Glum rocker! Veteran Slade drummer axed... so he sets up a rival band with same name
HE had been in the band for more than 50 years and played on all their No1 hits in the Seventies.
But yesterday Slade drummer Don Powell revealed he was sacked without warning – by email. Powell, 73, claims he was fired by lead guitarist Dave Hill, his friend since 1963 and the only other original member still playing in the glam rock group.
He says he will continue to perform using the name Don Powell’s Slade – in direct rivalry to his old band, now called Dave Hill’s Slade and promised: ‘Expect loads of classic Slade songs.’
A statement on Powell’s website said: ‘It is with great sadness and regret that Don needs to inform his fans that he now is no longer a member of Dave Hill’s Slade.
‘Dave has sent Don a cold email to inform him that his services are no longer required, after working together and being friends since 1963.’ Hill, 73, replied on Slade’s website that ‘our parting of the ways has not come out of the blue and his announcement is not accurate’. The band, from Wolverhampton, formed in the late Sixties and also featured frontman Noddy Holder and violinist/bassist Jim Lea.
They dominated the pop charts in the early Seventies with 17 consecutive Top 20 singles, six of which reached No 1.
Their first chart-topper was Coz I Luv You in October 1971, setting a trend for misspelled song titles – much to the annoyance of many teachers. The following year Take Me Bak ’Ome, Mama Weer All Crazee Now and Gudbuy T’Jane were all big hits as they quickly became known for their flamboyant appearances on Top Of The Pops. In early 1973, Cum On Feel The Noize became the first single to go straight to No 1 since The Beatles’ Get Back in 1969.
The follow-up, Skweeze Me Pleeze Me, did the same but a month later Powell suffered broken legs and ribs in a car crash that killed his girlfriend and left him in a coma.
He recovered in time to record the band’s biggest hit, Merry Xmas Everybody, ten weeks later. Like all Slade’s best-known songs, it was written by Holder and Lea, who share an estimated £1million a year in royalties as a result of it still entering the charts each Christmas. They left the band in 1992. Lea, 70, continues a solo career while Holder, 73, has worked as an actor and radio presenter.
Asked about Powell’s split from Hill, Holder told a Birmingham website yesterday: ‘I am surprised and would never have seen this coming.’