An Exclusive Interview with Rock Legend Chris Slade: Reflecting on Six Decades of Music
Chris Slade's name often conjures up images of the electrifying beat behind AC/DC's "Thunderstruck," a track that even after three decades, continues to dominate rock radio across the globe. Yet, this iconic moment is but a single note in the symphony of his extensive career.
It all began in the mid-60s when a youthful Chris secured a spot drumming for Tommy Scott and the Senators, navigating the club scene in South Wales. Few may recognize Tommy Scott today, yet he reinvented himself as Tom Jones, becoming a towering figure in the entertainment world over the last six decades.
But Chris's journey didn't stop there. His talent led him to collaborate with an impressive roster of musicians including Manfred Mann, Frankie Miller, Uriah Heep, Dave Gilmour, Jimmy Page, and Gary Moore before the call came from AC/DC.
Today, Chris continues to tour and record, maintaining amicable ties with AC/DC. Recently, he has channeled his enduring passion into a fresh venture—his latest album Timescape with his band, "Chris Slade's Timeline."
I had the privilege to sit down with Chris and delve into his remarkable sixty-year tenure in the music industry. Join us as we explore the rhythms and tales of a living rock legend.
Tim Caple (00:00.731)
I wanted to start with where it all began for you as a musician. And obviously you have your brother to thank because because if he hadn't rocked home with the big street band drum or got into the marching bands, you may not have discovered your love and talent.
Chris Slade (00:25.742)
Yeah, well, his fault. You want to blame him, don't blame me, blame my brother.
Tim Caple (00:33.403)
Now you grew up in a... It sounds like something of a musical household because your dad was a tap dancer and a singer, wasn't he?
Chris Slade (00:43.82)
Yeah. In what they used to call a concert party. So they'd go around the working meds clubs, you know, entertaining.
Tim Caple (00:56.027)
That must have, it must have been quite a strange sight for people that don't know you were born and bred in Pontypridd in Wales. I'm trying to imagine this sort of very, how should I put it, maybe male dominated environment and you've got a tap dancer there. Where did he learn to do that?
Chris Slade (01:18.7)
I don't know where he learned it. He just picked it up as he went along, I think. But he was pretty good, apparently. And it was, don't forget, in the 20s and 30s, Fred Astaire and all that was very big. So tap dancing, Gene Kelly, tap dancing was a very big part of entertainment.
Tim Caple (01:25.083)
You're growing up in a house where you have no TV So was life centered around radio and listening to radio?
Chris Slade (01:56.586)
Yes, if you were lucky that is. And maybe a dad wanted to listen to a football match or a boxing match or something so you couldn't use it. It was the grown -ups that had the access to it.
Tim Caple (02:13.211)
You talked about your drumming influences, Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa. Where did you hear these guys first
Chris Slade (02:28.042)
you know, I'm not sure. It must've been radio. It must've been, you know, because, they would, have a big band on at lunchtime, for instance, big band being, you know, brass and, brass players, trombones, trumpets, saxophones. And that was a big thing also back in the day. so it obviously came from there. Maybe they started with it and said, that's a
Chris Slade (02:57.642)
Gene Krupa tune or something, you know, something like that. So it was always there for me, really. I knew what I wanted to listen to, you know, which is the real stuff, not the cover stuff, as we didn't have that phrase back then. But, you know, it was. And then, I suppose, records started coming out. My elder brother had a record player.
But the first album I ever bought was a jazz album from a movie, the soundtrack of a movie. But I'd always been listening to it on wherever I could. You know, I've never thought about that where I first heard it. It might have been a radio that you could tune in. That was sheer luxury to have that.
Tim Caple (03:54.523)
Yeah, because I remember that you listen to Jagger and Keith Richards, et cetera, talking about the very early days and how you couldn't get hold of any of this. And then somebody would have an import record and they'd all gather around at somebody else's house and sit and listen to it. And it was such a huge event.
Chris Slade (04:15.848)
Yes, absolutely. Yeah, music was massive. Much bigger than it is today because it was the only form of entertainment, you know. There was no TV when I was growing up. I mean, there was, of course, it had been invented. I'm not that old. But, you know, it was quite exclusive. There was when it got popular, if you like.
Chris Slade (04:45.095)
There was one TV set in our street. And that was a street that was owned by a councillor and he used to let the children in to watch the children's program at five o 'clock. So the whole front room be full. I mean, like 20, 30 kids all sitting there watching children's TV, you know, in the street. And there was one car and it was probably his.
Tim Caple (05:18.075)
So you're in the shoe shop in Cardiff. Is that shoe shop still there, by the way?
Chris Slade (05:22.181)
yeah. Yep.
I've no idea. It was a chain. It was called Dolcis
Tim Caple (05:30.683)
a name that trips off the tongue for those of you getting school shoes in the 70s and the 80s. So you're in there going through your normal daily routine of activities and in walks one of the band members of Tom Jones's band, Tommy Scott and the Senators,
Chris Slade (05:54.693)
Tommy Scott. That's it. Yeah. He thought Tommy Scott's only better than Tommy Woodward. That is his real name.
Tim Caple (05:57.627)
And so you just,heard that there may be a vacancy for a drummer and so you just ask him, got any vacancies? It was as simple as that.
Chris Slade (06:13.123)
Well, I went up to them. I learned that morning, that morning that they'd sacked their drummer last night because a lady who worked in the shop used to go and see Tommy Scott and the Senators in this club regularly. And she said, you should get in touch or something and try to get, I know you're a drummer, so why don't you? And then,
A few hours later, and I said, no, they won't want, because they were in their 20s and I was 16. So it was a huge age gap. Back then it was enormous. There was this cavernous age gap. They didn't talk to teenagers, 20 year olds, didn't even come into their universe. So I eventually got the courage and I got up and said, all in one go.
Chris Slade (07:11.171)
I heard you sacked a drummer last night and you need a drummer and I'm a drummer and I live by Tom.
Tim Caple (07:17.179)
You were literally around there the same day then.
Chris Slade (07:23.075)
It was within hours that I learned of the vacancy that he walked into the shop I was working in.
Tim Caple (07:31.419)
Well, the whole fate thing is at play again here.
Chris Slade (07:35.394)
it's incredible. It's happened more than twice in my life. Whatever it is, karma, fate or whatever, you know.
Tim Caple (07:40.315)
So you're on the drum stool did you have any inclination that there was more than just a sprinkling of star quality when you were watching Tom
Chris Slade (07:56.0)
Yes?
Chris Slade (08:04.961)
he was always a great singer back then even, you know, he was tremendous. He was at the, in his prime actually, I would say at that time, you know, he was told he was too old to make it. He was 23 years old.
