Don Powell

Donald George Powell (born 10 September 1946) is an English musician who was the drummer for glam rock and later hard rock group Slade for over fifty years, from 1966 until he was dismissed by Dave Hill in 2020.

Powell was born in Bilston, near Wolverhampton, in 1946. His parents were Walter and Dora Powell; Walter 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 at Wednesbury Technical College in 1962.

He joined The Vendors in 1963, who in 1964 changed their name to The 'N Betweens; then to Ambrose Slade in 1969; and a few months later, on 24 October 1969, shortened that to Slade.

On 8 June 1973, Powell collapsed with heat exhaustion at the end of a show in Birmingham. He spent the night in hospital but was declared fit to play the following morning when discharged.

A long-time fan of Ringo Starr, 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.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.