Dave Boadley was his name, and he had a set of drums. I just went to ask him one day if I could borrow them and he said, yeah, just take them, I'm not using them. I used those drums about 18 months, I think, 1½ years I used those drums, because he never asked for them back [laughs]. We were playing like weddings, youth club dances, the occasional sort of small pub. We didn't get paid, it was just a hobby to us.
I remember one time they asked us to…this be a local cinema and Saturday mornings was like the kids' programme and before then they used to have either a singer or a duo or someone like play on the stage of the cinema before they started the cartoons and all the films for the young kids, and they asked us to play one Saturday morning. I remember when we met Johnny that day, he'd seen the people at the cinema, and they said they were gonna pay us. I said, PAY us?? [Don sounds surprised, then laughs] We get PAID for doing this??? Oh, yeah, we're getting, I think it was £ 5. The cinema was only just around the corner so we could carry our equipment from Johnny's house to the cinema. [laughs] We got paid £ 5, that was like…I think we had £1 each and put £ 2 into…because we used to rehears at Johnny's house because his father had like a small bed & breakfast-place. There used to be an old repertoire theatre near there and the actors who were doing plays or whatever they would stay there, like a bed & breakfast. And we used to sort of rehears there and we used the extra £ 2 to pay Johnny's father for the teas and the milk and the sugar and the biscuits. So we had £ 1 each and that was amazing that we got paid to doing it.

How old were you then?
Sixteen. And we had stage-names. Johnny Travelle and The Travellers was a stage name. The first band was The Vendors. That was Johnny, Mick and myself and we became the 'N Betweens after that. We were still The Vendors when we were playing a pub room somewhere once when this guy came up. His name was Chalkie White, his name was. He really liked us and he said, maybe you need a lead guitarist. He knew Dave Hill and that's how the introduction came. We were rehearsing in Johnny's father's house in the front room. It wasn't THAT big, but the toilet joined the main lounge. So we put the drums in the toilet and then Mick would be off the corner somewhere and Johnny would be off the other corner so we used to shout to each other [laughs] what we'd gonna play and that was when we first met Dave Hill. This Chalkie White bought Dave Hill down and he was looking for a band as well. We just played together and it was the first time I'd seen anyone actually play like Chuck Berry chords. And he played that. At that particular time we were only playing other peoples songs, the pop tunes of the time, really, the Top 20 of the time, things like that. When Dave joined us we started to play a few more like Chuck Berry-song. He knew that kind of thing. That was his style. From then on we played like pubs, that was all there was at the time, and working men's clubs and youth clubs and things like that.

