Don Powell
Encyclopedia
Don Powell is a drummer
who founded the English
glam rock
group, Slade
.
where he became interested in the drums after being asked to join the band on a Sunday morning parade. After Etheridge Secondary Modern School
he studied Metallurgy at Wednesbury
Technical College. Powell then worked as a metallurgist in a small foundry
before turning professional as a drummer. He was athletic and a keen amateur boxer,although an easy going personality, and apparently had his nose broken three times. It was he who was sent around with the hat money collection amongst early audiences.
Powell became a member of The Vendors, a band that guitar
ist Dave Hill
later joined. The Vendors became the N'Betweens and bass guitar
ist / keyboard player
/ violin
ist / guitar
ist Jim Lea
got in at an audition. Powell then spotted Noddy Holder
playing with Steve Brett & The Mavericks and he and Hill got Holder to join the N'Betweens. They regrouped as Ambrose Slade, changed the name to Slade and the success began.
Powell was the wit of the group and was considered by Slade's fans to be one of rock
's best drummers. Others maintained he, like Ringo Starr, was unspectacular but could fit a song very well, often finding tricky own style sounds. Early and later work is his best. He co-wrote
a number of Slade's earlier song
s, mainly with Lea. Many of them can be found on the 1970 Slade album
Play it Loud
. He also co-wrote one of Slade's Top 10 hit
s "Look Wot You Dun
" with Holder and Lea in 1972, and made the breathing noises in the background of the song.
and number one in the UK Singles Chart
with "Skweeze Me Pleeze Me
", Powell was badly injured in a serious car crash in Wolverhampton
, in which his 20-year-old girlfriend Angela was killed. He broke both of his ankles and five of his ribs. Surgeons had to drill into his skull to ease the internal pressure and he was unconscious for six days but he came round and eventually pulled through, finding the best therapy to be work
. By mid-August Powell was back recording with the group. When the Top 5 hit "My Friend Stan" was recorded, Powell was still walking with the aid of a stick and had to be lifted onto his drum-kit. The accident left Powell with no senses of taste and smell, and to this day he has severe problems with his short-term memory
, whilst his long-term memory
has remained unaffected.
.
Powell has been married twice and for a number of years he lived in Bexhill-on-Sea
, East Sussex
, England. In 2004 he moved to Silkeborg
, Denmark
where he now lives with his Danish wife Hanna.
In December 2005, Powell appeared in the Channel 4
TV
documentary
Bring Back...The Christmas Number One.
Biographically Powell is detailed in the 3 Slade Biographies; Slade by George Tremlet, Slade; Feel the noize by Chris Charlesworth and Noddy Holders autobiography Who's crazee now. Holder recounts that for a while Don was a drinking buddy with Ozzy Osbourne among other gems. He is currently collaborating with Lise Lyng Falkenberg
on his own biography.
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
who founded the English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
glam rock
Glam rock
Glam rock is a style of rock and pop music that developed in the UK in the early 1970s, which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles, particularly platform-soled boots and glitter...
group, Slade
Slade
Slade are an English rock band from Wolverhampton, who rose to prominence during the glam rock era of the early 1970s. With 17 consecutive Top 20 hits and six number ones, the British Hit Singles & Albums names them as the most successful British group of the 1970s based on sales of singles...
.
Biography
As a child Powell joined the Boy ScoutsThe Scout Association
The Scout Association is the World Organization of the Scout Movement recognised Scouting association in the United Kingdom. Scouting began in 1907 through the efforts of Robert Baden-Powell. The Scout Association was formed under its previous name, The Boy Scout Association, in 1910 by the grant...
where he became interested in the drums after being asked to join the band on a Sunday morning parade. After Etheridge Secondary Modern School
Secondary modern school
A secondary modern school is a type of secondary school that existed in most of the United Kingdom from 1944 until the early 1970s, under the Tripartite System, and was designed for the majority of pupils - those who do not achieve scores in the top 25% of the eleven plus examination...
he studied Metallurgy at Wednesbury
Wednesbury
Wednesbury is a market town in England's Black Country, part of the Sandwell metropolitan borough in West Midlands, near the source of the River Tame. Similarly to the word Wednesday, it is pronounced .-Pre-Medieval and Medieval times:...
Technical College. Powell then worked as a metallurgist in a small foundry
Foundry
A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal in a mold, and removing the mold material or casting after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals processed are aluminum and cast iron...
before turning professional as a drummer. He was athletic and a keen amateur boxer,although an easy going personality, and apparently had his nose broken three times. It was he who was sent around with the hat money collection amongst early audiences.
Powell became a member of The Vendors, a band that guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
ist Dave Hill
Dave Hill
Dave Hill is an English musician, who is the lead guitarist and backing vocalist in the English glam rock group, Slade. The music journalist, Stuart Maconie, commented "he usually wore a jumpsuit made of the foil that you baste your turkeys in and platforms of oil-rig-derrick height...
later joined. The Vendors became the N'Betweens and bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
ist / keyboard player
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
/ violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist / guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
ist Jim Lea
Jim Lea
Jim Lea , is an English musician, most notable for playing bass guitar, keyboards, violin, guitar, and singing backing vocals in Slade.-Career:...
got in at an audition. Powell then spotted Noddy Holder
Noddy Holder
Neville John "Noddy" Holder MBE is an English musician and actor. He was the lead vocalist and guitarist with the rock band Slade....
playing with Steve Brett & The Mavericks and he and Hill got Holder to join the N'Betweens. They regrouped as Ambrose Slade, changed the name to Slade and the success began.
