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Slade in the sun
IT'S often the case that the farther you stray from home, the more likely you are to be led right back. The older and wiser you grow, the more frequent are reminders of where you started – when you were young and silly.
We'd seen him somewhere before. My pal Graham and I – doing our annual play-out on Barbados – thought he looked familiar, as he idled over breakfast with his wife in the sunshine. Had we met last year?
"No, never been before. We always go to Bournemouth."
So, he must be from Yorkshire.
"No. Wolverhampton, actually."
Dealings with the Press?
"Now and again... through work."
"And what is it you do?"
"I'm a musician in a band."
"Oh... would we know the band?"
"Possibly. Have you heard of Slade?"
Pennies drop with a humiliating clatter, when you're caught with brain in neutral. But as his facial features made contact with the memory section of hurriedly engaged grey matter, all become clear. Dave Hill, Slade's outrageously flamboyant, glammed-up lead guitarist with silver platforms and eccentric fringe, hadn't really changed at all – in spite of years spent holidaying in Bournemouth.
Full circle of life's quirky trickery completed at lunchtime when, over a glass of wine or three, Dave let slip his passion for cancer research in Yorkshire.
No passing fancy this. He'd been intimately involved in efforts to expand and improve research facilities for more than two years; since his brother-in-law – a Yorkshireman – had been given only months to live.
So far away and yet right back home, through chance encounter with one to whom a young girl had danced her feet sore in discos. It didn't surprise Dave one bit. His whole life has been directed by quirk and coincidence.
"Thank God I picked up a guitar as a kid and found I was good at it," he said. "I could have been in that Tarmac office all my life, otherwise. Council house kids in Wolverhampton didn't get too many chances in those days."
Dave's an unassuming, entertaining, openly friendly man who – as he approaches 59 – has no qualms about counting his continuing blessings. He has been married to Jan for 31 years – remarkable considering the business he's in – and they're as happy as newly weds. Best friends too – which is no doubt their secret.
But flies have a disturbing knack of falling indiscriminately into anybody's ointment and a little over two years ago, when Dave's brother-in-law David Harvey was told throat cancer was to leave him with little chance of survival, that he was to lose his tongue and therefore his speech, the whole family was knocked sideways.
Dave's sister Carol was distraught.
"David's options were grim," said Dave. "Actually they amounted to no option at all. Then, after ages trawling the Internet and every source we could drag up, we found a marvellous Yorkshire surgeon called Nick Stafford, based in Hull.
"He was the only one who could offer us any optimism and he took David on as his patient. He didn't lose his tongue. He didn't die in three months. It's more than two years now and he's doing fine. So, when Nick told us he wanted to raise funds for cancer research in Yorkshire, we bought in big-time."
Nick Stafford, Professor of Head and Neck Surgery at Hull University Hospital, shares Dave's passion for Yorkshire's cancer research development and is key figure in Hull's Daisy Appeal which has so far raised nearly 3m in just two years towards the 6m needed for a research and clinical trials centre to benefit the whole of the county – and of course, beyond.
"The purpose of the centre will be to facilitate new research into cancer and cardio-vascular conditions and from which clinical trials can be conducted, which will certainly be of enormous benefit locally," he said. "Any new research opportunity will of course be of enormous benefit right through Yorkshire."
The Daisy Appeal is to stage a fundraising ball at the Hull KC Stadium on March 18 and once again Dave Hill is keen to contribute.
"I'm donating a guitar – a Les Paul – for auction," he said. "I'll do anything to help this cause.
"Previously I've given gold discs but they keep coming back – like boomerangs. I gave them my gold disc for Slade Alive and it sold for about 20,000. The guy who paid for it sent it back to me, saying he hadn't the heart to keep it because it was my first.
"I donated it again and it was sold again – I wouldn't be at all surprised if it didn't come back again, people are like that in Yorkshire."
David Harvey will be at the ball. Although he has now moved from Yorkshire to live in Cyprus, March 18 is his check-up day and as a prime mover in raising money for the new centre, he wouldn't miss it for the world.
And as Dave Hill – who still tours Europe and the UK with Slade (but without Noddy Holder) – pondered his musical commitments, while sipping chilled white wine by the pool at Cobblers Cove Hotel – he too hoped to make one in, back in Yorkshire.
"Yeah, it's funny we should meet here like this and talk about the work going on back home – but that's the way life is," he said. "It's always thrown up surprises and opportunities for me. I stopped worrying about little things a long time ago. Best way is to let things happen and then make the most of them."
Still the romantic fatalist then?
"Never could be anything else," he said. "I always have been a bit of a romantic. Always was the one who wanted to be the pretty one in my glitter suits and platforms. I wanted to be Davey Jones (Monkees) for goodness sake – could never get my head round skinhead aggression. Never wanted much to do with sex, drugs and rock and roll.
"Jan and I met long before Slade was famous. We fell in love and stayed in love. We were lucky – we are still lucky and you make the most of your luck and be thankful for it.
"So, next year I think we'll give Bournemouth a miss and come back here. It feels warm, good... and lucky."
anne.pickles@ypn.co.uk
Anne Pickles
UK AND YORKSHIRE FEATURE WRITER OF THE YEAR AND YORKSHIRE JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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