Chris Slade (born Christopher Slade Rees; 30 October 1946) is a Welsh drummer, who is perhaps best known for playing for

Manfred Mann's Earth Band Manfred Mann's Earth Band are an English rock band formed by South African musician Manfred Mann (musician), Manfred Mann. Their hits include covers of Bruce Springsteen's "For You (Bruce Springsteen song), For You", "Blinded by the Light" an ...

from its inception in 1971 to 1978 on eight albums, and

AC/DC AC/DC are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1973. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock and Heavy metal music, heavy metal, although the band calls it simply "rock and roll". They are cited as a formativ ...

, for which he drummed from 1989 to 1994 and performed on the 1990 album '' The Razors Edge''. He returned to AC/DC in February 2015 to replace Phil Rudd for the " Rock or Bust World Tour". Slade has also played with Tom Jones, Toomorrow, Uriah Heep, The Firm, and

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

Early life and career

Slade was born Christopher Rees in

Pontypridd Pontypridd ( , ), Colloquialism, colloquially referred to as ''Ponty'', is a town and a Community (Wales), community in Rhondda Cynon Taf, South Wales, approximately 10 miles north west of Cardiff city centre. Geography Pontypridd comprises the ...

Glamorgan Glamorgan (), or sometimes Glamorganshire ( or ), was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974. It is located in the South Wales, south of Wales. Originally an ea ...

South Wales South Wales ( ) is a Regions of Wales, loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the Historic counties of Wales, historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire ( ...

. He has worked with

Gary Numan Gary Anthony James Webb (born 8 March 1958), known professionally as Gary Numan, is an English singer, songwriter and musician. He entered the music industry as frontman of the New wave music, new wave band Tubeway Army. After releasing two st ...

, Tom Jones,

Olivia Newton-John Dame Olivia Newton-John (26 September 1948 – 8 August 2022) was a British and Australian singer and actress. With over 100 million records sold, Newton-John was one of the List of best-selling music artists#100 million to 119 million record ...

(as co-members of the band Toomorrow), and Uriah Heep. Slade was an original founding member of

, playing on their eight studio albums released from 1972 to 1978. In the mid-1980s Slade played with

Paul Rodgers Paul Bernard Rodgers (born 17 December 1949) is an English-Canadian singer. He was the lead vocalist of numerous successful rock bands, including Free (band), Free, Bad Company, The Firm (rock band), the Firm and The Law (English band), the L ...

and

Jimmy Page James Patrick Page (born 9 January 1944) is an English musician and producer who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the Rock music, rock band Led Zeppelin. Page began his career as a studio session musician in Lo ...

in The Firm. He has played with

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments ...

David Gilmour David Jon Gilmour ( ; born 6 March 1946) is an English guitarist, singer and songwriter who is a member of the rock band Pink Floyd. He joined in 1967, shortly before the departure of the founder member Syd Barrett. By the early 1980s, Pink F ...

, and

Gary Moore Robert William Gary Moore (4 April 19526 February 2011) was a Northern Irish musician. Over the course of his career, he played in various groups and performed a range of music including blues, blues rock, hard rock, Heavy metal music, heavy ...

on his 1989 world tour. Slade received his highest exposure in November 1989 when he was asked to join

after drummer Simon Wright had departed. AC/DC were signed to the same management company as Gary Moore, with whom Slade had just finished touring. The Young brothers (

Angus Angus may refer to: *Angus, Scotland, a council area of Scotland, and formerly a province, sheriffdom, county and district of Scotland * Angus, Canada, a community in Essa, Ontario Animals * Angus cattle, various breeds of beef cattle Media * ...

and Malcolm) initially hired Slade only temporarily through management, then asked him–during the recording of the only album he made with them – to join the band. Slade played on '' The Razors Edge'' album in 1990 and the accompanying world tour, and the " Big Gun" single released in 1993. According to Slade, after working on demos for the following album, '' Ballbreaker'',

Malcolm Young Malcolm Mitchell Young (6 January 1953 – 18 November 2017) was an Australian musician who was the rhythm guitarist, backing vocalist and a founding member of the hard rock band AC/DC. Except for a brief absence in 1988, he was a member of AC ...

called Slade and told him they wanted to try a reunion with former drummer Phil Rudd. Slade replied, "That's me out then, I'm gone." Young said that he wanted to keep Slade on hand if Rudd's return did not work out, but Slade refused. However he made statements that he still got on well with AC/DC and "it was an honour and a privilege to play with those guys". After his departure Slade spent a few years living in the UK countryside, before receiving a call from Geoff Downes of the British

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

group

. Slade played with Asia for six years, before departing in September 2005. Slade has fronted an AC/DC tribute band, Chris Slade Steel Circle, and is currently touring the World with THE CHRIS SLADE TIMELINE – a band formed to celebrate 50 years as a rock drummer. The band takes music from all aspects of his lengthy career and has appeared at major festivals including

Hellfest Hellfest (), also known as Hellfest Summer Open Air, is a rock festival focusing on heavy metal music, held annually in June in Clisson, France. Its high attendance makes it the French music festival with the largest turnover. It is also one o ...

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans () is an endurance-focused Sports car racing, sports car race held annually near the city of Le Mans, France. It is widely considered to be one of the world's most prestigious races, and is one of the races—along with ...