Tim Caple (08:20.059)
Too old. Incredible.
Wow.
Chris Slade (08:24.833)
He was told at 23 he was too old to make it. In the Pock world.
Tim Caple (08:32.123)
And how did you cope with all of the female attendees and the various items that were thrown on stage?
Chris Slade (08:40.384)
No, that didn't happen back then.
That happened in, it started happening in the Copa Cabana in New York City. We were playing a show there for a week. We were there for a week. It was packed every night. Nobody knows the Copa. It ain't that big. It's a big name, but a small place. And it was absolutely jammed. And this guy came in with a
Chris Slade (09:14.335)
lady, shall I say, and there was nowhere for him to sit. So he must have been a bit connected, you know what I mean? And they put a table, just one table on the dance floor, which is Tom's stage. There was like a 10 foot square dance floor in front of the where the band were sitting and just one table. So he must have been
Chris Slade (09:43.806)
We were connected, you know? And Tom used to take napkins off the tables and wipe his forehead because he sweated so much. He always used to sweat profusely. And this time he went to this table to get a napkin and he picked the napkin up and she said, wait a minute. And she stood up and she
took off her panties and went, there you go. And Tom took them and wiped his brow. And of course that story got out and become apocryphal. And you know, people now throw panties. They don't know why they're throwing them, but they do. And that's where it started. This lady, if you want to put a better word, doing that. It's quite entertaining.
Tim Caple (10:31.515)
It's brilliant, isn't it?
Salut!
Tim Caple (10:43.323)
But you, of course, were extremely well behaved and at the end of the night used to go home and sleep, be ready for the next night. There was no after -match drinking.
Chris Slade (10:52.157)
Of course. No, no. Wouldn't dream of it. Wouldn't dream of it.
Tim Caple (11:01.307)
You moved on from there. You did a bit of, you did some session with a band called Chapter Three which was Manfred Mann and then he gets back in touch with you.
Chris Slade (11:08.893)
yes. Well, that was Manfred, in fact, chapter chapter three was his was his like big band project, if you like. And I was playing with a big band at the time, just on a Sunday, perhaps something like that on weekends. If you weren't working there, you know, it's full of the top session men, brass players and saxophone players, because they just wanted to play, you know, and I used to do it sometimes.
Tim Caple (11:39.867)
So the evolution of his band from the pop band into the big band and then when you get going again properly heading for that debut album, it was you that suggested using the name Earth Band, wasn't it?
Chris Slade (12:01.051)
Yes, well we were all racking our brains going, we want something that rhymes with man, you know, okay we'll have something band. It'd be Manfred Man's space band, head band. And I went, what about earth band? They went, okay, we'll use earth band. So that's where it came from.
.
Tim Caple (12:25.307)
And it was a completely different style of music as well, wasn't it? Because it was more pop -orientated with, you know, Mighty Quinn, et cetera, et cetera, in the 60s. This had a whole new direction.
Chris Slade (12:37.211)
Yes, we used to do Mighty Quinn also, but it was a progressive band. Mighty Quinn turned into a 25 minute jam, you know, because that's what we did on stage. It was this bit like The Grateful Dead or Cream, you know? And it was more like that than it was Earth Band on record. We could never capture that.
Chris Slade (13:05.499)
I think actually the truth is Manfred didn't want to capture that on record because we always used to rehearse like hell. I mean, every single day when we weren't working, we'd be rehearsing. And I always said to him, Manfred, you're rehearsing the spontaneity out of this. You know, I've always said that to him. He knows that.
Tim Caple (13:14.587)
Right.
Chris Slade (13:34.874)
And I spoke to him a few years back and he said, I don't do that anymore. And I said, good.
Tim Caple (13:45.435)
Do you think that you got the credit that you deserved in that band? Because you talked to people about Manfred Mann's Earth band and they come back with, yeah, two hits. But if you look at the coverage that you got in the States, and there was a review of the first album, and glorified and magnified, from Robert Christgou who was one of the big reviewers.
the time over in the States. And he said, it's an extraordinary cult record, one of the most underrated of the 1970s.
Chris Slade (14:25.273)
Wow, I didn't know that. But, you know, I think Earth Band was underrated, even though we got a number one single. That was a bit of an accident, really. But I didn't know that that guy said that. No idea at all.
Tim Caple (14:44.891)
It garnered some incredible reviews, all based in the States. So you would have had him, you would have had probably Lester Bangs was one of the big reviewers of the time, Rolling Stone "Good Earth" When you think about marketing, record marketing for when you're putting out a new album, this was quite a good one that I saw when you released that album, the first...
people that bought it, did they not get a one square foot of land upon the Brecon Beacons?
Chris Slade (15:21.784)
Yes, which was the size of the record sleeve, actually. And that record sleeve is a contract. So if you bought the record, you got the land free. It was a tiny, you know, foot square you got. You couldn't dig in it or dig for gold or anything like that on it because it was for conservation and mainly for the red kite
Tim Caple (15:32.251)
Brilliant.
Chris Slade (15:51.576)
There's a lot around now, red kites, but they were dying out. They're a fantastic bird. They're like eagles. They are massive, but they've got a V tail. You can see when they fly. When Timeline, actually, when the band was driving Oxford area on the freeway, on the motorway, I said to Steve, the singer, Stevie G,
Chris Slade (16:21.207)
I said, you know, when I've driven here on my own, I saw one day, I saw 30 rad kites all in the same half an hour. He said, nah, that's stupid because they died out. I said, no, they ain't right there they are. And I said, you count them. And we got over 30, we got 50 or 60. It was all the same bird of course, getting flying past and pretending to be a different bird.
You could tell that, you know, it's Charlie, the red kite. And he was like, he wanted to be seen. So he kept going ahead all the time of us, you know, we were doing 80 mile an hour. They can fly faster than that.
Tim Caple (17:06.427)
So what was it that drew you to the Bruce Springsteen song off the Greetings from Asbury Park album"Blinded By The Light" Now, Bruce was not big at the time. So how did that song drop into your lap or onto your radar?
Chris Slade (17:13.493)
Chris Slade (17:23.092)
We were given that, Manfred and I were each given a copy of that album. We played in a club in New England. I can't remember the name of it right now. I will, but I can't remember it right now. And this journalist was there. And he gave us each, me and Manfred, a copy of Gritting from Asbury Park. Now it had died a death.
Gone down the tubes, nobody bought it. So that was Bruce's first album. It's a million seller now, but when it came out, and I wonder why it was a million seller, but anyway, his version is completely different to Manfred's version. I say Manfred's version because it was Manfred did the arrangement with the Kling Kling piano and things like that.