Dave Hill joined in what? 1963?
Yeah, 1963.
And…then what?
We just carried on playing…and, that's right; we were after a bass player then. We had a guy named Bill Diffy, he was with us for a short time. We also had jobs at the time, and he didn't think that the group was making any money. He was going to get married also so he wanted to settle down. He left. Then we got recommended this guy named Dave Jones. We used to call him "Cass". I don't know why [laughs]. You never know with these things. It just happened. And he was a really good bass player. We were just playing like youth clubs and working men's clubs and ballrooms at the time and strangely enough Noddy Holder's band… The youth club we used to play on Thursday evenings and they always talked about this other band called The Rocking Phantoms and that was Noddy Holder's band. They used to play there as well and we used to go and see them. They used to come watch us play. We started playing all the pubs and clubs together, and then they started backing a cabaret singer, Steve Brett. In those days we were to spend a month in Germany. We were booked to do this club in Dortmund for a month and for that we were getting 140 kroner [£ 14] a week each. That was in 1965. So 140 kroner a week each and somewhere to stay. And that was in Dortmund and Noddy Holder's band, Steve Brett & The Mavericks, they were going to Frankfurt for a month. And we went in those old vans we used to travel in and we drove down to Dover and Noddy Holder and Steve Brett & The Mavericks were on the same ferry. And we just talked. We used to seeing Nod all the time and all the rest of the members as well. So they went to Frankfurt.
Those particular gigs or bookings would either make or break a band, you know. That was in 1965 and we all stayed in one room in Dortmund and basically we started to fall apart after that. Dave Jones, like "Cass", he'd met a girl and her father got a successful fruit and vegetable business so he could see that was where he was gonna go. And he is still there actually. [laughs] He is still there doing that. Well, he was leaving. And it was like…Dave and myself were getting a bit disillusioned anyway. And I remember saying to Dave, do you remember that guy, you know, Noddy Holder? I wonder what he's doing now? He wasn't the lead singer at the time in his band. Steve Brett was the main singer and Nod used to do maybe one or two songs before the start of their show, sort of like warm-up things. In the meantime when Cass Jones left we were starting to audition for a bass player, Dave and myself, in view of forming a band with Nod, you know. And that's how it happened that we found Jim Lea. Then we told him what we were going to do and he was a bit disappointed at first because he really liked Johnny Howells, the blues, we were playing blues-things then. And he really liked the old band, so he was a bit disappointed at first. We were still the 'N Betweens, the 'N Betweens were still together and then we approached Nod. His band was breaking up as well. He was disillusioned, so we said do you fancy to try it, we'd like just a four-piece band. And he said yes. It was almost like in secret. Johnny and Mick didn't know. Dave and myself got our equipment together in the van. Dave Hill was the only driver at that time, he used to drive the van. So we picked Jimmy Lea up and went down for Noddy Holder. There was a pub about 100 m from Nod's house where we always used to play as a band. We knew the guy there and he said we could rehears there that afternoon. So it was like a secret rehearsal we had to do. [laughs] Just to see if it would work. The first song…we had to try to think of a song that Nod's band played and that our band played so we didn't have to go around trying to learn new songs…and the first song we ever played together was "Mr. Pityful" by Otis Redding because both bands used to play that song. And it worked! [Don sounds surprised, then laughs] Straight away it worked! Then we were all like young kids, like laughing and giggling because it was working, and then we just leapt into other things, you know, sort of like soul-things and some Tamla-Motown things and it worked!
Then Nod joined the band but the bookings we already had at the time, our agent said, well, you can only do this bookings with Johnny Howells, they like Johnny Howells as a singer, so you need to do those bookings with him. In those days in England in the holiday resorts we used to play there at a ballroom or a club for the week, every night for a week. And we had to play this club in Torquay called the 400 Club. And we used to stay in a tiny caravan because it was cheap for the week. It used to cost 150 kroner [£15] for the week this caravan, perfect. And we were playing in this club and one night Johnny didn't want to play. He asked us if we could do it on our own because he had met this girl and he wanted to take her out that night on a date. And we said, yeah, we'll try it. That was the FIRST time that we could play together just the four of us. And it went FAN-TASTIC! We were in such high spirits. [laughs] Such high. As we drove back to the caravan we said, but we'd better be careful when we get back with Johnny because of the high spirits. He is not going to be very happy. It got even worse when we got to the caravan because the girl he was seeing that night didn't turn up. [laughs] So he'd spent that night in the caravan on his own. And we were all in jubilation because it went so good. [laughs] It was only a few months after that, that Johnny decided to leave. We were going into more Tamla-Motown things then and he wasn't particularly happy with the material, the way we wanted to go with the material, so he left. He was getting heavy into the soul-scene then, so he left and joined a soul band. But that meant that we could sort of carry on the four of us. That was what we wanted, just a four-piece group. And we rehearsed just like CRAZY, you know, for months and months. Because in those days Nod and Dave used to play guitars - Nod was a lead guitarist in his band - and they used to play lead guitar together, play like twin lead guitar, things like that. And then we started learning a lot of Tamla-Motown stuff and arranging them just for us, really. The three guys, like Noddy Holder, Dave Hill and Jim Lea, they all sang, you know. Noddy Holder was the lead singer, but they all sang, and we said, we just got to have a few weeks to work it out on our own.
Then this other offer came up for us to go to Germany again, just the four of us. That would be GREAT, then we can get our ACT together, so to speak, you know. So we got booked to go to Kiel in Germany. A big old cinema called Star Palast. The manager there, I always remember his name, he was a guy named Manfred Woitalla, his name was. I remember him. He was a real GANG-ster! In those days we got 170 kroner [£ 17] a week each and accommodation found. This club we were playing, or ballroom, it wasn't a club really, was a big old cinema that had been converted and our accommodation was, like…the old cinemas in those days had the big stairways round the side of the cinema and there was a landing. We had a camp bed on four landings, that was our accommodation for the month! And then we could get cleaned up in the club's sort of toilets and things like that. But he HATED us! Manfred Woitalla he HATED us! What are you doing, he said, you're playing too loud, he didn't like the material we were playing. Because in those days if you did that kind of booking you had to play the Top 20 material, but we weren't playing that. We were playing old Tamla-Motown stuff and certain soul-thing of the time. He HATED us. He used to stand down the front, shouting at us [laughs] and throwing his keys on the floor and things like that. We didn't have any money at the time and nowhere to crash as we had to wait and every night he made us finish after the first 45 minutes because he didn't like us. But the top of the bill at that particular club was a group called Paul Raven and The Boston Showband - Gary Glitter! [laughs]. And he used to take us out for a coffee and they had proper living quarters. And he used to buy us coffee and cake and things like that because we had no money. The manager of this club he wouldn't pay us, he wouldn't give us any money, so we said, well, what do we do? We're not gonna stay. And he was a real GANGSTER apparently. It wasn't our equipment we were using, it was borrowed equipment. We used the equipment from the club other than guitars, so we just left one night. Manfred Woitalla's children used to play in the club during the day with toy bows and arrows so Noddy Holder got an arrow off one of the children and pushed it through the speaker cabinets of all the speakers before we left. We got in our van and were going back to England. We were really worried, you know, in case they'd sent someone after us. We had it all TIMED just right to get to the ferry at Ostende, I think it was, and when we got there the ferry was just leaving. [laughs] And we were going, No-no-no-no! And then they brought the ferry back! The ferry came back! It was only a few meters out and they brought it back. And we all went, thank GOD! [laughs] And we were like terrified in case anybody came after us. And that was it. Then we just started to rehears back in England again, playing bars and pubs and clubs and things like that. That was what we did all around the country until 1968.
The agency we were with in Wolverhampton was called the Astra Agency. All the bands used to get there Friday morning for their money. It was always like this: we would play a pub but the pub would send the money to the agency, so the bands would have to go to the agency every Friday morning to get the money, sort of thing. If it was THERE, you know! We used to queue up and then one time one day they called us to the office and said, we've had this letter from this guy in the Bahamas who used to come and watch you at the St. Charles Youth Club where we used to rehears and play. He used to be a member there and he used to come and watch you there, but now he is on the Bahamas. Now the Bahamas might have been the moon as far as we were concerned, you know. The Bahamas?? It was something you saw in a film or something like that in those days. They said, he's got contacts there and you can play in a club over there for 8 weeks. And they will fly you out there - we sat with open mouths - they'll fly you there and they'll pay you $ 100 a week each and your accommodation and food is included. [Don whispers:] What!! This is like, you know, this is it! We struck it, we made it, you know. [laughs] I mean, none of us had ever been on a plane before, nothing like that, and we flew out on a Sunday. I remember it was May the 18th 1968. My sister's birthday is May the 23rd so I was a bit disappointed because I would miss her birthday.
May the 18th we flew out there and it was a Sunday. And we played a pub called The Ship and Rainbow on Sunday night in Wolverhampton and then…because we only had our old van there and we can't leave that at Heathrow for about 8 weeks so we got a friend to drive us down. We were all excited. We were all dressed up, like shirt, tie, jacket, trousers on and then we just had the small box amplifiers and the drums. And he drove us down to Heathrow, we left far too early so we drove over night and everything was checked in and we had our tickets. And we didn't have to pay any access because of the small equipment we had then was within the allowance sort of thing, anyway, so it was okay. And of course it was just like, to us it was like something you only saw on TV. And we flew, you know, it was an 8 or 9 hours long flight, I think, to the Bahamas, stopping off on Bermuda. And it was like, [whispers:] what!! Bermuda! [laughs] I remember getting off the plane in Bermuda, I remember the door, walking out, and I jumped back in, I thought the engines were still on of the jet with the heat. I didn't realise it. Of course we had all those coats and ties on, so… [Don laughs and pretends to strip off his clothes]. We took the jackets off and we thought, we haven't even got there, yet! And this is like Paradise in the airport in Bermuda!
And then we flew another 3 or 4 hours, or maybe not that long, but something like that on to the Bahamas, it was just like…. I remember flying, we flew to Nassau, the capitol and then flying there was just like…we were just looking out the window and seeing all these THINGS down below us. And we landed in Nassau, and the guy who had arranged it, Ken, he was there to meet us. And then we got on one of these planes, all inter-island planes every hour. It's like a bus route, really. We got on this plane and on to the island, the Grand Bahama Island, where WE were staying. And we had never seen anything like it. You know, sort of like the heat and just like…it was just like Paradise. And go to a hotel - we had never been to a hotel before, we couldn't understand it. We had 2 twin rooms, adjoining rooms, and we just got a bed each. We never had that before, we never had a bed each before. [laughs]. And the window, there was like a big, French double window looking out over this big lagoon like, it was part of the ocean, that kind of thing. It was like, it was just these four blokes, like scumbags from Wolverhampton, here we are sitting on the Bahamas! [laughs] On this luxurious island in a hotel!
