Dave Hill | |
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Dave Hill in 1981 |
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Background information | |
Birth name | David John Hill |
Born | 4 April 1946 Holbeton, Devon, England |
Genres | Glam rock, hard rock |
Occupations | Musician |
Instruments | Guitar, bass guitar, vocals |
Years active | 1966–present |
Associated acts | Slade |
Dave Hill (born David John Hill, 4 April 1946, Holbeton, Devon, England)[1][2] is an English musician, who is the lead guitarist and backing vocalist in the English glam rock group, Slade. The music journalist, Stuart Maconie, commented "he usually wore a jumpsuit made of the foil that you baste your turkeys in and platforms of oil-rig-derrick height. All of this though paled in comparison with his coffure, a sort of demented tonsure with a great scooping fringe. He looked like a glam rock version of a medieval monk".[3]
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Born in Devon the son of a mechanic, he moved with his parents to Penn, Wolverhampton when he was only a year old. There he attended Springdale Junior school and Highfields Secondary school. He bought his first guitar from a mail order catalogue and received some guitar lessons from a science teacher at his school. He then formed a band called 'The Young Ones' with some school friends. Upon leaving school he worked in an office of the firm Tarmac for over two years.
He originally played with drummer Don Powell in a band called The Vendors. The Vendors changed their name to The 'N Betweens, met bass player Jimmy Lea and singer Noddy Holder, whereafter Slade was born.
Even though Hill is left-handed, he played and still plays guitar right-handed. Hill's best known guitar was the "John Birch Superyob" that was built in 1973. The guitar was used by Madness guitarist Chris Foreman in the video for Madness' song "Shut Up" and is now owned by Marco Pirroni of Adam and the Ants.
Hill was known as the class clown of the band, and his bizarre costumes and antics led to some friction with the more serious Lea. This led to a show-down in a BBC dressing room before a recording of Top of the Pops, where Hill replied to Lea's repeated criticism of his dress by saying "You write 'em Jim, I'll sell em!".
In 1989, Hill formed his own group Blessings in Disguise, featuring Holder, ex-Wizzard keyboard player, Bill Hunt, Craig Fenney and Bob Lamb.[4] The debut single, released in 1989 for the Christmas market was a cover of The Everly Brothers "Crying in the Rain" , backed by a Hill/Hunt composition, "Wild Nights".[5] The record was a commercial failure. The band also recorded a cover of the Elvis Presley song "A Fool Such As I" which wasn't released.[6][7] The final single, "Chance to Be" was composed by Daniel Somers and Colin Baines and unlike the first single, did not feature Holder on vocals but a little known female vocalist. The b-side was a track written by Hill entitled "You're the Reason that I'm Strong". Released in 1990, the single was a charity record intended to raise money for Queen Alexandra College for the Blind in Birmingham.
Originally, Hill attended the launch of a £2 million appeal to raise funds for the Birmingham Institute where he heard a song called "A Chance to Be", sung by the blind and visually impaired children. Hill was so moved by the occasion that he agreed to perform and produce the recording of the song. The two writers of the song were staff at the institute. Ex-Shakatak vocalist Norma Lewis, local singer Michael Ryan, Hill and the children took several hours to record the song which was later engineered and produced by Hill. The b-side "You're The Reason I'm Strong" again featured Lewis on lead vocal and was written by Hill. Hill's band name, Blessing in Disguise, was picked as the group name.[8][9]
Slade finally split up in 1991, but Hill decided to carry the group on as Slade II. Don Powell joined him and the band has continued to this day with various lineups. In 1997 the name of Slade II was shortened back to Slade. The band has released the album Keep on Rockin' , which has also been re-packaged as Superyob, and also as Cum On Let's Party!
He embraced the notion of a yob culture. As well as the references to "Superyob" above, Hill, since a young age used the numberplate "YOB 1" on his cars. The most famous of these was a silver Jensen.
Hill married his wife Jan in Mexico City in the 1970s, and they have three children: Jade, Bibi and Sam. Hill and his wife have embraced the Jehovah's Witnesses faith.[10] They live in Lower Penn, Staffordshire, England, where Hill occasionally teaches music at Lower Penn School and Penn Hall School.
Hill was known to date a number of groupies in the seventies, and dated Sable Starr, Lori Maddox, Queenie Glam and Geraldine Edwards, the inspiration for Penny Lane in Almost Famous. He mentioned in a 2002 interview taking Geraldine Edwards to the Polo Lounge as a celebration of her graduating from high-school in 1975 and throwing a three-day party at the Sunset Marquis Hotel afterwards.
In November 2003, XFM radio producer Karl Pilkington jokingly referred to his girlfriend as looking like Dave Hill out of Slade, on the Ricky Gervais Show, after she had her hair cut.
In December 2005, Hill appeared in the Channel 4 TV documentary, Bring Back...The Christmas Number One.