Slade in Søby-Højslev, January 28, 2006

My daughter Tea turned 7 years old on January 21st and as a belated birthday present I'd promised her to take her to her long awaited first Slade concert a week later. She could hardly wait to go, as she's such a big fan of Slade, especially of Dave.
Well, we set out from Odense at noon and had a 2 hours train journey before us. We were to go to the town of Herning, meet up with Mikael and his girlfriend and then drive with them the rest of the way to the venue. We actually met Mikael on the train as he was making his way back to Herning from Slade's concert in the town of Birkerød the night before. Apparently it had been an awesome concert and we'd really missed out on something. Especially on one of Don's drums tipping over during Look Wot You Dun!
Anyway, we reached Herning and Tea and I went to our hotel whereas Mikael went on to his theatre. Tea and I had a bite to eat and a quick change of clothes, and at 5 p.m. we reached Mikael's theatre. They were doing a performance that day, and when it was over we went on our way to the venue with Mikael and his girlfriend Sika. The venue was really far, far away out in the countryside so of course we got lost and only thanks to a call to Per & Kirsten (hard-core Slade-fans who go to all Slade-concerts in Denmark), we managed to reach the venue.
Don had left my name in the door so we got in all right during Slade's sound check. Tea was amazed. And thrilled. She just wanted to watch it all. To her it was overwhelming being in that big concert venue all by herself with the band playing. I waved hello to Don and his lady Hanne who were both on stage and I also managed to signal to John that this was my daughter Tea. Then we went backstage to get some dinner.
When the sound check was over, Don came backstage for a proper hello and Tea was a little overwhelmed for about 30 seconds then she left to play with some LEGO. So much for that!! Don grabbed a bite to eat and we had a short chat before he was off again to change into stage clothes. The rest of us watched TV. On the local TV-station they aired something about a couple who had flown all the way from Malaysia to Denmark to catch this one show at the Søby-Højslev venue! They'd flown for 24 hours to see the show and were going back to Malaysia the day after! They'd been fans since the 1970's, but had never seen the band live. Hanne had introduced me to the couple during dinner and it was really amazing meeting those people. The TV-programme was really good, showing the couple meeting Don and Don being really touched by their loyalty to the band. On TV the Malaysians said that if they were to meet the band they'd like to ask for autographs. They got much more than that, though. Back stage dinner with the band, photos etc. and they really deserved it. They were just so nice. When the concert organiser later went on stage to introduce Slade, he gave the couple a special mention and they got a standing ovation from the audience.
As it was Tea's first time, she and I went down in front of the stage in the company of Per and Kirsten. They'd made special T-shirts, which they wore. On the front they praised the 40th anniversary of Slade and on the back it said how many concerts they'd attended. 23 so far.
The show started shortly after 8 p.m. It was great and I especially noticed Mal having improved even further both as a singer and as an entertainer. The set list was:
We'll Bring The House Down
Take Me Bak 'Ome
Lock Up Your Daughters
Far Far Away
Everyday
Red Hot
Look Wot You Dun
'Coz I Luv You
Run Runaway
My Oh My
Gudbuy T'Jane
Mama Weer All Crazee Now
Get Down And Get With It
And for the encores;
Cum On Feel The Noize
Merry Xmas Everybody
It was actually a good concert, but the audience was hard to get going. As someone said to me, "Out here it's the land of dung forks. You won't have them up and going that easy." Down front we had a good time, though, dancing, singing, jumping, and Tea was ever so impressed by Dave's Superyob guitar. She really enjoyed herself. She even caught one of Don's broken drumsticks! Not bad for a first-timer. Hanne later gave her one more (which wasn't broken). Thanks, Hanne!
Mal was really funny on stage. He did a Tarzan-impersonation and before Far Far Away he said, "Now Dave's gonna show you his muscles." When Dave did, Mal dryly continued, "They're like nuts in cotton."
When Slade got to Gudbuy T'Jane Mal introduced it as a song about a girl who liked to dress up like a man and went on, "I like to wear girls' clothing myself, but you all do that in Denmark, don't you?" We gave him the thumps up, so he continued, "I ought to move here, then." Mal's joke led to Dave pointing to him when singing, "She's a queen". That brought back memories of my first Slade (II) concert almost a year ago, when Steve Whalley pointed to Dave during that line. Anyway, he was quite fun to watch as well, Dave, especially when he placed his foot on the shoulder of a press photographer during Red Hot.
Actually they were all in a great mood that evening. When Mal introduced My Oh My as a really beautiful song you could hear Don teasingly quip, "What's it about?" and for the encores the guys walked on stage in step to Don's drum rhythm while saluting the audience.
John had a go at both 'Coz I Luv You and Run Runaway on the violin, and during Gudbuy T'Jane a middle aged woman actually came up to kiss his shoe! In the dressing room after the concert John told me that he'd been watching Tea during this and she'd been standing there open-mouthed, unable to figure out why the hell a grown woman would want to do that! Mal and I agreed that Tea was probably better behaved than the adults at the concert!!
Anyway, this might have been the land of dung forks, but despite this (or maybe because of it!) the women surely weren't reticent. During MXE several women invaded the stage, so Slade's road crew really had to be on their toes to get those females back into the audience. Somehow it DID look a little ridiculous having women approaching 50 throw themselves at the band. At least they weren't as decorative as the teenage girls back in the 1970's!
After the show we went to the dressing room where I had one of my usual good talks with Don. You know, about the old days, about kids and concerts ("You can't keep her back now!" Don said about Tea and I know! It's my own fault!), about Russia, teeth, age, whatever, in short about all and nothing. I always enjoy that, Don. Don and Hanne had even brought along a copy of their local paper for me that had a 3-paged feature of Don. Thanks a lot!
Well, I had one final mission that night. Tea is madly in love with Dave, so she just had to talk to him. In the dressing room I asked him if he'd say hello to her and he agreed when he'd finished packing. All the time while he did his packing, he was smiling and waving to her which made her ever so proud. Then he finally came over and with me as her interpreter she made it clear to him that she wanted to marry him. Well, of course that wasn't quite possible as Dave's already married, but Tea just said that she didn't care. When faced with the prospect of having me as his mother-in-law Dave looked very speculative and finally said, "That would be interesting…" Anyway, Tea has made up her mind, and she was just thrilled when she realised that Dave is left-handed like her. Dave pointed out to her, that they had even more in common: they both wore jeans!! Thanks to Dave for making a little girl happy, he even let me take some great shots of the two of them.
Tea was really one happy girl when it was time to go back to Herning. Not only had she talked to Dave, but Don being the gentleman that he is kissed her hand for goodbye when we left, and that sure made her speechless, which is not a thing that happens very often! All the way back to Herning she slept in the car with the sweetest smile on her lips. The rest of us weren't that cocky as a dense fog had descended on the area and we really couldn't see a thing. It was scary driving those 50 kilometres blindly, like something out of a horror-movie, but we made it in one piece to the hotel where I'm now sitting, writing this in the middle of the night. So let me end off with my thanks to Don & Hanne for being who you are - xxx to you, Dave for making the day for Tea, John and Mal for being so attentive and nice to talk to, Mikael & Sika for great company and a safe trip after all, Per & Kirsten for your friendship, for dancing with Tea and for the 7 of Per's pics that I've used - and to Robin, Tim, Calle, friends, families etc. It's always a pleasure meeting you. See you again next Saturday!