Then Ken said, you don't have to start for the next couple of days and he took us out to dinner that night, and it was like…I couldn't understand it, it was even warm at night! [laughs] In England it was always cold at night. And I remember seeing the electrical storms and the lightning. [Don's voice gets baffled] and I had never seen that. I kept on waiting for the thunder to bang. And I said, [Don's voice sounds uncomprehending] how come there is no thunder? He said, these are just electrical storms. We didn't know anything about that. And he took us all round and showed us the different places. It was incredible. Then he said, tomorrow we'll take the equipment down and I'll show you the club.
We got in his car and we sort of drove out of there and as it happened we went into the jungle. [laughs] And we got to this club and it was like sort of cockroaches all over the walls and everything like that, but we still had a great time. We thought it was fantastic. There were only black people in the club and we set up and everything and met everyone at the club. Then we started. There were only a few black people in and a few American school kids, but they had to leave at 10 o'clock because of the curfew. It was strange at first, I mean, sort of…it was okay playing to the kids, but when the kids left at 10 o'clock we just played to the black Bahamans. They liked us because we were playing soul music and they had never heard like white kids play soul music before. I don't know what it was like, but it was their kind of music. And they could make fun of us and things like that, but it was just a top experience.
First night we went back to the hotel and then we had room service and we never even knew what room service was. [Don starts a conversation of his own:] Room service? What's that? Just call up to the caterer and get some food send. You mean they bring it TO you? You don't have to go and get it? No, no, they'll bring it TO you. [laughs] And then Ken just signed the bill for it. I said, aren't you gonna PAY for it? I already have. But, you…[Don's sighs uncomprehendingly]. Just sign on the bill, you don't give them any money. We couldn't get that together!
We played for the first week and then Ken said, well, not so many people are going to the club so they haven't made that much money so can only give you a few dollars each. It doesn't matter. We've got the hotel and we can eat there, we're being looked after, so we didn't mind. A couple of weeks went on and it got to be the same like that. They weren't making any money. We still didn't care, we had a FANTASTIC time, by the swimming pool, on the beach every day and just having a great time playing at night. It went on like that week after week. They'd give us a few dollars some weeks when they could make a bit of money. But the club was in the black part of the island, so the white kids had to leave at 10 o'clock so it was just he black Bahamans there, ten or twelve in this club every night.
And after 6 weeks…we had 2 weeks left before we went back to England…the hotel manager sent for us. We were all asleep in the bed when the phone rang. Who's that? Hotel manager. I need to see you in my office straight away. His name was Dan Darrow. I put the phone down and Nod said, who was that? The hotel manager. He wants to see us straight away. Aarh…we're still asleep. We'll pop down later. Yeah, back to sleep. Half an hour later the phone rang again, I NEED TO SEE YOU STRAIGHT AWAY! Well, [Don sighs resignedly] we'd better go and see what he wants. So we just put our swimming shorts on and T-shirts and go down there and sit in his office. And he was all like very smart with a suit and everything and we said, what's wrong? And he said, you've been here for 6 weeks now, living like kings, when am I going to get some money? And we just said, well, it's all been paid for by the club we play. Ken said that they are paying the bill. He listened to that and made a phone call and this guy came in with all his paper work and looking through it he says, that wasn't the deal. As far as I knew you were here for 2 weeks, which they were paying for and then it is all down to you. I go, what!! You know, explain that again [laughs] And he explained and said, I know you can play guitars. We explained the situation. We were going to get $ 100 a week each and they would pay for the hotel and food. I'm sorry, he said, that's not what I got down here. And he said, you've been here for 6 weeks now, living like kings, room service and things like that, everything had been signed to the rooms. And we said, well…we got a bit worried…well, what's the bill? What do we owe? Because we had nothing. All we had was the return tickets back home. What do we owe? And he checked up and it was $ 35,000 [laughs hard] It was 1968! [laughs] And we just went into hysterics. We just couldn't believe it. [Don can't stop laughing] We just went into hysterics. He said, it's not funny! You can't stay here anymore, either. [Don's voice gets timid] Where are we gonna go? He said, I'm moving you out to one of our staff apartments and you'll live there. And we said [timid voice] What's…what's happening with us? What's going on? He said, I'll tell you now. I've been over at the club. It has just been bought by some Americans, two American guys from Miami. Yeah? We didn't knew nothing about it. And he said, they are willing to pay you $ 100 a week between you which I will take 75 of to help pay this bill off. You'll have 25. You'll move into the staff apartment and you will not leave until this bill has been paid off. I thought, we are never going to get home.
There was nothing we could do. We moved into this apartment, it was probably about…it was not as big as this living room and we had like four camp beds and it had a separate bath and toilet and a small kitchen in the corner and that was it. And like every Friday night when the hotel guys used to come down they'd take $ 75 of our $ 100, leaving $ 25 and that was it. But the American kids used to help us out with food and pay for things and drive us everywhere and things like that. We had been booked for 8 weeks and when we had been there for nearly 8 weeks we thought, the thing is our tickets were charted things. These tickets were only valid until the end of August. The last flight was like in the last week in August, something like that. We got to go back. [Don whispers] What are we going to do? And we got no money, either. At least we had our return tickets, but we had to save money to pay for over access baggage and our equipment, so we just played there.
It was like every day like 8 hours a night, and every weekend the owner would bring American acts over from Miami, which we used to back and things like that. Fire dancers, female impersonators, soul singers and things like that. [laughs] So we had to rehears with them and play with them like Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The fire dancer only wanted drums so I used to play just jungle music for him on the drums. And the soul singers, when they came over they used to have a bass player and a guitarist, but they never had a drummer. So I was engaged with them. I used to go down every Friday afternoon to rehears with them. I never got any money for it apart from the deal. And it was strange in those days, everyone went, do you know my hit record? And they all had the same hit record. It was a song called Hitch It To The Horse. I'll just sit there and wait for them like totally despondent and they'd come and get introduced to me, do you know my hit record? I said, Hitch It To The Horse? How do you know that? [laughs] And I was to play with them, but the thing was with the fire dancer… He had this big pole of fire and it was only a tiny stage and he used to dance around sort of limbo dancing with this thing and I learned to duck [Don ducks for the imaginary pole of fire]. You can't work with these kinds of things. [laughs]. And I used to be on stage from 8 o'clock until 4 o'clock in the morning without a break and then I'll be asleep on my drums [Don leans forward, pretending to be asleep over the drums] and I'd hear the guys: Come out, come on, that's it now! [Don sighs] Okay!
We had a GREAT time. We were 4 young kids on the Bahamas. You can imagine. We didn't care that there wasn't any money because all the drinks were being paid for by people in the club who sent us drinks, things like that. The kids used to get us food, things like that. That was okay.
Near the end when we realised we had 2 weeks left before our tickets finished - we'd just about saved enough money to get our equipment back, but [Don whispers] how were we to get it out of the club? They'll kill us. They'll murder us. They'll shoot us. You know, what I mean. What are we gonna do? [Don's voice returns to normal] And it was just a PURE stroke of luck that the managing guy who had taken over said, this weekend after you have finished playing on Sunday I want ALL your equipment OUT of the club. We are closing the club for a week and we are gonna redecorate. I said, I don't believe it! We got our equipment out and we took that straight down to the airport, paid, on the plane, back to England. That went a week before we did. We had a week left because the club was closed.
The following weekend was our last flight that we could get back. That was all checked in, all done and we had a week. We just had a party for a week with the kids. What a party. And we flew out on a Sunday and on the Friday and Saturday we said to them, now listen, we've got to skip the island on Sunday so we are gonna say all our goodbyes this weekend. We can't see you on Sunday. We have to go to the airport. They all came to the airport Sunday morning to see us off and we said, No! No-no! [laughs] No one knew we are leaving! We had to time it. Our flight from Freeport to Nassau where the flight for England was, we had to time it. The plane we got to Nassau it gave us just the minimum time to check us on the plane to England and then go on. So we timed it just right, and we saw all those kids and said, No! Go away! Go away! And we said goodbye and got on the plane and we got to Nassau to find that the plane for England had been delayed for about 6 hours. And we said, They're gonna know. They're gonna come after us. What are we gonna do? We were scared. We were really scared. So what we did was that for 6 hours we went to 4 different parts of the airport and hid like on settees and lay down [Don ducks down sideways in his armchair] so no one could see us. And that was the LONGEST 6 hours I have ever spent! We couldn't find each other, we just hid and we had strange looks from people going by us and that kind of thing. And I remember looking out and seeing our plane, it was night time then, coming in from England and we RAN! We had already checked in. We RAN and got on that plane. And that was it. We got off the island. But it was strange flying over it. We had been there for almost 3½ months and looking down and think…god, we'll never see this place again. This is a place…it is like, to us, like Paradise…like the other side of the world, and we will never see it again. It had been the most amazing experience that 4 kids have ever had.
We got back and we had letters for about 2 months from the hotel after the money. We obviously…when we checked in the hotel we put our addresses in the registration, we didn't think, we were truthful, we put our own addresses, and we had LETTERS for MONTHS. We still had $ 22,000 or 23,000 that we owed them and that was it.
On the plane on the way back we were all still positive when we thought, well this is it now. We've had our hardship. We're gonna make it now. We're gonna work our DAMNEDEST to make it. The agency at the time - there were no phones, well, there were phones, but we couldn't afford phones, to telephone to England from the Bahamas, and we used to write to our agency saying we're stuck here we can't get back, you know, we're helpless. We NEVER got a reply. And when we got back we went to see them and they had the NERVE, the cheek, to ask us for their commission from the months in the Bahamas and we said, WHAT!! You left us there, you never even offered to help, you know, and we said, we're leaving you. We're not staying with you anymore, we're leaving. And they said, you can't, you're under contract. And we said, we're not. Because we weren't. Because when they originally formed they didn't particularly like us anyway but they signed all the other bands. They never even signed us. They used to get us, it was pure a mistake on their part, but we never said anything. Keep that one quiet. They still used to get us work which we paid them the commission for obviously, but they never had a contract with us. And then when we said, we're leaving and they said, you can't, we have a contract, we said, no you don't. Yes, we do. So will you find it? They said, no, we can't just find it like that. We said, we'll come back next week. And we walked in, where's the contract? And they hadn't got one. Everything went PERFECT, and we walked away from them. And then we worked with this other agency in Wolverhampton as well which a policeman and his wife used to run. It was in his wife's name, because he, Andy, Andy Anderson, was a policeman so he couldn't have his name to things like that so it was all in his wife's name and we used to work for them. We basically did the same gigs in Wolverhampton, you know the pubs and clubs and things. It was just a different agency. Then they got this recording audition for us at Fontana records. Oh no, I missed the Kim Fowley bit out, haven't I?
Yeah.
That was back in '66, that was when we first… You want me to go back to that?
Yeah, you can do that.