Chris Slade (18:22.641)
So Manfred brought it to the band, you know, and see what do you think of this guys? And we said, that sounds great. Let's do it. Because we always did that. We always voted what we were going to do. And was it good enough or did we think it was okay? People were interested in it. And we said, yeah, let's do it. So we did it and we all put our stuff into it.
We always, with every song with EarthBand, except for maybe the first album, we always had our input in it. The band was, you know, it was quite good like that. We all had an opinion. And when we used to mix, we would all stand at the desk and have about two or three faders each, because there were no automatic faders back then. You know, these days, with digital desks, you...
You do it once, you rehearse it, you do it once and the desk remembers what volume the bass was at, what volume the drums were at. Whereas in those days, you had to put it, you could mark it with a piece of chalk. All high technology, you know? And we used to stand there and mix, you know, even we had some long songs, like 10 minutes, some of them. It'll take us...
it takes you more than that to mix it, you know, because you got to practice the mix. It was too much for one person, like an engineer. So everybody got involved and we got involved with the arrangement also. Manfred has said in print that it was my idea to do chopsticks in the middle. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, you know, that one that most people try to play.
Chris Slade (20:21.549)
when they see a keyboard. So I said, hey, let's put chopsticks in the middle, Manfred thought for a second, because he's quite adventurous musically, you know. And he said, yeah, it's a great idea. So we put chopsticks in the middle. So it made it, you know, sort of, I don't know, funny, whatever. I don't know what it was.
Tim Caple (20:46.971)
When you finished it and you sat and you listened to the completed song. Did you think, hey, guys, this is going to be the big one for us?
Chris Slade (20:58.06)
No, no, not at all. We thought it was good. When I did the demo for It's Not Usual for Tom Jones, 10 years before, and we knew, all of us, that that was a hit record. That was a number one record. And it was. And Tom, in fact, got into a huge argument with the manager in the pub with us all around and people all around us.
Chris Slade (21:25.804)
And he said, I can't have that song because it was done for Sandy Shaw, who was a girl singer at that time. I say girl singer, she was. And it was written for her. So they said, no, you can't have it. It's for Sandy. Tom said, if I can't have that song, I can go back to Wales. I'm giving up. He was probably 24 at the time. You know, he's going to give up music business. So he eventually got it. Apparently, Sandy heard it.
She said this many times too on record. She heard it and thought that song belongs to the guy who's singing it. She didn't know who that was. And that sort of made Tom Jones. And so. No, no, I think Manfred called him once and it was like, hello, hello Bruce, it's Manfred Mann. Are you asleep? Yes. Okay, I'll call back. He never did.
Tim Caple (22:10.875)
Do you ever speak to Bruce Springsteen about that song? Ever come across him?
Chris Slade (22:29.547)
Because you know, there was no internet in those days. You know, you couldn't contact people. And it was an in...
Tim Caple (22:35.643)
Well, and as somebody said to me the other day, if you wanted to call, it was actually was Carmine Appice was talking to me about it. He said, listen, if I wanted to call somebody in England, you'd have to use the international operator to put you through.
Chris Slade (22:48.201)
Yes, yes, I remember trying to get hold of my wife once and I was living in, anyway, I said, can I have, I can't remember my phone number even, but can you get me 093278, middle sex? And the operator goes, could you spell that for me? And I said, yes, -I -D -D -L -E, middle.
Tim Caple (23:10.619)
Ha ha.
Chris Slade (23:17.737)
S -E -X sex trick.
Tim Caple (23:24.091)
she cut you off!
Chris Slade (23:24.585)
She cut me off because I said the word sex in middle sex. So yes, Carmine's right. No, Carmine, we're the same age. And he's great at self -promoting. I'm not so great at it. He is the greatest self -publicist. It's amazing.
Tim Caple (23:50.043)
You think about the songs that you guys, if you take away, you know, some of the latter stuff you did, your contribution to 70s Carmine's with Rod Stewart and Do You Think I'm Sexy and Young Turks and you were "Blinded by the Light". Let's not forget as well "Davys on the road again" which was another song, which was originally about eight minutes long, wasn't it, on the album before it became a single.
Chris Slade (24:13.574)
Yes, that was us trying to capture the live thing. So we did it live in a club, into a desk, you know, proper desk. And we do that still with timeline and everybody knows the lyrics. I'm amazed. You know, 50 years, 60 years on, they know the song. It's a good song.
Tim Caple (24:34.203)
They're classic songs. They will never go out of fashion. They will always be played. And you played with another very, very famous singer -songwriter, Frankie Miller, after Manfred had finished. Frankie, again, a lot of people talk about him now in very hushed, revered terms. He never really got the credit, perhaps, that he was...
Chris Slade (24:47.366)
Yeah, yeah, I did that. I'm not going to do nothing.
Tim Caple
Were you working on that big hit he had, Darling? That was... You were on that. So you were on top of the pops every week.
Chris Slade (25:05.318)
He was really good.
Chris Slade (25:12.806)
Yes, that was me. Yes. Yeah. And the funny thing is Tom was in the States and he was living in LA and recording country music. And he did Darling as a cover. I don't think he knew it was me on it. But, you know, it's funny that they they both should do Darling, you know, that song. So.
Tim Caple (25:41.115)
Frankie actually duetted, didn't he, with Phil Lynott on "Still In Love With You", for Thin Lizzy. Did work with them in the very early 70s But that album you were on, "Fallin' In Love" was his most successful album. So you were bringing the stardust,
Chris Slade (26:02.021)
Really? Is that the one with the hat? He's wearing a hat. Right, yeah.
Tim Caple (26:08.251)
So everywhere you were going, success arrived pretty soon afterwards.
Chris Slade (26:14.469)
Yeah, yes, every band should hire me for a little bit because my success will rub off on them, you know, of course, it's obvious.
Tim Caple (26:20.539)
Uriah Heap was a bit of a departure they were going through a bit of a period of change. But you were on the last album with Ken Hensley, Conquest.
Chris Slade (26:41.669)
Yes, it's that Mick didn't want to continue with the lineup we had, which was actually a boy from Cardiff, John Sloman. We're still friends. He was Welsh, of course, and we're still good friends. And that album...
Chris Slade (27:10.437)
I didn't know it was different for your eye a heap. I had no idea. I just played drums, you know, it's okay, we'll do this one now. All right. So there's no sort of premeditation, if you like. It was just doing my job, doing what I'm told. And I think it was quite a good album, actually.
