Interlude

During the 1980es I lost track of Slade. Life happened to me and I got caught up in a university degree, boyfriends, travels abroad, writing books and working as a freelance journalist.
In 1984 Slade stopped touring and I hardly noticed. In 1987 they stopped recording and I hardly noticed. In 1991 they split up and I hardly noticed. And in 1992 Dave Hill and Don Powell regrouped as Slade II with 2 new members and I didn't notice at all.
Then it was late 2004 and I found myself being a single mother to a young girl. By then I had 2 university degrees, a dozen books published in Danish and English and I was still working as a freelance journalist, doing articles, reviews and interviews for cultural magazines at home and abroad.
In late 2004 Denmark saw a new TV-channel, TV2 Charlie, that aired a quiz show about popular music primarily from the 1960es and 1970es. The host, Jørgen de Mylius, seemed to have a thing for Slade so every Saturday night you would be seeing promo videos for "Get Down and Get With It", "'Coz I Luv You", "Merry Xmas Everybody", "Far Far Away" and "Thanks For the Memory" in full length on the tube. And I suddenly remembered, how bloody great Slade had always been.
At the same time the Danish papers were full of ads for concerts with Slade II. Well, at that point they weren't called Slade II anymore but just plain and simple Slade. At first I wouldn't go. Slade without Noddy Holder and Jim Lea was not Slade to me. Is not Slade to me. But I got curious. How would Don and Dave look today? What would they sound like? Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it has always urged me on. When the new Slade played a gig near Copenhagen on February 4th 2005 and one of my friends even volunteered to look after my daughter it was an open and shut case to me. I got hold of a train ticket and was on my way to Copenhagen.