Yes, because they got us this club in London called Tiles. That was in '66. And because we were still a youth club band then, all the youth club members they'd rented a coach to come down see us play. And we didn't know. We played this club in Oxford Street, I think it was. It's not there anymore, but it was like an old club in Oxford Street. And we didn't know there was this guy in the audience called Kim Fowley who was like part of the Hollywood Argyles, The Alley Youth, those things, even Napoleon XIV. He did "They're coming to take me away", you know. That was him. And he's like [Don opens his arms wide] that much taller than me and like so skinny and he came in, You guys are gonna be famous. And we go, who's this freak? He introduces himself as Kim Fowley. Stick with me. You're gonna be stars. [Don sighs disillusioned] Okay, Kim. I'll make a record with you. It could be a massive record. Okay, Kim. We'd heard all this before. Okay, Kim. And he actually, he was with this agency that contacted Andy Anderson and we went down to make this record. We were still at Astra at the time. We went down to make this record with him in this tiny studio, it was a real dump. We didn't really write our own things then and he said, well, what are some of your favourite things that you play on stage and we really liked a song called You Better Run by The Young Rascals. So we recorded that with him. He was MAD. Because he said, We'll do it as a fade-out. So when you finish the song, just keep on playing and then you'll give me time to pull it back. He never did that! If you listen to the record it just falls apart in the end. He never faded it down. You never thought that was the ending. And it would just fall apart. And he said, now we'll write a B-side together. We'd never written before. He said, what's one of the songs that you like playing on stage? There was a song called "I Take What I Want" by The Artwoods. He said, okay then, we'll just put new lyrics to it. And we did that and we called it "Evil Witchman". And we just did that and we went, can we call it that? Yes, as long as it is the B-side it is normal. And we just did it! And it was released on December the 2nd 1966, that was, and that was the end of it.
Then we were with Andy Anderson and Nita and they got us this recording audition at Philips studios in London and we went down and the head of the company was a guy named Jack Baverstock. He said, let me hear some of the things that you play, you know. We said, well, like what? He said, would you want your old things? We said, no. He said, let me hear some of the things you play on stage. We played him some of the things and he really liked it. We'll make an album. What? Making an album? And there was only us in the studio with an engineer called Roger Wake, and we did just this album. And it was all the stuff that we did on stage. If you listen to that album there's Born To Be Wild, and like Martha My Dear by the Beatles, you know the tracks, that was all of our stage show of the time. And there was the one song that Jim and Nod wrote called Pity The Mother with Jim on the violin. That was the first attempt to write. And all the rest of the songs we just used to mess around with in the studio.
Then Jack Baverstock he said - he really liked us - he said, you need London management. We said, but we don't know anyone. He said, oh, I'll put the feelers out, I'll see if I can find out who's around. And we were recording one day and Chas Chandler came in. I saw him through the control window and I was like mouthing to the others: [Don forms the words CHAS CHANDLER! with his mouth] That's the guy who FOUND Jimi Hendrix and he was with The Animals! He was like, you know, a real hero and he liked us. He sat for us in his office one time and we said, well, we're signed to this agency up in Wolverhampton, Nita and Andy Anderson, their agency. He took details and he invited them down. That was it. Then they came back and we had this meeting with Nita and Andy and they said, well, we met Chas Chandler and John Gunnel, his partner of the time, and then we have decided that it is best if you go with them. We said, WHAT? They said, No, but they got more to offer, you know, that kind of thing. We didn't know that Chas and John had paid them £ 500 for our contract! [Don laughs hard] We didn't know, because they said to us, did you ever get a share of that money we paid? What money? £ 500! By today's standards that means nothing, but in those days that was a lot of money. And then what Chas did, he said, because he was like a record producer, he says, well, I've done my credits to Fontana, the record company you are with, so I'll make you a deal with them. I want to move you to Polydor. I know the people of Polydor. So the record, "Beginnings", came out on Fontana, but that was the only thing. I think he bought the contract from them, bought us out of the Fontana contract, and then he took us to Polydor.
We did a few things with Chas but nothing was happening, you know, really nothing was happening. Then him and John sent for us once and we went down. They said, we want you to become skinheads. Because that was just starting in England. We said, no way! It took me SO long to grow my hair, NO WAY! We were all dressed all trendy and things like that. But he said, well, why don't you go and have a cup of coffee and a think about it because I think that is what you need. And we did think, and we thought, well, we were a bit scared, we thought, if we say no he probably don't want to manage us anymore. And now we had finally FOUND someone who is a proper manager. So we agreed. We agreed to do it. [Don whispers] Oh, god! We had all our hair cut off and that kind of thing, and wore these things. From hair down to here one day [Don point to his waist] to like nothing. And it was like…people couldn't believe what we had done around Wolverhampton. We were dressed in like the jeans and the boots and all that kind of thing and we got NO work whatsoever. Everyone was scared to book us. They thought they were going to have problems at their bars or clubs. The skinhead-thing had just taken off in England. I remember one time there was a chap that appeared at the Top of The Pops, but that was finished because the producer's son had been beaten up by skinheads. So that was gone, you know. We tried and we got LOADS of publicity from it and that was what Chas wanted to do. And after that we started to…there is some old footage of us, we haven't got hair any of us, playing on some TV-shows without any hair and Jim on violin, it seemed so…ABSTRACT! [laughs].
Then we started to grow our hair a little bit then, it was still short, and then we had Get Down And Get With It, no…it was… Wild Winds Are Blowing, Know Who You Are…and Get Down And Get With. It was just a stage-song of ours. We used to finish with it and then Chas said, that is going to be your next single. It goes down SO well on stage, that's gonna be your next single. [Don's voice sounds surprised] That's a GREAT idea! We never even thought of that. We recorded it. In those days you only got on Top of The Pops if your record was in the Top 30. They had the occasional guest spot on, a new release or something like that, but you had to be quite successful to get that thing. We couldn't get Top of The Pops unless it was a Top 30 and it went to the charts in the 40es, I think, and it crept up to 32. We thought [Don whisper] NEXT week! We're gonna get it on the Top of The Pops. Next week it was 32 again [laughs]. I thought, no, it is never gonna do it now. And Chas said, well, you'll get in the Top 30 next week. The following week it was 28. So we were on Top of The Pops and we went up to No. 16, I think, eventually. And that was the start.
Chas always kept on about writing our own things and then Nod and Jim came up with 'Coz I Luv You. With 'Coz I Luv You, I think it only took them a few minutes to write it. Nod was always a big Stephane Grappelli-fan and because of Jim playing violin as well. Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt. They used to play around in the dressing room. And that was it. Then the roads were closed for going back. It's just incredible.
Yeah, I guess the rest is history.
It is! I remember when we made the Slade Alive! album. It was actually made in a studio in Picadilly, but it was built as a theatre. We gave three concerts there and the audience was from the fanclub. I think there was 300 per night, but all the material that went to the album was recorded on the second night. All of it.
You had quite a following…
We had this football following. It was strange because none of us were into football. I remember once I was invited to a match and I sat there reading a drum magazine among all those football fans. Then I realised I'd better put the magazine down before they got angry with me!

