Don and me outside The Trumpet, Bilston

A trip to England

Last week I went to England to meet up with Don and catch the gig that Slade did in his native town of Bilston. It was such a great trip. I met a lot of wonderful people, saw a lot of Slade-related "sights" with Don as the guide and had one heck of a time at the concert which was the best that I'd seen them do so far in their present line-up.
This was my first trip to the West Midlands, so I didn't just go to Bilston. I stayed at a hotel in the Wolverhampton City Centre and also went to Birmingham for a while. I actually liked what I got to see of Bilston, but I found Wolverhampton a strange town, totally dominated by the ring road. The small city centre looked as if time had passed it by for a couple of decades, but it has probably been a nice place once, although now it is a bit run down.
Birmingham I really liked, but I only got to see the centre of the city. To me it seemed like a cross between London and Copenhagen except for the really tacky Christmas decorations. Tacky or not, I enjoyed being in Birmingham, but that probably had something to do with meeting up with a close friend of mine there, and he's always exquisite company. Thanks a lot, luv!

Here you can see the DR building... 

...and here you can actually see the people! 

The DR achives

Last week I went to the Danish National Television DR to see what they'd got on Slade in their archives. I'd asked Don and Hanne to join me and in the end Mikael Helmuth of the Team Theatre wished to come along as well. It was quite an outing, although the archives didn't hold as much footage as promised. One live performance from the Westfalenhalle in Dortmund, Germany, 1981, they didn't have after all, another live performance from Danish TV turned out to be one from Top Of The Pops and finally two of their videos were the same, namely "My Friend Stan". We had a nice time anyway, although it was a long drive. Well, at least we got to get more or less lost in the long corridors of the TV station and we also had a nice lunch in their cafeteria.
I really enjoyed myself and when I came home that night, the house was still standing, although my sister was to look after Tea for the very first time. My sister is not very keen on children, but Tea had solved the problem by visiting a girlfriend who lives a little further down the road. So it was only my sister who was there when I got home.
Anyway, I had a great day, guys. See you soon.

Whatever happened to the violin?

Whatever happened to your violin?, people sometimes ask as it was the violin that started all of my blogs in the first place. Well, the violin is fine, more or less. My daughter somehow managed to bump into it some time ago, so the bridge came out of place, but it is fixed now. At the moment I'm playing Bach, Offenbach and Slade. Not a bad mixture, I tell you. I'm not sure that my neighbours feel the same, though!
My daughter sometimes says that she wants to play the violin, too. Well, I don't think that a violin would last long in her hands and besides, small scale violins are so absurdly expensive. I'm contemplating buying her a keyboard instead. She has a toy one, and she can actually play small tunes on it. The other day I caught her playing the violin-part of Slade's "'Coz I Luv You" on it while singing some Kylie Minogue-hit: "La-la-la..." Interesting combination…

Doing a documentary 

Video

Lately I've been doing a lot of video- and DVD-editing and it has been great getting back to that. About 10 years ago I attended a media-school where I learned how to make TV and videos. It was such a lot of fun. I especially remember two things with fondness. One was my whole class doing a documentary about a travelling fun fair. I've always been a sucker for fun fairs, so it was Paradise to me. Above you see a photo of me recording for the documentary, carrying the script in my pocket. The other thing that I enjoyed was working with the local punk band "Ride the Naked Fish". They were my pet-project and I did a couple of promo videos for them as well as a lot of press photos and articles. They were wonderful guys to work with and I still keep in touch with them. Below you see a press photo that I made of them.

Ride the Naked Fish 

Floral display at the cathedral square 

Floral festival

In August Tea and I had a look at the annual floral festival here in Odense. Then all the streets and squares of the city are decorated with sculptures made of flowers. This year the theme of the festival was the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen. No wonder. Odense is the native town of Hans Christian Andersen and this year it is 200 years since his birth. Anyway, I just got the photos from the festival today, so I thought I'd put a few on this blog. The photo above shows Tea at the display of "The Princess and The Pea". The one below is a scene from "Thumbelina". Actually, Thumbelina's original Danish name is Lise!