Tim Caple (27:36.667)
Well, a lot of people said at the time, it's gone way, way too commercial but it did what the three previous albums hadn't done, which was actually made the top 40 album and again, if you go back and look at some of the reviews, I think it was the Record Mirror at the time, which was quite big. This was just before Kerrang magazine.
and the Hard Rock magazines came along, but they gave it a five -star review. So, you know, when you look back now, quite a successful album.
Chris Slade (28:14.949)
Right, yeah, well I didn't know any of that, you know, because they never tell the drummer anything, to be honest. No matter whether it's management or band, you know. Where were you last Wednesday at rehearsal? You didn't tell me! It was rehearsal, you know. In the pecking order, drummers get the short end of the stick, you know.
Tim Caple (28:36.987)
So considering where you had been in your career up to then, Tom Jones, Manfred Mann, Uriah Heep, Frankie Miller and a few of the other things you'd done, what was it that drew you to Gary Newman? because this is a completely different musical genre.
Chris Slade (28:54.533)
Yeah, well, I co -owned a recording studio in Shepperton, Middlesex. There's that word again. I hope we don't get put off the air because of me saying Middlesex. Anyway, I co -owned a recording studio and Gary started recording there because he didn't live far away from that.
And that's how he came about and he wanted a drummer one day and I went, okay, I'll play drums. And then he said, he asked me in the course of doing that album, I, Assassin, if I knew any fretless bass players, because he wanted to use a fretless bass player, I said, I know just the man. Now he was a friend, Pino Palladino, the bass player I'm talking about, and he's with the Who now.
Chris Slade (29:49.701)
And he was with Paul Young for many years, of course. Wherever I lay my hat, hang my hat, I'm sorry. And that was Pino. But when I knew him, he was a friend of John Sloan's. They went to school together. Because he's Cardiff. He sounds like he's Italian, but he's from Cardiff.
Tim Caple (30:12.987)
A big Italian community over there, of course.
Chris Slade (30:15.653)
Yeah, his father was Italian, of course, was Disappino. Well, that's actually that's Pino's name, Disappino Paludino, which means little Pino. No, it means little Giuseppe, actually. It means little Giuseppe. And so he's always short lit Pino, you know, and.
Chris Slade (30:43.589)
You know, he's an incredible bass player, just, you know, fantastic musically. And when I first met him, he was a guitarist. He used to play double neck, like Jimmy Page, double neck guitar. And then he went to Fretless Bass. And when I asked him to do the Gary Newman thing, he hadn't done any recordings on bass whatsoever. So, you know, that was his debut.
Tim Caple (31:14.139)
You know what, it's funny because when he first started Pino, I was talking to the late Robin George. I don't know whether you ever met Robin George.
who sadly passed away not that long ago, actually.
Chris Slade (31:30.341)
Yeah, I did not
Tim Caple (31:33.467)
Well, he was working with Pino in literally 1979, 1980, when his mum used to drive him to rehearsals because he didn't have a car because he couldn't drive. So he started with Robin George.
Chris Slade (31:52.645)
Wow, I didn't know that. I really did not.
Tim Caple (31:57.307)
Yeah, and he's a lovely guy, Robin George. So you said earlier on with me when I mentioned the word fate, you know, your brother coming in with the drum In terms of being in the right place at the right time and having just about the best day of your life ever.
was the day that you got the two phone calls. First from Dave Gilmour "hey, come and start a band" and then coming back after you've been down to the pub to celebrate, Jimmy Page is on the phonewith an offer to oin him Is that still the greatest of your life
Chris Slade (32:39.813)
That's right. I couldn't believe it. I wrote it in red on the calendar. I've still probably still got that calendar somewhere. I can't remember the date, but I wrote it in red. Phone call from Gilmore, phone call from Jimmy Page. It's like I couldn't believe it. I had to go back down the pub after that.
Tim Caple (33:02.075)
it must be one of those moments you look back on and it just brings a smile to your face
Chris Slade (33:16.933)
most definitely. It's unprecedented to get a call from the two greatest iconic guitarists in the world on the same day offering you a job. It's like, well, it goes beyond comprehension, I see.
Tim Caple (33:35.259)
And did you not say, look, you know, I'm working on a project at the moment, with Mick Ralph's "don't worry about that, Mick's in the band as well" Jimmy added
Chris Slade (33:42.501)
Yes. Yes. And I also said to Pagie, I said, Jim, you won't believe this. Hour and a half ago, I said yes to a tour with David Gilmore. And he stopped and I thought, it's the end of that then. And he went, that's OK. We'll wait. David Paul Rogers, you know, we'll wait. I took the phone away from my head and looked at the phone, you know, like like a comedy movie.
Chris Slade (34:12.997)
What? And then, okay. And he said, you know, just let us know what you're doing and when you're doing it. And we'll wait. We didn't know Harry.
Tim Caple (34:26.299)
So tell me, how pissed were you at the end of that day?
Chris Slade (34:30.021)
Not much, because I went down to the pub for lunch, or at the end of that day. Yes, probably a little, yes, a little swift, shall I say. Possibly.
Tim Caple (34:43.803)
so Jimmy Page in the end settles on you. for "The Firm" they had looked as well at Bill Bruford and Palladino as well
Chris Slade (34:55.525)
Yeah, Pino was involved in the beginning. Again, because they said, you know, only bass players and you know, that was it. In the end, Pino pulled out. I've no idea why, to be honest. He might not have wanted to work with me, who knows? We went on the road together with Gary Newman. But, you know, maybe he had the who in the wings. Sorry.
Tim Caple (35:14.139)
Were you looking forward though to getting out on the road with them thinking, great, we'll be playing a Free , Paul Rogers, Led Zeppelin and all of this great stuff and we'll be writing some new stuff as well. It will be an incredible band. But the truth was they didn't want to play any of their own previous materials. No Zeppelin, no Free, no Paul Rogers, nothing.
No Bad Company
Chris Slade (35:48.725)
Yeah, yeah. And Bad Company was huge, by the way, especially in America. Yeah, that was a bit of a disappointment. We rehearsed a few things, but it didn't happen. You know, so. That's life. I mean, that's what you go along with.
Tim Caple (36:12.571)
The first album, or in fact both of the albums, were remarkably successful. More so, again, in the US than they were in the UK. You did a cover version of Lost That Loving Feeling as well, which was a great version. Mean Business, top 30 in the US. So it was a successful band.
