Having said that, they don't seem to be aware that they are using a photo of Slade with Frank Lea, not Don Powell. I guess we should just be glad they got mentioned at all?
Slade: When news of. Don Powell's tragic accident reached the group. Slade's triumph turned to gloom.
Auto Crash Nearly Kills Sladester
At an interview in Birmingham where Wings were wrapping up a tour, it was all Paul McCartney could talk about. And miles away on the Isle of Man, it was the only thing on the minds of several hundred fans who milled anxiously in front of the Palace Lido box office. At roughly four o'clock Wednesday Morning, Slade's drummer Don Powell and his girl friend Angela Morris had been driving down a road near Don's home in Wolverhampton. Suddenly Powell's expensive Bentley had spun out of control and hit a wall. Angela was critically injured and died after being ambulanced to a nearby hospital. Don's chances did not look much better, He had sustained severe head injuries, fractured ribs and a fractured leg. Says Slade's manager, Chas Chandler.
"I went up to Wolverbampton right away, and the doctors didn't give Don a chance."
Powell's accident happened just as Slademania in England was reaching a fever pitch. The previous Sunday Slade had gone on-stage at London's Earls Court before 20,000 yelling, cheering fans. The crowd - one of the largest in the history of British rock - had leapt to their feet, lifted their fists in a Slade salute and screamed "Yeah" after nearly every line the group sang. Concluded the music newspaper Melody Maker,
"It was the most sensational concert of their career."
Three day later, when news of Powell's accident reached the group, Slade's triumph abruptly turned to gloom. "I was walking about in a daze." said Chandler. The group met the afternoon of the accident at bassist Jim Lea's Wolverhampton apartment and decided not to cancel their upcoming Sunday concert on the Isle of Man. To replace Powell they drafted the plumber who was in the kitchen fixing the dishwasher - Jim Lea's 19-year-old brother Frank, who had been Powell's drum student. And the day before the Isle of Man concert. they received word that in another three months Don Powell would once again be handling his own drumsticks. Exclaimed manager Chandler,
"When I heard he was going to pull through, I was the happiest man in the world."
Circus was a monthly American magazine devoted to rock music. Gerald Rothberg originally put together the magazine under the name Hullabaloo in 1966, before changing the name to Circus in 1968. In its heyday the magazine had a full-time editorial staff that included some of the biggest names in US rock journalism, including Paul Nelson, David Fricke, and Kurt Loder, outselling Creem and competing with Rolling Stone.
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