Former AC/DC drummer celebrating 50 years in Rock.
Chris Slade, born October 30, 1946, in Pontypridd, Wales, is a rock drummer who has enjoyed a long and varied career. His musical journey can be traced back to 1963; Chris came from the same area as fellow Welshmen Tom Jones and played drums in the singer's backing band, The Squires, for seven years. His first real success came in 1965 when he played on Tom's hit single 'It's Not Unusual'. Chris subsequently toured with Tom Jones before quitting in 1969 to join a group called "Toomorrow" whose vocal attraction was an Australian blonde called Olivia Newton-John.
Returning to session work, Chris recorded albums with Tony Hazzard and Tom Paxton in 1971, before becoming a founding member of Manfred Mann's Earth Band in March of 1972. He was to spend six years with the band, recording eight albums and achieving three UK Top Ten singles in the process: ''Joybringer' (No. 9, October 1973), 'Blinded By The Light' (No. 6, September 1976) and 'Davy's On The Road Again' (No.6, June 1978). Chris, along with some other former Earth Band members, also headed up a short-lived off-shoot of the band that Chris had named "Terra Nova" in 1978, producing one recording and a few live shows.
After the Earth Band era, Chris recorded two albums in 1979, first with Frankie Miller, and next with Kai Olsson, before joining Uriah Heep in time to play on their 'Conquest' album in 1980. After that, Chris Slade teamed up with Gary Numan, Bad Company guitarist Mick Ralphs in the Mick Ralphs Band - the same line-up also toured as back-up band for Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour. After the close of that tour he teamed up with Jimmy Page, Paul Rodgers and bassist Tony Franklin to form "The Firm" at the end of 1984. The Firm didn't quite live up to the enormous reputations of its individual members, although they did produce two excellent albums for Atlantic in 1985 and 1986 that gave them a few radio hits including "Radioactive" and “Satisfaction Guaranteed.”
After his stint with AC/DC Chris joined up with 80's prog-rock band "Asia", who (even with the many personnel changes over the years) had still been managing to churn out some excellent music. Chris recorded with them on their 2000-2004 studio recordings, "Aura" and "Silent Nation", and put forth his "trademark" energy-filled live performances on all the subsequent tours that ensued .
