Don Powell in “Fyens Stiftstidende”

In the week up to Don’s birthday there was a piece about him in the Danish news paper “Fyens Stiftidende”. I don’t know who wrote it, but it must be a press release of some sorts, as the source quoted is the Danish Ritzau News Agency. This is what it said:

“Saturday the 10th of September, one of the band Slade’s founders, drummer Don Powell, is celebrating his 70^th birthday.

One of the biggest successes within the seventies’ glam rock music was the four-piece band Slade. The band delivered a string of hits to the charts worldwide. Even if you weren’t a fan of Slade, you can probably sing along to the chorus of the catchy tune “Far Far Away”.

Don Powell grew up in Wolverhampton where he met singer Noddy Holder, bassist Jim Lea and guitarist Dave Hill. Together they became the band in 1966 that three years later took the name Slade.

In 1991 the band split up, but two years later Don Powell was back together with Dave Hill in the band Slade II, which in 1997 once more was called just Slade. The band is still going strong, performing all over Europe.

For instance, on the 12^th of November where they perform at the Naestved Glam Rock Festival and already on October 1^st the band is playing in Fuglsoecentret on Djursland.

This is not far from the home of the English drummer. Today Don Powell is living in Silkeborg with his Danish wife Hanne.

In 1973 Don Powell was in a serious car accident, which resulted in him having to live with massive amnesia problems. Despite of that, in 2010 the drummer along with Danish author Lise Lyng Falkenberg released the book “Look Wot I Dun” about his life with Slade.

Don Powell and Slade managed to have 24 songs on the British Top 40 list. Six of these were number ones.

Among other things the band has made six gold albums in England, which equals more than 100,000 sold copies each, while one single reached platinum for selling a million copies.

The drummer, who was known as a hard hitter, is planning to celebrate his 70^th birthday where his rock adventure started, namely in Wolverhampton together with his family.”

(ritzau)

Happy birthday, Don!

“Don George Powell was born on September 10, 1946, in Bilston, Staffordshire in central England, the second of five children of steelworker Walter Powell and his wife, Dora.”

 So it says in my book “Look Wot I Dun”, the official Don Powell biography, which had Don as co-editor when it was published on Omnibus Press back in 2013. The quote means of course that today Don turns 70 years young! Happy birthday, Don! I hope you’ll have a wonderful day surrounded by your loved ones!

The photo above is of Don as a boy. It was one of the photos that we chose for the biography, but sadly it didn’t make the final cut. About the photo Don told me that this is “one of our Sunday afternoon picnics on Penn Common, Wolverhampton, during the 1950’s... that’s were my nail picking started!” Photo courtesy: © Derek Powell’s private collection.