, Harley Davidson Aquitaine, and Saint Tropez and is the only rock band to play the Moscow Olympic Stadium for the Kremlin Cup tennis tournament.

Return to AC/DC

Speculation regarding Slade's return to AC/DC started shortly after Phil Rudd's legal troubles became public. In a December 2014 podcast by

Chris Jericho Christopher Keith Irvine (born November 9, 1970), better known by the ring name Chris Jericho, is an American-Canadian professional wrestler, rock musician, and actor. As a wrestler, he has been signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) , where he ...

, Jericho mentioned that he had it on good authority that Slade would be returning to AC/DC. Slade was photographed signing albums with the band on 7 February 2015. After the photo appeared publicly, Slade finally admitted that he was going to be the band's drummer and admitted to secrecy surrounding his return, and stated that it was done for the right reasons. The band issued a statement, "Chris Slade will be on drums for the upcoming Rock or Bust world tour.". Since that time, in addition to playing live, Slade has appeared in all promotional photos taken with the band and appeared in the music video for the single "Rock the Blues Away". In late April 2015 AC/DC's official website listed him as the band's drummer. On 30 September 2020, his role within the band was made clear: Phil Rudd was returning to AC/DC on the drums, effectively making Slade leave the band for a second time. In the same announcement, Brian Johnson and Cliff Williams were also returning to the band.

Equipment

Slade endorses

Drum Workshop Drum Workshop, Inc. (also known as DW Drums or DW) is a drum kit and hardware manufacturing company based in Oxnard, California. Current products by DW include drum sets, snare drums, and hardware. History Drum Workshop was founded in 1972 ...

drums, pedals and hardware,

Paiste Paiste (English pronunciation: , ) is a Switzerland, Swiss musical instrument manufacturing company. It is the world's third largest manufacturer of cymbals, gongs, and metal percussion. is an Estonian language, Estonian and Finnish language, ...

cymbals,

Remo Remo Inc. is an American musical instruments manufacturing company based in Valencia, California, and founded by Remo Belli in 1957. Products manufactured include drum kits, drumheads, drums, and drum hardware, hardware, and various percussio ...

drumheads, LP percussion and London drumsticks. Before switching to DW, he previously endorsed

Pearl drums , simply known as Pearl, is a multinational corporation based in Japan with a wide range of products, predominantly percussion instruments. History Time! Pearl was founded by Katsumi Yanagisawa -who began manufacturing music stands in Sumida, T ...

, pedals and hardware.

Discography

With Tom Jones

*'' Along Came Jones'' (1965) *''A-Tom-ic Jones'' (1966) *''From The Heart'' (1966) *'' Green, Green Grass of Home'' (1967) *''Live: at the Talk of the Town'' (1967) *''13 Smash Hits'' (1967) *''Delilah'' (1968) *''Tom Jones Live in Las Vegas'' (1969)

With Toomorrow

*'' Toomorrow'' (1970)

With Tom Paxton

*''How Come The Sun'' (1971)

With Manfred Mann's Earth Band

*''

'' (1972) *'' Glorified Magnified'' (1972) *'' Messin''' (1973) *'' Solar Fire'' (1973) *'' The Good Earth'' (1974) *'' Nightingales & Bombers'' (1975) *'' The Roaring Silence'' (1976) *''

Watch A watch is a timepiece carried or worn by a person. It is designed to maintain a consistent movement despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch is worn around the wrist, attached by a watch strap or another type of ...

'' (1978)

With Terra Nova

*''Terra Nova'' (1980)

With Kai Olsson

*''Crazy Love'' (1979)

With Frankie Miller

*''Falling in Love'' (1979)

With Uriah Heep

*''

Conquest Conquest involves the annexation or control of another entity's territory through war or Coercion (international relations), coercion. Historically, conquests occurred frequently in the international system, and there were limited normative or ...

'' (1980)

With Gary Numan

*'' I, Assassin'' (1982)

With Denny Laine

*'' Anyone Can Fly'' (1982)

With David Gilmour

*'' David Gilmour Live 1984'' (1984)

With The Firm

*'' The Firm'' (1985) *''

Mean Business ''Mean Business'' is the second and final studio album by The Firm, released by Atlantic Records on 3 February 1986. Repeating the same bluesy formula as on the first album, '' The Firm'' (1985), ''Mean Business'' did not achieve the same comm ...

'' (1986)

With AC/DC

*'' The Razors Edge'' (1990) *'' Live at Donington'' (1992) *'' AC/DC Live'' (1992) *" Big Gun" (1993)

With Asia

*'' Aura'' (2001) *'' Silent Nation'' (2004)

With Bloodstock

*''Creator of Worlds''

With Damage Control

*''Damage Control'' (2007) *''Raw'' (2008)

With MIWA

*''My Wish Is Your Command'' (2011) *''Reach Out and Touch Me'' (2018)

References

External links

Official website

Chris Slade appears as a cast member on Bending Reality TV

Damage Control official site

MIWA official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Slade, Chris 1946 births Living people Welsh rock drummers British male drummers Uriah Heep (band) members The Gary Moore Band members AC/DC members Asia (band) members Michael Schenker Group members Manfred Mann's Earth Band members The Firm (rock band) members People from Pontypridd Musicians from Cardiff Welsh session musicians British heavy metal drummers