Powell was the wit of the group and was considered by Slade's fans to be one of rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
's best drummers. Others maintained he, like Ringo Starr, was unspectacular but could fit a song very well, often finding tricky own style sounds. Early and later work is his best. He co-wrote
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
a number of Slade's earlier song
Song
In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...
s, mainly with Lea. Many of them can be found on the 1970 Slade album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
Play it Loud
Play It Loud
Play It Loud is the second album by the British rock group Slade . It was released on 28 November 1970 but did not enter the charts....
. He also co-wrote one of Slade's Top 10 hit
Hit record
A hit record is a sound recording, usually in the form of a single or album, that sells a large number of copies or otherwise becomes broadly popular or well-known, through airplay, club play, inclusion in a film or stage play soundtrack, causing it to have "hit" one of the popular chart listings...
s "Look Wot You Dun
Look Wot You Dun
"Look Wot You Dun" is a single from glam rock band Slade which appeared on the album Sladest. It was written by lead singer Noddy Holder, bassist Jim Lea and drummer Don Powell. The single was released on 05/02/1972, just when Slade's previous single Coz I Luv You had its last week in the top 100...
" with Holder and Lea in 1972, and made the breathing noises in the background of the song.
Accident
On 4 July 1973, when Slade were popular in EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and number one in the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
with "Skweeze Me Pleeze Me
Skweeze Me Pleeze Me
"Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me" is a popular song in the UK by Slade.Written by Noddy Holder and Jim Lea and produced by Chas Chandler, Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me was the band's fifth number one single in the United Kingdom, and their second to debut at the top spot immediately, spending three weeks at the top...
", Powell was badly injured in a serious car crash in Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. For Eurostat purposes Walsall and Wolverhampton is a NUTS 3 region and is one of five boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region...
, in which his 20-year-old girlfriend Angela was killed. He broke both of his ankles and five of his ribs. Surgeons had to drill into his skull to ease the internal pressure and he was unconscious for six days but he came round and eventually pulled through, finding the best therapy to be work
. By mid-August Powell was back recording with the group. When the Top 5 hit "My Friend Stan" was recorded, Powell was still walking with the aid of a stick and had to be lifted onto his drum-kit. The accident left Powell with no senses of taste and smell, and to this day he has severe problems with his short-term memory
Short-term memory
Short-term memory is the capacity for holding a small amount of information in mind in an active, readily available state for a short period of time. The duration of short-term memory is believed to be in the order of seconds. A commonly cited capacity is 7 ± 2 elements...
, whilst his long-term memory
Long-term memory
Long-term memory is memory in which associations among items are stored, as part of the theory of a dual-store memory model. According to the theory, long term memory differs structurally and functionally from working memory or short-term memory, which ostensibly stores items for only around 20–30...
has remained unaffected.
Post Slade career
When Slade split up in 1991 Don Powell owned and operated an antique import/export company before he reconvened the band as Slade II in 1993 with Dave Hill. He has remained active with various line-ups to this day and has released the albums Keep on Rockin and Cum On Let's Party!. The name of the band was shortened back to Slade in 1997. In 2000 Powell had a small cameo role in the BBC TV version of Lorna DooneLorna Doone
Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor is a novel by Richard Doddridge Blackmore. It is a romance based on a group of historical characters and set in the late 17th century in Devon and Somerset, particularly around the East Lyn Valley area of Exmoor....
.
Powell has been married twice and for a number of years he lived in Bexhill-on-Sea
Bexhill-on-Sea
Bexhill-on-Sea is a town and seaside resort in the county of East Sussex, in the south of England, within the District of Rother. It has a population of approximately 40,000...
, East Sussex
East Sussex
East Sussex is a county in South East England. It is bordered by the counties of Kent, Surrey and West Sussex, and to the south by the English Channel.-History:...
, England. In 2004 he moved to Silkeborg
Silkeborg
Silkeborg is a city in central Denmark. Located in Silkeborg municipality in Jutland, the city has a population of 42,724 . The development of Silkeborg as a modern city may be traced to the foundation of the paper mill by Michael Drewsen on the Gudenaa in 1844...
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
where he now lives with his Danish wife Hanna.
In December 2005, Powell appeared in the Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
TV
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
Bring Back...The Christmas Number One.
Biographically Powell is detailed in the 3 Slade Biographies; Slade by George Tremlet, Slade; Feel the noize by Chris Charlesworth and Noddy Holders autobiography Who's crazee now. Holder recounts that for a while Don was a drinking buddy with Ozzy Osbourne among other gems. He is currently collaborating with Lise Lyng Falkenberg
Lise Lyng Falkenberg
Lise Lyng Falkenberg , is a Danish writer of mostly fiction and works of literary studies.Falkenberg was born in Odense, Denmark. Since her first in 1983, a dozen of her books have been published as well as hundreds of articles, essays and reviews on movies, plays, literature, art and music. She...
on his own biography.