Age, Biography and Wiki
Who is it? | Actor, Writer |
Birth Day | April 04, 1946 |
Birth Place | Skipton, Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom |
Age | 77 YEARS OLD |
Birth Sign | Scorpio |
Birth name | David John Hill |
Origin | Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England |
Genres | Glam rock, hard rock |
Occupation(s) | Musician |
Instruments | Sam Lee Custom guitar with Gibson neck and some later John Birch bridge mods, "Superyob" John Birch custom guitar, and of late uses a Gibson Les Paul double cut away Gold top, also backing vocals |
Years active | 1966–present |
Associated acts | Slade |
Net worth: $100K - $1M
Biography/Timeline
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. Hill married his wife Jan in Mexico City in the 1970s, and they have three children: Jade, Bibi and Sam. They live in Lower Penn, Staffordshire, England, where Hill occasionally teaches music at Lower Penn School and Penn Hall School. In 2010 during a concert in Nuremberg, Germany, Hill suffered a stroke from which he recovered to continue touring and recording.
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.
In 1989, Hill formed his own group, Blessings in Disguise. This featured Holder, ex-Wizzard keyboard player, Bill Hunt, Craig Fenney and Bob Lamb. The debut single, released in 1989 for the Christmas market was a ballad cover of The Everly Brothers' Crying in the Rain with Holder drafted in for lead vocals, backed by a Hill/Hunt composition, Wild Nights. The record was a commercial failure. The band also recorded a cover of the Elvis Presley song "A Fool Such As I" which was unreleased.
Hill had first announced the idea of releasing a biography in the early 1990s. In a 1992 interview with the Slade fan club, he said: "I approached John Ogden of the Wolverhampton Express and Star with a view to putting down some of my experiences and stories, to see if a book could be produced that would be entertaining and amusing."
Hill had attended the launch of a £2 million appeal to raise funds for Queen Alexandra College for the Blind in Birmingham. There he heard a song called A Chance to Be, sung by 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, Daniel Somers and Colin Baines. Hill's band name, Blessing in Disguise, was picked as the group name and the single featured ex-Shakatak female vocalist Norma Lewis rather than Holder. The b-side was a track written by Hill entitled You're the Reason that I'm Strong. It was the last recording made by the group and was released in 1991.
Slade finally split up in 1992, 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 line-ups. In 1997 the name of Slade II was shortened back to Slade. The band released the album Keep on Rockin' in 1994, which has also been re-packaged as Superyob, and also as Cum on Let's Party!
In December 2016, Hill was knocked down by a Cyclist in Brighton. He suffered a broken elbow as a result of the accident, and Slade called off upcoming shows planned for early 2017.
Later in November 2016, Hill announced he was in the process of writing an autobiography, with a possible 2017 release through Unbound, subject to it reaching the online pledge target. He revealed: "I've written my autobiography for my fans and for my family, especially my grandkids. I've got plenty of funny tales but also some others which show that my life hasn't been all rock 'n' roll." Titled So Here It Is: The Autobiography, the book was released on 16 November 2017. Noddy Holder provided the foreword and Noel Gallagher the afterword.