As the only member of Slade you moved away from Wolverhampton, didn't you?
I moved to London and I lived there for like 10 years. I never thought I would move away from there.
And you came to travel the world…
Yeah, Europe, America, Asia, Australia…In Australia everything was so vast. I remember playing arenas in the middle of nowhere. There was nothing around for hundreds of miles, nothing, and then out there, there would be an arena! [Don sounds surprised]. People travelled from all over the place to get there and see us and there was just not anything around, no towns or anything.
I remember a place in Australia, it was a like a café where truck drivers used to stop. It was situated in the middle of nowhere with hundreds of kilometres to the nearest neighbour. It was run by two sisters, two elderly women, and I remember thinking what if anything happens? What would they do with no one around within reach? When we stopped there we were the first people they had seen for three weeks! And they were so happy to see us.[laughs]. They'd do anything for us. We just had to ask and we'd get it.

I don't think we have the time to go into your hits, but…MXE was the biggest…
Yeah, I remember we did a performance of Merry Xmas on a TV-show in the 1980's. We got there early and they had a bar in the studio. And we had to wait and wait to get on, so we had a drink and one more. We were there for maybe 2 hours or more and when we were finally on, we were just so drunk! Have you seen that video?
Oh, yes! It's hilarious!
We went totally mad, especially me on the drums. It was great! That was in my drinking days. Those were the days! [Don laughs hard].

Well, you had a lot of hits and was very successful, you did Flame and went to the States and then what?
We couldn't get airplay in the States. We were big in St. Louis, Philadelphia and to a lesser degree New York. Generally the East Cost and the Midwestern States liked us, but we couldn't get any airplay. When the Warner Brothers contract expired we went back to UK to record Whatever Happened, but, you know, punk had emerged and we were regarded…you know, old. We went back to playing like small venues. We kept on touring but we were not that big anymore. At one point we had almost stopped playing together. I think we hadn't seen each other for about six weeks or so. Then we were suddenly asked to play the Reading Festival in 1980. Ozzy Osbourne was to play there, but he pulled out so we were asked to play instead of him. And we arrived with our instruments, we weren't even billed, and we went on stage and did it. Shortly after Reading we parted with Chas and started producing our own records.
But I WILL say that Chas had so much faith in us although a lot of people, you know, were sort of saying… I remember that one publicist, Keith Altham, he was our publicist once, he did actually say to Chas, they are never going to become successful. I feel I'm taking your money off you. Forget the publicity. It's not working. I think you should take the account to somewhere else. He actually said, it is the WORST mistake I ever made. [Don laughs hard].

Then you finally made it in America?
Yeah, we did "My Oh My" and "Run Runaway", but in America they released "Run Runaway" first. They had it in a reverse order. The promotion film for "Run Runaway" we actually did at Eastnor Castle in Heresford, the place where we'd been blamed to nick the silverware many years before! And in America they thought that the castle was where we lived. [laughs] They thought it was our house!
Sharon Osborne managed us in America by then and she got us on a tour with Ozzy Osborne. But Jim became ill. We stayed on a little longer to do some interviews and promo work, but he was really, really ill with hepatitis and we had to stop. In 1987 we did You Boyz and that was it. Well, in 1991 we did Wall of Sound, but after that Nod didn't want to go on anymore. He had offers to do other things, and he would rather do that. And Jim wouldn't go on without him. And that was basically it.

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My favourite among the borrowed pics

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Young Don

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The powerhouse drummer

September interview in use

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So far only the Danish bio based on the September-interview has been uploaded. You can read it at Trommeslageren or see below. The English version is not available yet, so therefore I can only give you a draft of what is (hopefully!) soon going to be out there along with some of the pics that Don let me use.

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Danish bio, page 1

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Danish bio, page 2

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Bio draft, page 1

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Bio draft, page 2

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Bio draft page 3

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Behind drums

The first interview

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The very first interview I did with Don was on July 15, 2005, which happened to be a Friday. I'd asked for an interview already in May, but it had to be postponed all the time, because Slade's singer had just left the band and they had to rehears a lot with the new singer, Mal McNulty.
When Don finally had the time to do the interview he surprised me with wanting to do it at my home. I've interviewed several national and international celebrities over the years, but Don was the first one to ever come to my house to do an interview. Well, for several reasons we agreed that it would be the most convenient, so around noon on July 15, Don and his Danish lady Hanne came to my house.
In the 1970's I had been a huge Slade-fan, so at first it was very strange indeed to have Don sitting in my living room. It didn't take many minutes, though, then it seemed quite normal and a warm, pleasant atmosphere emerged - it is still there.
When Don and Hanne showed up, we immediately went outside to do some shots as we were supposed to get thunder and rain during the afternoon. Outside I took about 15 photos of Don after which he politely volunteered to carry my tripod with the camera upstairs to my living room. We sat down and had a few sandwiches and chatted a bit, before the interview started synchronously with the thunder and rain.
After the interview I took another 40 photos of Don in my house, and Hanne kindly acted the photographer on some photos of Don and me outside, when the rain had stopped. We then chatted some more, and Don left me 2 pairs of drumsticks, before he and Hanne were off again.
Below you can read the unedited interview.

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Me and Don, Odense, July 15, 2005

July 15, 2005: interview conducted in my home in Odense, Denmark

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I would like to start with the beginning and I would like to start with you. So my first question is, when did you originally get interested in playing the drums?
In the boy scouts. That was when I was 13, I think, but in those days in the boy scouts I was with, you had to play bugle first, and I couldn't do that. I'd just stand at the back doing [Don puffs his cheeks], and they found me out and said, okay, you can play the drums. That was how it started.
I also played the drums in the girl scouts!
Oh, dear! [laughs] It was always SO embarrassing, because we had the parades around my hometown, the Sunday morning parades. My parents used to come to watch and they were waving to me and I was trying to keep a straight face! [laughs].

You are self-taught?
Yeah.

When did you turn professional?
That was in 1965. Because the band I was in with Dave Hill, we'd been together since 1963, and we played the local pubs and clubs and things like that around Wolverhampton, and then we were going to Germany for a month to play one club. Our wages for that…we used to get 140 kroner [£12-13] a week each. [laughs] But that was enough. Values have sort of changed since then. But that was fine, because we lived on chicken and chips anyway that we could buy from the caravan near the station. That was what we lived on. That was enough. During the same month Noddy Holder with his band, they were called "The Rockin' Phantoms" then, they got to Germany also. We knew them anyway because we always played the same bars and things in Wolverhampton and they were going to Frankfurt for a month and we went to Dortmund. That was November 1965 and in 1966 the band started to fall apart basically. There was nothing around and one of the guitarists was a butcher by trade and wanted to go back into that. So the band basically fell apart. We didn't know at the time, but it was the same with Nod's band. So we decided to try it out and it worked from day one, and then we were looking for a bass player and on came Jimmy Lea.

How big a kit do you prefer, what brand of kit, heads and sticks and so?
At the moment I'm using Pearl drums. You want the sizes of the drums?
Yeah.
I use a 22 x 18 inch bass drum and my rack tom is 16 x 16. My floor tom is 18 x 18 and I use the Pearl Piccolo snare drums. I use a 22 inch rides cymbal and an 18 inch crash cymbal and I use 14 inch hi-hat cymbals. That's all, so I only play a very basic kit.