Chris Slade (36:39.187)
Yes, it was. And it was a very good band, as you can only imagine. Tony Franken is a tremendous bass player. You know, he is a fretless monster. That's what he calls himself. That's his sort of email, if you like, or his handle or whatever, fretless monster. And he's a tremendous player. And he was a great asset because he sung and he played keyboards also because he's classically trained keyboard player.
piano player and you know it was a great band on stage as well as in the studio and you know people come up to me every day when I'm on the road which is you know with quite a lot all over Europe and they say you know this is my favorite album and they will you sign it for me
and it's a firm album. And they mean it and they're genuine when they say, this is my favorite album. Like, you know, it's not Led Zeppelin or whatever. It's the firm, which is amazing when you think of the success that is, you know, that has been generated by other bands like Zeppelin. Wow. I mean, who hasn't got a Zeppelin album? You know?
At least one. Yeah, at least one.
Tim Caple (38:08.635)
You only played two dates in the UK. You played at Middlesbrough Town Hall and the Hammersmith Odeon. That was it.
Chris Slade (38:23.248)
Yeah, I never thought about that. But yes, I remember being an Amaldean because our timeline singer Stevie G was at that concert.
Tim Caple (38:37.243)
Yeah, yeah.
Chris Slade (38:40.687)
He keeps telling me. He went along especially.
Tim Caple (38:45.211)
Were you surprised that it died out as quickly as it arrived? I mean, I know they said afterwards that there was only ever going to be a two -year project and whatever, but the reaction that it got was very good. People wanted to see it and hear it.
Chris Slade (39:00.271)
A lot of journalists said we were in it for the money because we call ourselves a firm, which is a business type thing. And the second number is called Mean Business, which Paul came up with. I thought it was a fantastic title. It can mean so many things. We mean business. It's a mean business, which it is. And you know what it is. There's no getting away from it. You've got to be.
You've got to have rhino hide to put up with this business, the way people treat you and the way you get treated by agents, managers, bands. So, you know, it really is a mean business. And I thought.
Tim Caple (39:47.931)
Has there ever been a time when the band, the firm, the band thought about getting back together? Has there ever been any discussion?
Chris Slade (39:55.215)
Yes, but this other band got in the way. What are they called? Led something or other. Zeppelin, that's it. Led Zeppelin. They did a concert and they didn't know even because I talked to them whether they were going to continue or not. In the end, I don't think Robert Plant wanted to continue. So they didn't, I suppose.
Chris Slade (40:25.262)
And he's done some great stuff since, you know. Yes, his career has been amazing.
Tim Caple (40:28.667)
amazing stuff, actually.
and you can understand if you're not selfish for a minute and say, get back into the lights. You can understand why he didn't want to go near all of that madness again.
Chris Slade (40:43.79)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course you can. People can't, but I think musicians understand completely why Jim wanted to go back there then, you know, back and back there then, you know, he didn't he didn't need any money. He could do what he wanted to do.
Tim Caple (41:06.107)
Absolutely. Yeah. So who would choose that level of intrusion into your life if you didn't need to have it and you'd experienced it all when you were 30 years younger now you were working with Gary Moore when Malcolm Young came to see you. And then you go down to do that audition for
for ACDC. Would you have gone had you have known that there were a hundred other people that had been auditioned?
Chris Slade (41:43.851)
I would have gone, I would have tried out, you know. They told me afterwards, but, and they were top people too. I won't say any names, but they were top people. And they would, they would call the band and say, look, don't tell my band, but I really want to try out with you guys because everybody wanted to be in ACDC. You know, and,
I bought Highway to Hell when it came out. So I was a bit of a fan as well. And I played that album to death. And my favorite song was Touch Too Much.
Tim Caple (42:27.163)
Yes, yeah, yeah, great song. One of those nights when you turn out the lights.
Chris Slade (42:29.227)
Yeah, it is.
Yeah, great alliteration there, wonderful alliteration.
Tim Caple (42:35.643)
Brilliant.
And everything comes into view. I know it was a great song, great song.
Chris Slade (42:42.347)
Hahaha
It is. We do it with Timeline. And we did it with ACDC with Axel Rose. He requested we did it.
Tim Caple (42:58.331)
I saw that and he did a bloody brilliant job of it. I thought...
Chris Slade (43:02.153)
Yeah, he I tell you, he did a great job with ACDC. You know, he's not Brian Johnson. He doesn't try to be Brian Johnson. You know, Brian is Brian. He has a unique voice and it suits the band. Axl came along and I was amazed at his voice, at his vocal range. I didn't know he had a voice like that. I really did not. I'd only ever heard him.
in Guns N' Roses and I didn't like too much what I heard to be honest, some of it. And I heard that
Tim Caple (43:37.563)
What did you think then when you got together with the boys? You ended up at Little Mountain Studios. Mike Fraser was the sound engineer and the mixer. That was his first album the Razor's Edge and he's been with them on every one since.
Chris Slade (43:50.664)
Yeah, he's great.
Chris Slade (43:56.712)
Yes, because he's really good at what he does. Really good. He's a producer now, I believe. Whereas he started as an engineer with Bruce Fairburn, you know?
Tim Caple (44:09.883)
That's what I was going to say, because you had as the producer Bruce Fairburn, who was just about the biggest name in rock music production at that time. He'd done Slippery in New Jersey with Bon Jovi, he'd done Aerosmith's return to mega stardom. So what was it like working with him? What do you remember about working with Bruce?
Chris Slade (44:32.967)
It was really good. He asked me, can you go boom boom when they go thunder? And I went, yeah, of course. And he seemed incredibly surprised that I could go boom boom in time with my own playing. And I went, of course I can do it. It's dead simple. Any drummer in the world could do it. And just give me a count in.
play the song and take, okay? Yeah, all right. He was incredibly surprised that I was able to do that. And he wanted a few times around because he wanted as big a sound as possible.
Tim Caple (45:21.499)
He succeeded in that. The album, when it came out, again, I mean, if you go back and you look at some of the reviews, the one that I like most, it said, "tight, highly strung, menacing, and entirely worthy of the status as the grand comeback of the legendary rock and roll runts."
Chris Slade (45:23.302)
Yeah.
Chris Slade (45:49.285)
They were, they were genius writers actually. When you know, Angus and Malcolm together, they were absolutely, you know, and George also helped, I think. I don't know about the credits, but I mean, he helped with arrangements maybe, brother George. Cause he used to be in the easy beats in the sixties. So he knew his stuff and he, you know, they're clever blokes.
Chris Slade (46:19.012)
All of them. Probably the whole family, who knows? And, you know, they were genius writers and Malcolm especially was a genius guitarist. The best rhythm player I have ever worked with because, you know, I've worked with a few. I don't mean guitarists, I mean rhythm players. And he never missed a beat. He was always on time.
He never went wrong and he made my job so easy because I just had to follow him. And wow, he was the engine room for Cliff and me to play against, you know? He was tremendous. And a very nice guy, actually.
