“Here are we, one magical moment”
There was a very sweet surprise on Thursday evening (April 12) for legendary sideman Earl Slick at The Sidings in Hoylake, Wirral. Earl had been entertaining a packed and very appreciative house during one of the venue’s ‘in conversation’ evenings with stories from his life in music with David Bowie and John Lennon.
Slicky also produced his guitar and proceeded to slay the assembled throng with a few of his ‘greatest riffs’ from some of the biggest tunes in musical history, shouted out to him by the crowd. But it was during the autograph session that the tables were turned and Earl was in for the evening’s biggest surprise.
From the line of fans, long time Bowie fan Paul Häggqvist stepped forward and reunited Earl with a gold disc originally presented to the guitarist for his work on Bowie’s Station To Station in 1976. The award had gone missing in the 90s! Paul acquired the disc a few years ago and had a feeling its owner might like it back and so he travelled to the venue especially to deliver it in person.
Venue manager Kelsey Hodkinson said: “It truly was a wonderful evening having Earl with us here in Hoylake, he was an absolute star and when he was reunited with his gold disc it just topped off a brilliant night for everyone”.
We’ll leave you with a quotation from Mr Slick regarding this magical moment.
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“When Paul presented me with the Station to Station gold disc on Thursday night that had gone missing in the 90s I couldn’t believe it. To lose something in New York and then for it to turn up years later in Hoylake (near Liverpool) is remarkable. Most incredible of all is the generosity of Paul Häggqvist, I’m really knocked out by this.
To all you folks that came to 'The Cavern Club' in Liverpool on Thursday afternoon and 'The Sidings' in Hoylake later that evening, it's not the size of the city that counts, it's the people that live there that make the difference. Thank you all for such a great reception. I will always remember it. See you all soon. ES"
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Earl will be back to perform in the UK shortly but returns to the US with one extra special item in his luggage to declare!
#EarlSlick #StationToStation