What about heads and sticks?
I use Evans heads. I use the Evans pinstriped on the tom-toms and I use a special kind of Evans head on the snare drum. The sticks are just normal C-sized, they are made by a company in England called William Shaw. I first met them in the seventies and they are based in the North of England, near Bradford. They said they could make sticks in any design, any weight, any size that I wanted and I was using Premier sticks at the time and I said, if you can copy these that would be perfect and they did. And I've been using them ever since. It is so strange…I'd never been to their factory until maybe…15-20 years ago, and I was in the area and I was driving around trying to find it [Don gets a bewildered tone in his voice] this is so strange! It was were normal houses were, oh my god, this must be wrong! But I asked someone and they said, yeah, it's just 100 meters down there. And it was just a house, a normal house where a family lived. And in the kitchen were all the computers and all the office works. Then there were 2 sheds at the bottom of the garden. And everything was made there. The daughter looked after the office and the accounts and the father and son they'd do all the sticks. Apparently they do things world wide now, but they are still at the same place! [laughs] They don't have a factory! [laughs] It's crazy, it is so strange! I've used them since the early seventies and then we went to America and I went on to the normal sort that Ludwig used to make. I was assigned to Ludwig drums. When I came back to England I didn't know if Shaw was still operational, but they were still there and we made contact with them and then they make my sticks all the time now.

I was reading somewhere about the 75 years anniversary of Ludwig drums and 75 drummers invited to that?
That was amazing. Can you imagine 75 drummers at the same hotel? Can you imagine? [laughs] It was mad! That was in my drinking days, so that weekend is lost! [laughs] And they made dinner-suits for everyone. Before we went to Chicago they had all our sizes so they could order the suits. We got air flights and the drummers came from all over the world. They made this big poster with Bill Ludwig the II and III and a drummer called Joe Morello, a very famous jazz drummer from the fifties, I think, or maybe even before that. They where sitting down the front at a round table with a bottle of champagne and 75 drummers in the background. That was amazing. But they stopped Ludwig as we knew it. I remember Bill Ludwig the III came to lunch. He was doing some PR-work and we met for lunch and we were talking and I said, "How come Ludwig is so expensive?" I was lucky; I was an endorsee so I didn't have to pay for my drums. But I said, [Don shakes his head in wonder] "They were so EXPENSIVE! Kids who start these days can't afford them." And he said, "It is just the way that the materials work." I got him to talk and he said, "We cannot compete with the Japanese. They are doing things better than we are and at a fraction of the price." And now Ludwig is no longer. I think it is amazing. It was all based in Chicago in the sixties and seventies and it's all gone. There are still Ludwig drums but not as they were and it is a shame because they were fantastic. Now there's Pearl and DW and such and they are SO good. There's so much choice these days. In the sixties and seventies drums were never really cared about so much as the guitars. There were Pearl and Ludwig drums but not really what you'd call, "Yes! These are fantastic!" except Ludwig at the time and then all of a sudden there's Yamaha, Tama and now DW and it's SO different for a drummer now. You CAN get good quality equipment and that's really nice. Most music shops now if you want to get some drum things they're a lot less than when I first started. You had to order and it cost SO much money, but now it's there in the shop and it is good equipment. It makes such a difference.

To me the sound of your drums is very recognisable. Is this just because you hit so hard or is there some other secret behind this sound?
What we started doing…it's so strange…about the drums: I hit them hard, but…it was just purely by accident at the recording studio that we used in London I went to the toilet one day and there was this echo. And I said, "Oh, let's try the drums in the toilet," and it was like the tiles all the way around made like a live sound and we just put the drums in the toilet. And we put microphones down and that's how it all started. The first time I tried it, and I was halfway through a take, I'd forgotten the toilets. And the toilets flushed! [laughs] They started flushing and I thought, "Oh, no!" [laughs again] and we had to turn all the toilets off! That's when we started using the drums in the toilet. It worked like that. Another time we did some part of an album where John Lennon used to work called the Tittenhurst Park. I think Ringo now owns it. It's a big recording studio there and you could live there. You booked it say for a month and you live there, eat there and record there. There's what we did…it's an enormously big mansion as you can imagine… and we had the drums in the hallway, like the entrance of the house. We didn't put so many mikes on the drums but up the corner, out of the way to get the big room-sound like the sound of stage, really. Like a large sound. That's what we did.

Many bands now use drum machines. What do you think about that?
It's frightening. I tell you, it's frightening! But the thing is, they're so good. It's not like it's rubbish. It's good equipment. I remember one time we got in the studio and I used to go the day before so I could get my drums all sorted out before the other guys came in the day afterwards. I went to the engineer's assistant when I arrived to take my drums in. He was going [Don opens his eyes wide] and I said, "What's the problem? What's wrong?" He said, "You got to use real drums?" "Yes." He said, "I've never worked with real drums. I've only worked with computers." But that's the way it is these days. A lot of records you listen to now have the same drum pattern. They have the same drum computer! [laughs] They use that. Switch it on! [laughs] But I did it once. We were in the studio and there were some modern bands, new bands coming in and they had a drum computer there and I was just playing with it, trying it, you know, for about 10-15 minutes and it was fantastic! And then I thought, "WHAT AM I DOING! WHAT AM I DOING!" [laughs hard] Then you can see how you can get sucked into these kinds of things. Especially nowadays. It's easy to use in the studio, it's so cheap and you can take it in a taxi instead of taking the drums in. But one thing it does lack is the human feel. That's the only thing. It's a machine and that's it. There's no sort of human element there. But it's just the way things go. It's like computers, the same thing, how advanced they go all the time. One time we were in the studio and we'd done a take and it was a really good take and there was a little squeak on the foot pedal and I thought [Don's voice gets matter-of-fact], "Gosh, just oil it and do that bit again." But the engineer said, "No, it's okay, I'll just take that tape and erase that." Three hours later he was still there with his tape, listening and just trying to find it. I said, "I could have recorded an album by now!" All I wanted to do was oil the pedal and do it again! But he had to take the tape and try to find it on the computer and it took him forever. [laughs] When you think, The Beatles' first album was cut in one day. They left "Twist and Shout" to the end, obviously because of the voice, you know.

You have any favourite drummers yourself?
My all time favourite is John Bonham of The Led Zeppelin. We met in the 1960es. He played in a cabaret-band! It's hard to imagine. [laughs] And I couldn't believe it; he didn't need microphones. [laughs] He was SO loud. But basically he is a natural drummer. He owes no tuition, he didn't go for lessons; it just came from his heart. Amazing.

When you're on stage you always use gloves and a gum shield. Why?
Before I started using the gloves the sweat always made the sticks fly out of my hands. [Don lets an imaginary stick fly through the room] I started putting like sticky tape on my fingers and at one time in America I started using plaster, like for cuts. I bought some while we were over there but I was allergic to the adhesive. All my fingers went really sort of poisonous. And I went to a doctor over there and I was explaining everything to him and he said, "Why don't you try wearing gloves?" And I said, "I need very tight gloves so I can actually feel the sticks." He said, "Simple. Ladies' gloves." So now I go to ladies' shops! [laughs] I get some strange looks! I say, "It's okay. It's for my wife. We're the same size!" [laughs] I also go to charity shops to find them. They have to be very tight, you know. Sometimes I have to take the lining out of the inside. But I find them much better than the sticky tape I used. Especially with the sweat. When you're soaked you always seem to lose a stick at the most important point or you're breaking a stick and you go, "Oh no!" [laughs] and you don't have the time to change it! With the gum shield: What I was doing…I'd never realised myself at the time, but when I play the drums I [Don bites his teeth together hard] and I kept on breaking my teeth. My dentist said [Don puts on a resigning voice], "I can't keep on rebuilding your teeth," [laughs] so he suggested it, "Why don't you have a gum shield like boxers?" And I thought it was a great idea, so I said, "Let's try one," so he made one for me and it is perfect, absolutely perfect. But I get strange looks from people down the front [laughs hard] with these gleaming, white teeth. They're shining! It is very strange with the gum shield and the gloves on; when I go on stage to play the drums it's like I'm going to the ring to do a boxing fight! [laughs long]

There are many rumours out there on the Internet. Some say that you are contemplating to do a solo album, others that you are going to write your autobiography. Is there any truth to that?
I'm not doing a solo album. I did a drumming record a few years ago. I started it in the studio with some friends. I never got around to finishing it because we started touring again and I never have time. But I still have the tapes and I'm going to finish it. [Don laughs and tries to look resolute] I WILL do it! About the autobiography: since I had my car accident I always had to keep diaries and I've had many offers to publish them, but I [Don sighs and tries to look despondent, then laughs] I can't do that! You know that guy, Salman Rushdie? I'd have to do one of those; I'd have to go for hiding for about 5 years if I do that! So the diaries are just locked away. I HAVE written a children's book, though. At the moment the illustrations are being done for it and there are songs. It's called "Bibble Brick". Do you know what that bibble is?
No.
It is like a stone from a beach. It's an old sort of slang-word from many years ago in England. The book, it's like a children's cartoon thing, really, and there ARE songs with it which I have written, so what I'd like to do is like a little children's book with a CD with it, like that, you know.