Tim Caple (47:09.371)
Everybody loved it ,it was just, it was an amazing song. It still is.possibly, if I say this, I know I'm going to get a called out ,possibly their most famous song, I think, isn't it?
Chris Slade (47:21.796)
Yeah, well, back in black has sold more, I think. But then the structure up there in the top two or three, you know.
Tim Caple (47:25.915)
Yeah, but as an individual song.
But the funny thing is about that album, everybody remembers it for Thunderstruck. But the biggest song on that album in terms of chart success was Money Talks. Got to number in the top 30 in the US, they've never had a song that's charted higher.
Chris Slade (47:44.036)
All right, yeah, yeah.
Chris Slade (47:49.892)
Right. Yeah, it was very singly, if you like, because David Mallet, the video producer, wanted me to act up a bit. I said, I can't act up in this because he said, yeah, it's a bit like a Cliff Richard song, isn't it? I said, yeah, it is a bit. So you can't go, yeah, you can't do that, you know, which is on Thunderstruck Door.
Tim Caple (47:56.187)
Mm.
Chris Slade (48:18.724)
I could do all that because I've been doing martial arts all my life. So I knew what aggression was and I grew up in South Wales. So I knew all about aggression. So it just been natural to do that.
Tim Caple (48:35.067)
Is that the only Christmas song you've ever done, by the way? "Mistress for Christmas", you know, the woman in red at the bottom of my bed.
Chris Slade (48:43.364)
Yes, I think it is. I think it is. There are some songs I really like on the album and some songs I don't really like and I'm not going to mention any of them.
Tim Caple (48:57.691)
Listen, whoever came up with the line, what was it? "I want to ride on your reindeer and ring your bells"
Chris Slade (49:04.74)
yeah. he was obviously talking about Santa.
Tim Caple (49:09.243)
Sensational. Donington in the Monsters of Rock Festival was an amazing event as well, they filmed it. The live album came after it. You were also on that. And you were also part of, I think, what is still the biggest outdoor concert event in history, which was in Moscow, the Monsters of Rock. What was that like to be part of?
Chris Slade (49:36.388)
Yeah. That was unbelievable because the crowd stretched over the horizon. Even from stage, which is built up. You couldn't see the end of the crowd. And they had towers for PA all the way along it synchronized together, you know, so everybody got the right sound at the right time. And it was a free concert. And I think there was a million and a half people or something.
The Russian people were asked, who are we going to put a concert on? The government said, we're going to put a concert on. Who would you like to see? Guns N' Roses, anybody, Bruce Springsteen, and they all said ACDC. And it was fantastic. It was a great show.
It always is a great show with ACDC actually, no matter who's playing drums or guitar. Nothing ever goes wrong once. It's gone wrong in like 60 years, I think, once. Because I've talked to Angus and that went wrong because his guitar just didn't work properly and nobody could fix it. And it was all sorts of things that were wrong at that time, but nobody knew it.
They were trying to figure it out and it took us half an hour, 45 minutes before they figured out how to get it fixed. And this is all the technicians, top technicians, you know, in the world. And they couldn't figure it out. So we had about 45 minutes in one show. I can't remember where it was. And that's the only time, Angus told me after he said, it's the only time in the life of HDC that something went wrong. We had to stop the show.
Tim Caple (51:56.763)
They can be brutal in the way that they make decisions. And you were on the end of that because you'd worked on the sessions for Ballbreaker. And the next thing you know is the phone's ringing and it's, well, we don't want you to go. We want you to stay and yeah, we're still going to pay you, but we're going to try, you know, fill. Yeah, we're going to fill back.
Chris Slade (52:14.82)
Yeah, that's right. Malcolm called me personally. It wasn't the manager or anybody. It's nothing you are not doing or it's nothing you have done, but we're going to try and fill out. And they wanted me to stay on. And I said, well, that's it. I'm gone then. He said, no, no, no, we really like you to stay around. We'll keep paying you. And if I was my father, I would have said, just take the money and sit there.
Chris Slade (52:45.124)
And, you know, I didn't. I was a bit too principled, actually. And I said, look, if it if it ain't broke, Mal, don't fix it. But, you know, I can understand Angus want in Phil. He's the original. You can't argue with that. It's like saying a different drummer in the Beatles, you know, don't Ringo's not playing because they got a different drummer. It's the same thing. Phil Rudd.
is the drummer for ACDC. There's no doubt about it. People misunderstand me. They think I'm bitter and saying, you know, you think you're better than Phil. No, that's not the case.
Tim Caple (53:28.795)
I read somewhere that, and you can tell me if this is true or not, that it affected you quite badly. And I saw the quote where it said that you didn't pick up a drumstick for two, three years afterwards. Is that true?
Chris Slade (53:43.524)
It was three years. Yes, that's true. I thought, well, that's it. That's the music business for you. It just shows you what the music business is like. It's like David Lee Roth when it said, you know, you're you're in one day and out later on the same day. I think it's tremendous. Here today. That's it. Here today. Gone later today.
Chris Slade (54:13.508)
That's brilliant.
Tim Caple (54:13.595)
I like that. Did you stay on sort of reasonable terms with the guys after that?
Chris Slade (54:21.156)
yes, yes, very much so. I'm going to see them in France actually in the next few weeks. So yes, we're on good terms. I don't, I hardly get on bad terms with anybody to be honest. That's just the way I am. I can't hold a grudge or anything like that.
Tim Caple (54:49.915)
Life's too short, isn't it?
Chris Slade (54:50.724)
Yeah, it is really. Hey, don't be funny.
Tim Caple (54:55.451)
Hahaha
Chris Slade (55:00.004)
It's a matter of timing.
Tim Caple (55:06.363)
Such is the way that your life has gone. You're in Switzerland and the phone rings and it's ACDC on the phone, it's Malcolm on the phone, one of them's on the phone, say, hey, we want you to come back.
Chris Slade (55:17.7)
Yeah, yeah. I was on the road with Timeline in Switzerland and it came up, you know, they. And at the end of it, I was on the phone to the manager for about 30 minutes and he was explaining things and telling me about this time, you know, that and at the end of it, I said, you know, is did this come from the guys? Because I kept saying to everybody, they're not going to phone. OK.
Tim Caple (55:27.259)
Incredible.
Chris Slade (55:47.556)
Look, and people, my friends and people in the street would say, have you had the phone call yet? I go, look, they're not going to phone me. OK. After the last time, I thought they would have had enough of me, you know, to when I said I'm gone. But, you know, it was I kept saying, you're not going to phone and then ring ring after months and months, like three months of everybody knowing.
