Drummer Boy

He may be best-known for his stint in AC/DC, but over the years Chris Slade has played with a Who’s Who of rock giants. The list is almost endless: Jimmy Page, Paul Rodgers, Gary Moore and David Gilmour, not to mention Tom Jones and Olivia Newton John! As a member of Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, UFO, Asia and supergroup The Firm, he has been in and out of the charts in various guises over his 50-plus years behind a drumkit.

In advance of his visit to The Music Show with iTab and Drumadoir – get down to the RDS at the weekend to learn more about their revolutionary new drum app – where he will be showcasing his impressive stick skills, Hot Press sits down with one of the most in-demand percussionists in the business.
Interestingly, it was while on stage with Gary Moore during the After The War tour that Chris was spotted by AC/DC’s Malcolm and Angus Young.
“Yes, I got a phonecall out of the blue from Gary telling me Cozy Powell had left the band. The wanted to know could I fly to the States and fill in? I had four days to learn all the material!” he laughs. “That was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. It was really enjoyable. Gary was such a great player – that tone! And I loved playing with Bob Daisley on bass. It was a great experience.”
It was at a show in Birmingham’s NEC that the Young brothers spotted Chris and asked him to audition for AC/DC.
“They auditioned 100 top drummers, everybody was there, I won’t drop any names but anybody you can possibly think of wanted to be in AC/DC, and I was number 100!” he smiles. “I actually thought I had blown the audition but in fact they called before I got home and said I got the gig.”
Given the size of the AC/DC machine and scale of the tours, did Chris find it unnerving being catapulted into such a crazy existence?
“Well, I’ve been doing this all my life, so it wasn’t that crazy. And believe you me, they’re not that crazy! Angus has never done drugs or booze in his life,” he says. “I had a great time though. We actually recorded part of The Razor’s Edge in Windmill Lane in Dublin, it was a great studio.”
Chris was with the band for their seminal Monsters Of Rock free festival in Moscow in 1991, where attendance figures reportedly topped one million.
“That was unbelievable,” he recalls. “The crowd seemed to extend over the horizon. It was quite an unforgettable experience.”
Another live highlight of Chris’ career was playing Madison Square Garden with Tom Jones in the mid-60s. Chris started his career behind the kit for the fellow Welshman.
“Yes, that was way back,” he trails off laughing, “We began as Tommy Scott and the Senators. He changed his name to Tom Jones when we moved to London, we were a rock ’n’ roll band then, wearing leather jackets and jeans. I actually saw him about three years ago in Las Vegas. We were propping the bar up until 4am reminiscing, it was really nice.”
Chris spent the 70s with chart sensations Manfred Mann’s Earth Band who famously gave The Boss a helping hand by making his song ‘Blinded By The Light’ a Number 1 hit.
“That first album on which the song appears, Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ had gone down the tubes, disappeared,” says Chris. “We actually got given the record by a journalist who said, ‘Check this guy out!’ And that journalist turned out to be his manager,
Jon Landau!”
By the 80s, Chris was a highly in-demand drummer. He remembers receiving two job offers of note within hours of each other.
“I got a phone call in the morning, believe it or not, from David Gilmour and then Jimmy Page rang in the afternoon! I couldn’t believe it!” he exclaims. “I had committed to touring with Gilmour when he called. Jimmy Page was asking me to join him and Paul Rodgers in a band that would be The Firm. They waited for me for 9 months until I finished the Gilmour tour though. The tour kept getting extended, I was overjoyed they waited.”
Chris currently tours the world with his band Steel Circle, who’ve just confirmed a Scandinavian and mainland European jaunt. His kit of choice is a DW, which he’s been using for some years now with Pro-Mark sticks.
“DW drums are absolutely fantastic,” he enthuses. “I always thought a drum was a drum, in that if you tuned it right you can make any drum sound good, which is true to a certain extent. But DWs sound great out of the box.”
Over five decades of playing, how does Chris feel his own style has developed?
“I’ve probably gotten heavier, more solid,” he states. “Certainly the ‘pocket’ as they call it in America, the ‘groove’, is probably a lot better than it was when I was 17 or 18. As it should be!”
For the moment, Slade is relishing the prospect of his return to Dublin for The Music Show.
“Yes, I’m sure there’s going to be some Guinness imbibed!” he chuckles.

Chris Slade appears at the Music show in the RDS, Dublin on Sunday, February 26.