Magazine: FOSTER FACTOR - November 2011

This month Stephen Foster chats to veteran keyboards player Dave Greenslade who for the last decade or so has lived in the Suffolk market town of Bungay. Dave made his name in the late sixties as keyboards player with the jazz-rock band Colosseum and then in the mid seventies performed in the progressive rock group Greenslade. These days Dave is signed to Angel Air Records in Stowmarket and he’s been talking to Foz about his latest two releases on that label.

FOZ : Dave, before we talk about your latest releases on Angel Air I understand you’re just back from a European tour with Colosseum
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DAVE : That’s true. For months we’ve been on the continent playing across Italy, Austria and Germany at festivals in various places Very enjoyable but very hard. Since the demise of dear old Dick Heckstall-Smith the chair has been taken over ably I must say by Barbara Thompson, Jon Hiseman’s wife, who is playing fantastically well. So apart from that change is the classic line-up with Chris Farlowe, Clem Clempson, Mark Clarke, Jon Hiseman, Barbara Thompson and myself.

FOZ : And what’s life like in the modern day Colosseum compared to the late sixties/early seventies?

DAVE : Much better. We do not travel around in the back of transit vans! We also stay in decent hotels and are very well looked after. It is hard graft and the older we get the longer it takes me to get over one of those jaunts. On one part of the tour we did 19 cities in 23 days across three countries.

FOZ : Let’s turn now to the latest Greenslade release on Angel Air.

DAVE : It’s actually two BBC recordings, one in 1973 and one in 1975, before an audience in one of the London playhouse theatres. It could well have been the Paris Theatre, it’s such a long time ago Stephen I’ve kind of forgotten. The tracks on the CD were the staple diet of the group but they are extraordinary performances. I hadn’t heard them for years and years and when I came to listen to them for this release I was very pleasantly surprised. Sundance for example is a 1973 version and then go to 1975 and there’s another version which has got more excitement on it I’d say. Same line-up but it’s amazing what 18 months on the road can do for a band, you know. Our greatest hit is on there as well, Beside Manners Are Extra, which got into the charts.

FOZ : The band took your name of course so did that weigh heavily on your shoulders at times?

DAVE : No, we were a fairly democratic bunch. The office we were signed to were desperately looking for a name. Every time we went in for a meeting they’d say Greenslade’s coming in today and it kind of stuck. We never bothered to try to find any other names to put to it!

FOZ : And it’s great to see prog rock enjoying a new lease of life.

DAVE : It seems to be. As you say, I’ve just completed this Colosseum tour and the number of Greenslade albums I signed in Europe was incredible. I was talking to Tony Reeves and Dave Lawson the other day and we’re thinking about what we might be able to do for 2012 which is our 40th anniversary. We’re under pressure from certain corners to get back together so we’re going to meet up for lunch to sort out what we could do.

FOZ : Let’s talk about your new solo album, Routes-Roots, which is also out on Angel Air.

DAVE : It’s great working with Peter Purnell. Angel Air bills itself as the label where the artist has a voice and it’s absolutely right. I can go and talk to Peter at any time and we always get good feedback. When I haven’t been touring with Colosseum I’ve been writing my own stuff and just before this recent tour Jon Hiseman said it was about time I got this album out so I did! It’s a selection of sketches and ideas and covers a lot of musical paths that I’ve been on over the years. It was all written and recorded at my studio in Suffolk. I set time aside to write. It’s no good waiting for the muse, you could wait forever. It’s a discipline I learnt when I wrote for BBC dramas and documentaries. Deadlines have to be met, as you well know, so I’m very used to working under pressure.