The Phil couldn't make it for various reasons. And, you know, I was really shocked when they called, you know. And I don't know if I said this just now, but I said, did this call come from the guys? And the manager said, yes, of course, I wouldn't make this call without their asking me to. So I was even more surprised by that, to be honest.
Tim Caple (56:21.179)
day.
Tim Caple (56:48.123)
What was it like to get back out on the road? Because the shows were great. I mean, you've done all the auditions for the for the new singer. What was the atmosphere like? Was there any degree of trepidation? Because obviously, Brian had the issue with his with his hearing. And there was quite a bit of fallout from that, because it wasn't the fact that, you know, he couldn't do it. He knew he couldn't do it. And they wanted to continue. So they're obviously going to use somebody else.
Chris Slade (57:04.922)
Yeah.
Tim Caple (57:16.443)
I think the issue was, the way it was dealt with, was awful.
Chris Slade (57:19.738)
Well, I think, I think Brian thought that they wouldn't use somebody else. To be honest. I mean, who could possibly do it with his voice the way, you know, even if it was, he thought it was bad. I told him it's because I was using in -year monitors, you know, everybody uses them these days.
Chris Slade (57:49.179)
And I could hear everything really clearly. All the guitars, the voice, the drums, everything. It was fantastic. And I've said that it's the best I've ever heard any band in my life. Now, journalists took that to mean that I thought that it was much better with Axl Rose than it was with Brian Johnson. I didn't mean that at all. And I would never compare like with like. You know, I would...
I wouldn't say who's... Music is not a competition. It's getting on with people and playing and complimenting what somebody is doing, whether it's a bass player or a guitarist or a singer or what. That's your job as a band to compliment each other, to make the right music. Otherwise, it's not going to work properly.
Tim Caple (58:48.795)
I saw the shows, I saw the one at the Olympic Stadium in London, and the difference was the set. And it was great to hear some of the songs that simply weren't done. Some of the Bon Scott era stuff. "touch too much" like you said at the beginning. It was, "if you want blood, you've got it." two iconic songs off of that album that they'd not done for. years
Chris Slade (59:07.29)
Yeah.
if you want blood, you know.
Chris Slade (59:23.578)
Yes, they stop doing those songs. It depends whether they like them enough to do it or any reason. I've no idea. I never spoke to anybody about that. So I don't know why they choose the songs they do choose to do and why they don't do other songs.
Tim Caple (59:42.235)
When you saw the desert gig a year ago, the problem with looking at things like that on the internet from phone film stuff is it sounds dreadful. It sounds absolutely dreadful. And I looked at...
Chris Slade (59:58.072)
If somebody is taking it on their mobile phone, awful sound, awful.
Tim Caple (01:00:06.107)
But are you surprised at how amazing they have been on this tour, this power -up tour, because Brian's voice, Angus, even with the grey hair, but still in a school uniform and still playing like he's 25 years younger, the whole thing is just, it's an event. You know, they're playing as well as they have done for years.
Chris Slade (01:00:33.624)
Yeah, well, people, a lot of people don't even know. They just buy the T -shirt. They don't know what the band is and what it's about and what a great show that Angus puts on, you know, because it is just Angus because the band don't do anything. You're not allowed to. So, you know, Angus is doing his thing.
Chris Slade (01:01:03.416)
And it's a great show. And the lights are fantastic and the camera work is fantastic. And, you know, there's nothing like it. And the music is great. You know, it's hard driving music.
Tim Caple (01:01:12.827)
So if the phone rang again, would you be willing to step in?
Chris Slade (01:01:23.447)
yeah, of course. And if Gilmour for me, I would also, especially Gilmour But, you know, I like to work. I mean, that's my whole raison d 'etre, is to play drums. And I said to myself, I want to play this until I can't play anymore.
Tim Caple (01:01:45.691)
I was just going to put one of your quotes in, because we bring this up to date and the new album, one of the quotes on the press release, I will rock till I drop or I will drum till I drop. That is it. I'm always going to be there. So Timeline had been recording bits and pieces here and there for over a decade. So this album coming together, it's taken a long time. It's been
Chris Slade (01:01:58.742)
Yeah.
Chris Slade (01:02:44.019)
I've always sort of recorded, you know, told the guys whenever we got spare time, we'll go in the studio and record and we'll do it straight live. You know, we won't mess around with overdubs and things like that. Maybe a little bit, but it's really what we do live. Exactly the same arrangements and everything else that's in it. So we didn't...
And that's, we've been doing that for like 10 years, but these last two and a half years, things just, I've never written a melody in my life before this. I'd written lyrics, but I'd never written melodies. And I was so surprised when I could. And great asset is Mike, the cute Mike Park, the beautiful player, because we don't live far from each other.
Chris Slade (01:03:41.17)
and I could go over it and go, it goes like this, Mike. And he'd sort of interpret that into a keyboard part. No, I'm pretty good at humming, actually. And he'd say like, do you want major or minor? And I was, minor on this one, I think.
Tim Caple (01:04:01.083)
Well, I was listening to it and the opening of the track, Sundance, is a great track. I mean, it's got this very heavy prog rock feel. It's got a really good feel. But what isn't a surprise is the influences that play out through the album are related to everything that you've done, really, over your life.
Chris Slade (01:04:25.36)
Yes, it's a very diverse album and I've had a very diverse life and career actually. So it shows that, you know, and like the song, Living the Dream is about self -belief, is about people having self -belief. Believe in yourself, you know, it's so important.
Tim Caple (01:04:41.979)
Yes.
Tim Caple (01:04:49.403)
I shut my eyes listening to that song, the Living the Dream, and it was like, John Anderson, yes. Yeah, I just thought, we will survive. The second track, I think it is on the album. Yeah, that had a bit of a Uriah Heap feel to it, that type of, you know, late 70s.
Chris Slade (01:04:58.287)
Really?
Chris Slade (01:05:06.319)
Yes, the band wrote that, that's their song. I didn't have much to do with that.
Chris Slade (01:05:16.111)
They do like prog music, the guys.
Tim Caple (01:05:21.019)
Yeah, it works well. And then you dropped in Joybringer.
Chris Slade (01:05:26.767)
Yeah, well, I wrote the lyrics, you see. So I thought, well, it's an original, you know, as far as this band is concerned. And the same with Questions. It was an Earth band song and and it fitted. And I again, I wrote the lyrics. So, you know, along with the music with which was. I can't think of it.