Back in the early 1970es you co-wrote some of Slade's songs with Jim Lea, "Dapple Rose" and "I Remember" being among my favourites. How did that writing situation work? Did you both write on the music and the lyrics, or…?
I don't play any instruments except the drums and I can't sing [laughs] so I was the one writing the lyrics and if I had any ideas for a melody I said like… "I'll sing it to you what I think it is," I said to Jim, "And you sing it back," so it took a lot of time! [laughs] I can WRITE lyrics and I wrote quite a few songs. But then Noddy Holder and Jim Lea started writing and it was so much quicker, so the idea of us writing sort of dropped out basically. But I've written a few things with Dave Hill over the last few years, lyrics-wise.

Do you have any favourite Slade-tunes or albums?
I like "Far Far Away" and album…I think, the one we made in America, "Nobody's Fools", because that was a bit different for us. It was a whole new different recording technique in New York. In England we worked a lot differently and it was also the first time we used girl backing singers on it, you know, and that was nice. So that's one of my personal favourite Slade-albums after all. I like the sound on that. That album didn't do particularly well for us in England at the time, it made it to the charts, but not like the others did, but to me that's my favourite recording.

Could you tell me some differences and maybe resemblance in working with the original Slade and the present Slade?
At the start with the present Slade it was a bit strange because with the old band we'd been together for SO long. We knew exactly EVERYTHING about each other so when we started play everything just fell into place automatically because we'd worked together for so many years. All it was, really, was just…Lenny [Len Tuckey, manager of the present Slade] had these other people and I'd never played with anyone else except Slade, and it was just learning how other people worked. It was like an education for me to learn how different people work. It is nice, it's good. And also equipment is so much ADVANCED these days. You know, we used to go on stage and play really loud because the PA-systems weren't like they are now and we don't need to do that now although I still play loud and these engineers keep saying, "You don't have to play so loud!" [Don gets a very firm tone in his voice], "That's the way I play! You have to do it! [laughs] That's the way I play! You have to capture it." I can't alter my style. That's the way it was with the new band. We were just learning different styles of playing, really, and singing. Because like we were SO used to the old line-up, we'd been together for SO long that we were just like; just going on stage and do it, you know, it used to be the normal thing.

You and Dave Hill go way back. Don't you ever tire of each other?
No. We've been together since 1963 when we played in The Vendors together. That was great. It's a strange thing that we had in those days. We very rarely saw each other socially. With Slade. We DID go out sometimes but it wasn't normal practice. When we'd finished touring, we'd go, "Okay, see you!" See you next month or see you in two months time. And that always kept up a freshness, together, you know. And also when we first started I remember Chas Chandler said to us how CLOSE we were as a band and as people and he said, "Even I can't get into you little circle," and we couldn't really think what he meant. But when we first started as well, we got a booking in the Bahamas in 1968. The Bahamas, wow! They were going to use us for 3 months. And hotels, flights, bars and they were going to pay us $ 100 a week each to play this club like 7 nights a week. And when we got there, I mean, it was like Paradise to us, the Bahamas. But we didn't know, I mean, it was just the way it worked; the club where we were to gig was in the black part of the island and not many white people went, so the club wasn't really making any money. They couldn't really pay us what originally was the deal. But we didn't mind, we had the hotel and we were eating in the hotel and we were just having a great time at this club. But I tell you, after 6 weeks the hotel people sent for us and wanted to know when they were going to get some money. And we said [Don's voice gets startled,] "It's been paid for!" [Don alters his voice to imitate the hotel people,]"We don't know anything about this." And we'd been living there like KINGS in this hotel. We weren't being paid by the club, but at least we could eat in the hotel and the hotel bill at the time was at about $ 35,000. [laughs] We started laughing! We couldn't stop laughing! And they said, "You're not staying here anymore and you're not leaving the island, either. Besides, this week the club has been bought by some American people and they said they will pay you $ 100 a week between you for the 4 of you and we're gonna move you out of the hotel to one of our staff apartments." It was probably as big as this [Don point around my living room: 25 square meters] with 4 tiny beds in the room. We had a small bathroom, a toilet and a little kitchen-thing and we were there for 3½ months [laughs] trying to pay off this hotel-bill which we never did obviously. But back to your original question: that made us SO tight as people because we only had each other. We had no-one, no house, pub anywhere and that made us SO tight as people and our manager Chas Chandler who saw that said, "You four are so CLOSE because of the experiences you've been through." And he said he had never seen that in a band before except maybe The Beatles. He said, "But the tightness of the four of you is like unique." And that was the way it was.

Do you keep in touch with all the other members of the original Slade?
Yeah! Yeah, yeah! We went to Noddy Holder's wedding last year. Yeah, we keep in touch. We speak to each other. But Noddy doesn't actually play anymore. He does radio-work in England, he's a disc jockey. He lives in the North of England and it is in Manchester, he's a disc jockey on local radio in Manchester and he does lots of TV-work. And he has been married and has a little boy, son, there and he has 2 daughters from his first marriage. They're from the town where he lives now, so he sees all his family. He's happy now. He has settled down. With Jim Lea it's the same. He has children, he's a grandfather! [Don laughs heartily] We were 4 schoolboys when we started out and now the youngest member of the band is a grandfather! [laughs long]

You have a new singer now, Mal McNulty, formerly of The Sweet. Could you tell me a bit about him? How does he work out with the band?
Steve Whalley had been the singer with us in the new line-up for more than 10 years. He wanted to go on do other things. Even before he joined this line-up he did make solo-albums and things like that and he is more into a bit more like softer rock. That's what he got back into. I think he's made a new album and that's what he wants to concentrate on. And then Mal McNulty is with us now. Apparently he sang with Sweet and I didn't know about it! It was Andy Scott who recommended him to us. We talked to Andy and we didn't know Mal. I didn't know that Sweet had another singer apart from Brian Connolly. I think he was a friend of our bass player John Berry's. He said, "I know Mal," and he approached him and that's what we've been doing over the last few weeks, we did the rehearsals and its fantastic. When he started singing, the first song we rehearsed was "Cum On Feel The Noize" and the singer started and I felt sparkles on my face and I looked up on Dave and he was sparkling the same. It was like Noddy Holder singing! It is SO strange! He can actually sing in the same keys as Noddy Holder did, you know. And he's a lovely person as well. Lovely guy. Do you know Mal?
No.
Mal is fantastic. We're going to hopefully start to make a new album soon as well. Get some songs together. Especially with his voice. People we've worked for of the past couple of weeks since Mal has been with us, promoters we've worked for of the last few years, they [Don opens up his eyes wide], "It's Noddy Holder! It's Noddy Holder singing!"

