Welcome

Introduction

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 and his dog Rocky

Fan forum questions, September 2009

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

Don biography update

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

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

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

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

The interview in use

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

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

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

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

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

The interview in use

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

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

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

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

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

The interview in use

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

Flame interview

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

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

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

Flame-interview in use

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

Interview, October 9, 2006

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.

Don and me, October 9, 2006 

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

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.

My favourite photo from October 9, 2006 

The October-interview in use

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.

Don and his puppy Rocky 

The remaster interview

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!

Don and me, August 29, 2006 

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

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.

My favourite photo from August 29, 2006 

The August-interview in use

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.

Strong man Don on the trampoline! 

Don and me, March 31, 2006 

A photo shoot in March

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.

My favourite photo from March 31, 2006 

March-photos in use

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.

"Sønderborg Ugeavis", June 7, 2006

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

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

New year - new interview

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.