Thumbelina at the town hall square 

Interviewing Don again, September 20, 2005

A visit and a play

Last Tuesday I visited Slade-drummer Don Powell. We had lunch, worked for a while and did a bit of chatting. In the evening Don and his girlfriend took me to the town of Herning where we attended the dress rehearsal for the play "Oliver T." that features Slade's music. It was quite amazing, especially the singer was wonderful. He's the one in the middle with the black top hat on the photo down below. You can read more about the play on my Slade-blog and my Jim Lea-blog. Thanks for a lovely day, you 2!

The cast of "Oliver T." 

Once again: Slade

Saturday the 20th of August I went to the third and final Slade-concert this August in Denmark in connection with work. It had its good sides and its bad. Bad sides first: the train was late, I couldn't find the darn place (Ølstykke Stadium), I had hundreds of mosquitos-bites and worst of all: most of my photos turned out crap. Good sides: I had a great time with Don Powell and the rest, good music, beautiful night and on my way home I ran into Per Christensen, a big Slade-fan who'd taken some good pics and even had the heart to let me use them. Thanks a lot, Per!

Don Powell on stage in Olstykke (c) Per Christensen

Don in Holstebro, August 13, 2005

Slade concert

I went to a Slade concert yesterday in the Danish town Vissenbjerg in connection with the articles I am doing on their drummer Don Powell at the moment. It was a great experience and I am currently working on an account of the evening, that will go on my Slade-blog as soon as the rest of the photos are ready.

Slade on stage, August 5th 2005 

Nice e-mail

I just got the nicest mail from Don Powell and his girlfriend saying that Don really enjoyed the interview as he felt really comfortable and at ease. That was really nice, as I enjoyed it so much myself.

Don Powell and me 

Finally the Don Powell interview has been made

Friday Don Powell finally came by to do the interview. His Danish girlfriend drove him to my house and we had lunch and a long chat accompanied by thunder and rain before I did some 50 photos of him. Don was great to talk to. We came all the way around drums, the original Slade, the present Slade, new singer Mal MacNulty, more drums, song writing, ladies' gloves, festivals, even more drums, Don's musical preferences, Slade's 40 years anniversary, drum machines and some more drums. He's a funny guy, I really laughed myself silly, so it was great working with him. When transcribing the interview from the Dictaphone it ended up being 16 pages long, so I have my work cut out for me the next couple of weeks.

One of those weeks

I've had one of those weeks again! I was to interview Slade-drummer Don Powell last Tuesday, but of course their singer decided to leave the band the Saturday before! The interview had to be reschedueled as the band then had to rehears with new singer, Mal McNulty. Well, the interview should be happening next week.

1975: I was heavy into Slade  

Life is funny

Five days ago I was raving about the Feel the Noize-book and now I find myself in a situation where I'm gonna do an interview with Slade-drummer Don Powell for some Danish magazines in 2 weeks time. Life sure works in mysterious ways.

Here it is: my new violin

On a high note

The violin was plugged in yesterday. What an overwhelming, beautiful sound! I had this guy come over, he plays the violin, too, it was awesome. I think I'm on a roll these days. I've just had a tax return the same amount as the violin, so I almost feel that I got the violin for free! Furthermore I've been offered a free copy of Chris Charlesworth's book "Slade - Feel the Noize". It's almost impossible to come by. At Ebay you have to give up to £ 130 for a copy! I'm a Slade-nut, so I'm just on cloud 9!

Finally it arrived!

My violin finally arrived from Scotland today! I'm as excited as a kid at Christmas-time! It's a Stentor with the most beautiful antique finish. I haven't plugged it in, yet, only tried it out acoustic, and the sound is great!

Violin

Bought an electric violin today. From Scotland. Hope it arrives in one piece.