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Slade played an excellant gig on Saturday evening

 26th February 2005

at Tampere, Tullikamaris Pakkahuone.

pictures copyright@ Ilpo Bister

 

 

Earlier in the afternoon Dave Hill kindly answered in few questions at their Cumulus hotels lounge bar.

1. How did Slade II get its line-up in 1992?

"The guitarist Steve Makin and Craig Fenney work in music shops so I knew them. And Steve Whalley came to audition for the job and was recommended by Neville Martin from Guitarist Magazine."

2. And where did you find John Berry on the bass and what kind of background has he got before Slade?

"John Berry was bass guitarist for Les Grays Mud and we knew him well. He has played for many groups; Bay City Rollers, Tremeloes and has a small group of his own."

3. You make lots of gigs each year. Do you need any rehearsals or is playing together at the gigs enough?

"We sometimes rehearse if a new song is needed, but otherwise the gigs are enough for us."

4. You have written some great songs with Bill Hunt and "Take Me Home" with Steve Whalley and a couple of great Blessings In The Disguise songs. Do you have any new songs written lately and any plans for new records?

"Yes I do and maybe we will record in 2005 this ear."

5. Where did you get the idea for "Take Me Home", it has got very fine atmosphere and a good melody? Bluesy kind of feeling from Steves affection in blues music?

"I felt I wrote a song which I somehow thought I wrote years ago and Steve put new lyrics and sang it his way, which was good too. It has a nice feeling too."

6. Have you got any new infromation about the state of the Slade musical by Mike Read?

"We are talking to Mike Read about it at the moment. We have not made our minds up about it yet."

7. Have you rehearsed or planning to put any new songs into your set list?

"Not at the moment, but we should think about it."

8. In 2006 Slade has been 40 years "on the road". Do you have any plans already of celebrating it in some way?

"No plan at the moment. Its too early yet."

9. There are not many German dates yet in the Amazing Slade websites gig calendar for 2005. Do you yourself know, if there are more German gigs coming yet?

"There will be more German dates, which we will confirm later in the year."

10. One Finnish rock musician was remembering recently Slades Kuusrock Festival show in Oulu 1982 and said on the radio that "it was so sicking fantastic that one could not but laugh. When you see something absolutely great, you can not but laugh." What kind of memories have you got from Finland?

"Finland has many Slade fans and likes rock music. It keeps you warm in the winter. So we like to come here a lot."

Greetings to Slade fans from Dave Hill:

"I would like to say it is a great pelasure to play to all fans of Slade, and I look forward to seeing you all at our shows in Finland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Norway and all other countries, too. Keep on rockin - Dave Hill"

After the interview I soon went to the concert place, where the band had started the soundcheck and played mostly "The Bangin Man" with very tight guitars sounds and Steve Whalley picked some blues notes.

 

 

After the soundcheck I got Slade members greetings to the RMNradio on the digi cameras movie clips.

The show time was at 22:30 and Slade certainly did warm up the cold winter night at Tampere. The audiences reception was very good from the very beginning and both the band and the audience looked very happy and satisfied for the one hour great rock n roll show and sounds. Slade played their usual set ending with two encores; "My Oh My" and "Born To Be Wild", and then it was over, though the audience was strongly demanding for more.



Interview and pictures by lpo Bister, Helsinki

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