"You're who?"

This one goes a long way back! My cousin Trevor Gordon and I were in Germany, and at the time our song "Only One Woman" with our duo 'Marbles' was top 5 singles in the singles chart. Our pictures were in all the magazines, TV shows, radio etc. household names so to speak.

After a day at a TV studio taping a music show, Trevor and I decided to go out with our manager to a club for a drink and some relaxation. We were told to go to this place by the TV station because they loved our record there and played it all the time and we would be given a great reception by the club.

So it was about 7pm in the evening, and we arrived outside the club and to our surprise through the open door we could hear (being played very loudly) our song "Only One Woman"!!! We walked up to the guy at the door all smiles and confidence thinking "hey that's our record playing what perfect timing for a perfect entrance!!!"   The guy looked at us and said "Halt!!"

Graham and Trevor: "What??!!"
Guy: "I'm sorry you can't come in."
G & T: "Why?"
Guy: "Your hair is too long!"
G & T: "But that's our song you're playing inside."
Guy: "Well I know, but it is 7 o'clock!"
G & T: "7 o'clock?"
Guy: "Yes, there is no long hair allowed after 6 o'clock."

Dumbfounded, we burst into tears of laughter and disbelief and went elsewhere for the night. I wonder if that would happen today?

"Ritchie's Revenge"

Ritchie was well known for practical jokes to free himself from boredom on the road and was always terribly amused by other people's agony and humiliation, while some of the things were quite funny.

Anyhow, one day our tour manager Colin Hart and side-kick Ian Broad decided to pay him back for the band and crews suffering. They went to his room while we were playing and somehow put all of his hotel room's furniture into the quite small bathroom -lamps, bed and everything. So much was packed into the bathroom when they had finished that the door was jammed tight!

When Ritchie went to his room Colin and Ian had to go along to watch his reaction which of course was typical - not surprised by the empty room but annoyed that he couldn't get into the bathroom. So he casually just phoned downstairs to the front desk and asked them to give him another room as the furniture was missing.

Later everyone else suddenly found out they couldn't get into their respective rooms as Ritchie had super-glued all the doors and locks!! He won again!

Cozy Powell-Spider Man"

Graham said "I've probably told this road story a million times about Cozy. He wanted to give one of our roadies a scare by climbing the outside of the hotel we were staying in and swinging in on a rope through the open window and spraying him with a fire extinguisher. Cozy told the roadie that the hotel had requested quests to leave their hotel windows open and not to use the air-conditioning to disperse some chemicals that had been used that day in the hotel. The roadie fell for the story. Cozy climbed ten stories up the outside of the hotel armed with the fire extinguisher. Then he swung through the open window he though was the roadies room and sprayed the man in the bed with the fire extinguisher foam. It was of course the wrong room and the man in the bed had to be taken to the hospital after having a mild heart attack!"

"It's all too much."

I remember one time in England out in the middle of nowhere. There was a small radio station with a very large tower for the radio output. It was probable 400 feet tall and was spotted by the Powell man, and he decided that when nightfall came he would climb this thing for no particular reason. He did!! This was typical Cozy, always being the risk taker, always looking for a thrill that would involve some kind of danger.

He said one day when we were touring "I like to drive fast, beyond human capacity, but one day I'd like to fly a jet fighter plane. That's the ultimate fast high and you've got guns too!!" Cozy was always looking for something more challenging. Within his music and his life and outside the music. I think he would have been a race driver or a motor cycle racer had he not been the great drummer he couldn't help be.
I'll always miss him.