Donald George Powell (born 10 September 1946) is an English musician who was the drummer for

glam rock Glam rock is a style of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s and was primarily defined by the flamboyant clothing, makeup, and hairstyles of its musicians, particularly platform shoes and glitter. Glam artists d ...

and later

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

group

Slade Slade are a rock band formed in Wolverhampton, England in 1966. They rose to prominence during the glam rock era in the early 1970s, achieving 17 consecutive top 20 hits and six number ones on the UK Singles Chart. The '' British Hit Singl ...

for over fifty years, from 1966 until he was dismissed by Dave Hill in 2020.

Early life

Powell was born in

Bilston Bilston is a market town in the City of Wolverhampton in the West Midlands County, West Midlands, England. It is in the Black Country, south east of Wolverhampton city centre and close to the borders of Sandwell Metropolitan Borough, Sandwell ...

in 1946. His parents were Walter and Dora Powell. Wally was a steelworker, and Dora made electrical components. He has three siblings, a brother and two sisters. He attended Villiers Road Primary School from 1950 to 1957 and started to play drums for the Boy Scouts in 1958. He then attended Etheridge Secondary Modern School for Boys from 1957 to 1962, and studied

metallurgy Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the ...

at Wednesbury Technical College in 1962.

Career

He joined The Vendors in 1964, who later that year changed their name to The 'N Betweens, then to Ambrose Slade in 1969, and a few months later on 24 October 1969, shorten to

. A long-time fan of

Ringo Starr Sir Richard Starkey (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the group, us ...

, Powell contributed the foreword to the 2016 book ''Ringo Starr and the Beatles Beat'' by Alex Cain and Terry McCusker. As the drummer with Colonel Bagshot, McCusker toured with Slade in the 1970s and the two have remained firm friends. Powell collaborated with Lise Lyng Falkenberg on his biography since 2006, in part using the notebooks and diaries he kept due to his problems with short term memory following his 1973 accident. The biography, titled ''Look Wot I Dun – My Life in Slade'' was released via the publisher Music Sales Ltd in October 2013. It covers in detail Slade's long career and Powell's life, which included booze-ups with

Ozzy Osbourne John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English singer, songwriter, and media personality. He rose to prominence during the 1970s as the lead singer of the heavy metal music, heavy metal band Black Sabbath, during which per ...

. In 2013, Powell created his own website, and in early 2014 he published his diary entries for 1977 and 1978. In February 2020, Powell announced that he had been fired by email by Dave Hill and would be forming Don Powell's Slade to perform Slade songs. The reason for Powell being dismissed wasn't officially given at the time. Noddy Holder eventually confirmed the reason for Powell being fired was because he had missed a few gigs because of an injury; on 28 December 2018 when at Peterborough station, he snapped tendons in both of his legs and was hospitalised for five weeks, eventually returning to performing again on 1 November 2019. Powell had worried about his leg relapsing while on stage, and just two days after retuning to the band following his injuries was advised by doctors that he would be crippled for life and be wheelchair bound if he did not stop drumming, but he refused and so Dave Hill reacted by firing him. According to Holder, many fans turned against Hill, and it affected him personally. Soon after departing from Slade, Powell's website mentioned that he was fit enough to play drums again. He formed "Don Powell's Slade".

Car crash

On 8 June 1973, Powell collapsed with heat exhaustion at the end of a show in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

. He spent the night in hospital but was declared fit to play the following morning when discharged. At 1am on Wednesday, 4 July 1973, when Slade were popular in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and number one in the UK Singles Chart with "

Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me "Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me" is a song by the British rock band Slade, released in 1973 as a non-album single. It was written by lead vocalist Noddy Holder and bassist Jim Lea (musician), Jim Lea, and produced by Chas Chandler. It reached No. 1 in th ...

", Don Powell was severely injured in a serious car crash at Compton Road West,

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands of England. Located around 12 miles (20 km) north of Birmingham, it forms the northwestern part of the West Midlands conurbation, with the towns of ...

, in which his 20-year-old fiancée, Angela Morris was killed instantly. On a bend in the road, the car hit a hedge and a road sign and then smashed into a wall. Powell fractured his skull, smashed several teeth, broke both of his ankles and five of his

ribs The rib cage or thoracic cage is an endoskeletal enclosure in the thorax of most vertebrates that comprises the ribs, vertebral column and sternum, which protect the vital organs of the thoracic cavity, such as the heart, lungs and great vessels ...

. Surgeons had to drill into his skull to ease the internal pressure and he was unconscious for six days but he eventually pulled through, finding the best therapy to be work. Both Powell and Morris had been flung out of the car so it was impossible to tell who had been driving. Powell was unable to attend Morris's cremation six days later on 10 July. He left the hospital on 30 July;''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily Tabloid journalism, tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1903, it is part of Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), which is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the tit ...

'' - 31 July 1973 by mid-August, he was back recording with the group. When the Top 5 hit " My Friend Stan" was recorded, Powell was 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 he still has severe problems with his

short-term memory Short-term memory (or "primary" or "active memory") is the capacity for holding a small amount of information in an active, readily available state for a short interval. For example, short-term memory holds a phone number that has just been recit ...

, whilst his

long-term memory Long-term memory (LTM) is the stage of the Atkinson–Shiffrin memory model in which informative knowledge is held indefinitely. It is defined in contrast to sensory memory, the initial stage, and short-term or working memory, the second stage ...

has remained unaffected.

References

External links

Don Powell Band site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Powell, Don 1946 births Living people English rock drummers People from Bilston English male songwriters Musicians from the West Midlands (county) Glam rock musicians Slade members English autobiographers