Chris Slade (01:05:54.959)
What is the classical thing? Schubert. No, Joybringer was Gustav Holst. And I wrote the lyrics again. Me and Gustav, we went to different schools together, you know? And we had to get permission to do it. And we got permission. We had to then get permission because, you know,
Tim Caple (01:05:58.491)
the planets, isn't it?
Chris Slade (01:06:23.053)
because that's what we have to do. You don't these days. But so we went to his committee, if you like, and his sister Imogen was head of that committee and we got permission. They'd never given permission before for the melodies to be used. And Manfred did a great arrangement of it. It was Manfred again that did the changing, you know,
It's the same melody as Holst, but it's rocked up, that's what I say. So I'm very pleased about that. And Questions was Schubert's third racket.
The quote, the quote by Sir Fausty.
Tim Caple (01:07:11.707)
It slows everything down nicely though, there's questions, but...
Chris Slade (01:07:14.38)
Well, I had to get the transition between, I think it was, Back with the Vengeance and Time Flies. Could have been what?
Tim Caple (01:07:20.539)
It was Back With A Vengeance. Yeah. Well, that could have been an ACDC song, by the way. That could have been an ACDC track, Back With A Vengeance. yeah.
Chris Slade (01:07:32.012)
Really? I can't hear him doing it, but thank you for that.
Tim Caple (01:07:38.139)
No, you listen to that and you think, yeah, I could hear Brian Johnson doing that.
Chris Slade (01:07:41.546)
well, funny enough, Davis, who's the ACDC singer in the band, because we have two singers, you know, he's, you can hear his harmony on that. James Cornford sung it and so did Davis. So he sung it with the ACDC voice.
Chris Slade (01:08:06.153)
And Sundance is sung with his straight voice, if you see what I mean, his own personal voice. So when he sings ACDC, I think he sounds tremendous. I think he sounds just like Brian, to be honest.
Tim Caple (01:08:11.483)
Yeah, yeah, I do.
Tim Caple (01:08:21.051)
Now there's a second CD with the ACDC covers and you're looking at it thinking, well, this is a brave choice. And I thought "Thunderstruck". And so I put it on and you're like, wow, this is really good, actually.
Chris Slade (01:08:31.721)
Yeah.
Chris Slade (01:08:39.337)
We like that life. Everybody is so surprised.
Tim Caple (01:08:43.963)
Really good.
Chris Slade (01:08:44.873)
Because we don't copy ACDC, nobody wears shorts and they don't pay SGs. People listen with their eyes, you know that? They listen with their eyes and they go, he's not doing drug work, he sounds nothing like HDDC.
Tim Caple (01:09:07.963)
Well, it does, actually. It sounds a lot like them, actually. It sounds like, I'll tell you what it sounds like. It sounds like somebody has taken the album and you see it these days and people do remixes of originals. It sounds like a remix. But the song that I liked the most actually on there wasn't an ACDC song. It was the cover of July Morning from Uriah Heap.
Chris Slade (01:09:23.113)
Yes, yes.
Chris Slade (01:09:36.52)
Right, right. Yeah, that's Stevie G singing. People sometimes I've done reviews, they don't realize it's two singers. And I make it very plain on the album cover that there's two main singers. We all sing, by the way. But those are the two Stevie G and Ben Davis are the two main singers. And Stevie G plays bass now with us as well as singing.
Tim Caple (01:09:53.851)
Yeah, yeah.
Tim Caple (01:10:06.267)
Well, it was a really pleasant surprise, actually, because sometimes those second CDs of cover versions can be throwaways. But there was a lot gone into that. And you can tell there's a great deal of, first of all, respect for the music and where they came from. And they deliver great versions, I thought.
Chris Slade (01:10:24.551)
yeah. Thank you.
Yes, I'm very surprised. It's the record company that wanted that on it. So I thought, well, we've got other covers as well. You know, it's not just ACDC and that's not what we do live. We do all those songs live. And, you know, there's Asia in the mix, there's July Mourning, Uriah Heap. And we do many others that came from my career because that was the reason to start the band. I wanted to play my career and finding musicians
that could switch from say AC DC to Tom Jones or even want to switch from AC DC to Tom Jones. Very few of them are between. They've got to be really good players as you can appreciate. And to do it with conviction too and honesty, you know.
Tim Caple (01:11:22.267)
So what's the future? So the album's coming out. Have you got live dates pending?
Chris Slade (01:11:27.812)
We've never stopped working in 10 years. On the weekend, this last weekend gone, we were in Lyon, in France. And in a few weeks. Yes, it is. Yeah. Not in a backstage dressing room. It's not the gastronomic capital of the country. You want chicken? Yes. How do you like it? Warm.
Tim Caple (01:11:36.507)
Wow, the gastronomic capital of the country. So you ate well down there.
Chris Slade (01:11:56.036)
No, sorry, you've only got cold chicken. okay. by the way, it's sold out. okay.
Tim Caple (01:12:04.443)
So what about UK dates?
Chris Slade (01:12:07.108)
Yes, we were in Scotland just a month or so ago, really up north in a festival. And we go on to Wales at the end of this year, Pont Dupreth, back to Pont Dupreth. Yeah, doing a gig there and a few other gigs too in South Wales.
Chris Slade (01:12:36.546)
So I'm looking forward to that because I've been back for years, actually. I mean, playing music. You know, so. I'm just looking forward and we go, we've been to Poland this year. Czechoslovakia or should I say, Czestia. Yeah, and we're all over the place. Italy in two weeks, I think I said that.
Chris Slade (01:13:06.241)
next gig, I can't remember the next gig. it's Italy. Sorry, it's Italy. That is in two weeks time.
Tim Caple (01:13:13.819)
Perfect. And so, but plans and you're always recording, so I suppose a live album might be in the offing at some stage.
Chris Slade (01:13:23.713)
Yeah. Yeah, we're always doing stuff. And we play it live into a desk. You know, classic, just like Earth Band did with Davies on the Road again. And if it needs a bit of overdubbing, we do that. But usually it don't require much. And anyway, the guys are really busy as musicians. So can you come next Wednesday? No, I can't come Wednesday. I might be able to come on Friday morning. Will you be there?
Chris Slade (01:13:53.729)
No. You know, and it's like it is like that because they're very busy musicians because it's so damn good, you know, and they teach as well. So, you know, it's great. And we get on really well all together on the road in a van for days on end. And I love it.
Tim Caple (01:13:54.779)
Ha ha.
Chris Slade (01:14:19.681)
You know, with ACDC it was private planes on the last time, 2015, 2016. So I'm in a transit van.
Tim Caple (01:14:30.363)
Ha ha.
Chris Slade (01:14:30.657)
I love it. It's back to the basics, you know? And I love traveling and I love meeting people.
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