I guess that the Danish rivalry between Slade- and Sweet-fans now has to come to an end, then?
It's funny, because people say that, but in the bands it was never anything like that. We only ever saw Sweet when we did "Top Of The Pops" in England, when we were on the show together. We never did any concerts together in the seventies. So they were talking about the state of us on TV shows, "Oh God, the competition between us both!" Well, it used to keep the records rolling at the time.
Yeah, the competition was more between the fans.
Yes, it was. Exactly. It was the same with T. Rex as well. In those days you were only a fan of one band. T. Rex, Sweet, Slade, Mud or someone like that, you couldn't have more than one. It was like that in the rest of Europe, but not with the bands being aware. We weren't aware of it. It was Hanne who told me that it was the way it was among fans basically. In the bands we were just friends.

One of my friends said that having a Sweet-singer with Slade must be the ultimate merger?
It is in a way! [laughs] That would be a new thing. Having Sweet and Slade merging and then it was actually Andy Scott who recommended it! [laughs] It could work! By the way, going back, when we were in the Bahamas, Andy Scott was also in the Bahamas with a band, but they were being paid and they were being looked after properly. What was that band called now? The Elastic Band! But they were in the nice clubs and they were being paid! That's what it says of Andy!

At the moment Slade seems to get more and more popular. You have any idea why?
That's a difficult question to answer. I don't know really…what it really is; it's because of the media with adverts on TV. They did things with "Far Far Away" and "'Coz I Luv You". Ford was using "'Coz I Luv You." You get like a resurgent kind of thing because of the media basically. I think that's helped a lot. Plus the facts like…of the last 10 years we've been together, we've been to territories like Russia and Czechoslovakia and places like that which we couldn't go in the seventies for obvious reasons. But now those markets have opened up and it's great. It's like Dave being reborn! People go there to see him now. And it is great for him, it's great. And we've played like the Olympic Stadium in Moscow and things like that. And what's nice over there is obviously because of the money situation the government half finance the concerts. So they can keep the ticket prices really very low so they can afford to pay for them. It is fantastic that they do that, the government subsidise or finance concerts. It's not a propaganda thing. It works.

How do you like the Danish audience these days?
I'd better be careful, mustn't I! [Don laughs and looks from me to Hanne, both Danish. Hanne is reading about Slade in a book I have on pop music from the 1970es.] No, I think it's the same all over really, because the early records of ours were such big hits all over Europe and everybody knows the songs so a lot of the time we don't have to sing the songs, we just let the crowds do it for us! [laughs] But I find it strange, I mean, the concerts now in most of the European territories, like people who used to come and see us in the seventies, now they come with their children. I think that is really nice. And of course there's "Merry Xmas Everybody" which like…will NEVER go away, you know. It is 30 odd years old now and we recorded that at New York in the summer of 1973 and there was a heath wave with like over 100 degrees outside and we sat there recording "Merry Xmas"! And the engineers go, "[Don sighs] Very strange!" [laughs] And we weren't sure about the record at the time, either. We were not really sure how that record would work, our manager Chas Chandler as well. He said, "Okay. What we say is this is be released." [laughs] Be released. And 30 years later it is still there!

In August you're going to play 3 times here in Denmark, a straight Slade concert and some festivals.
Oh, yeah. I think it is great. Especially all over Europe, not so much in England, but there are always a lot of festivals in Europe. They don't do that so much in England. I think it's great. It's great.
Do you look forward to different things at these different types of concerts?
No, to me each concert is the same. I like playing small clubs because of the atmosphere is more there, but the same with festivals now. The atmosphere is SO great but on a bigger scale. You have a bigger stage and you know, you can see more. But to me personally it doesn't matter where I play, but sometimes I do like it is a bigger stage and you can see, you know, a lot more.

What kind of music do you listen to yourself?
Me personally? The Eagles are my favourite band. The strange thing about The Eagles is that in 1973 back in America again we were top of the bill of this concert in Philadelphia. Steely Dan also did that show, The Eagles were second and we were top of the bill! [laughs] I had never heard of The Eagles then and I was on side of the stage and watched. [Don puts on a baffled voice] "Who are these? These are fantastic, these guys!" [laughs] They've been my favourite band since then. Imagine The Eagles supporting Slade!

Do you listen to any Danish music, your girlfriend being Danish?
I'm forced to, aren't I? [laughs]
Poor guy! Do you like any of it?
Well, Big Fat Snake, I like them and then there's Tim Christensen and some of Thomas Helmig, but it is mainly Big Fat Snake. I still have to see a concert. I want to go. There's one song, when I came to Hanne's house and she played that! But I don't know if they do that on stage. It's called "Be Alone With Me". That's a beautiful song. Absolutely beautiful. When Hanne first put the album on and this song came up I said, "Stop! Stop talking! [Don whispers] Listen to this!" It was brilliant. And I like, what's his name, Johnny Madsen! [Don laughs hard, as Johnny Madsen is kind of like a hard-drinking, scruffy guy who does a very Danish kind of country blues with quirky, ironic and very local down-to-earth lyrics] I love his attitude, his outlook, you know, and he loves "Fawlty Towers". I met him in the hotel when we played the Nibe Festival and we were up all night doing the dialog from "Fawlty Towers"!

How long have you been with Hanne?
We've known each other for 4½ years so I go back and forth between England and Denmark. A long time ago this actor said, "The world is such a small place these days." It is so true. When I talk to my school friends, "I'm just going to Denmark for the weekend," they go, "What!" as if I was going to the moon. [laughs] They don't realise that it probably takes me longer to drive from my house at the south coast of England to London than it takes to fly to Denmark. That's how small the world is. It's so terrific these days. The world is such a small place and it's incredible really. I've been around the world like 4 times and I've been so lucky with the travel and seen all these different countries that I only ever saw on TV or read about, you know, and it's fantastic. I always say; that has been my education, to travel the world and study different countries, different cultures and see things. And it is amazing how music is one common denominator wherever you go. No matter what nationality the music is one common denominator all the time.

Slade has its 40 years anniversary next year. Anything special lined up for that?
Supposedly there are lots of DVDs. Apparently they'll do a special thing with the "Wall of Hits"-DVD next year and maybe a packet-thing with the albums, I think. And who knows? I'd love to do a concert with the original four members! That would be fantastic."
We'd love to see that. Just one.
One. That's it, exactly. [laughs] One. Just one special event.
It would have to be at a very large stadium, because people would come from all over to see that.
That would be something special. For me as well. You know, not just for the audience but just for me as well.

I've been a Slade fan for almost 35 years now. Are you ever going to stop?
People always talk about that. They say, haven't you had enough or when are you going to retire. [Don sounds surprised] I've never even thought about it! My policy is that as soon as I stop enjoying it then I'll finish, but I enjoy everything about it. I've been so lucky with the travelling and the experiences I've had, travelling the world and seeing different things as I said earlier, but as soon as I stop to enjoy it, the playing I mean, I'll get out. I've seen so many people, musicians who say they don't want to play, really. How can they do it? How can they put their heart and soul into anything when they don't even wanna be there? I love playing drums and as soon as I stop enjoying it I WILL finish. I couldn't do that, just go on like a robot, I just couldn't. But I have the best job in the world, travel the world, doing something that I love and get paid for it! I've been so lucky, SO lucky, and I always appreciate it. I think it is wonderful.

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My favourite photo from July 15, 2005

The July-interview in use

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The interview above was used as the core of 3 Danish articles, one surfaced at the online drummers' magazine, Trommeslageren, 2 in local papers. Below you can see the results!

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"Trommeslageren", July 2005, page 1

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"Trommeslageren", July 2005, page 2

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"MidtVest", July 2005, week 30, part 1

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"MidtVest", July 2005, week 30, part 2

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"Lokalavisen ugenyt", frontpage

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"LokalAvisen ugenyt", August 9, 2005