SLADE'S HISTORY | QUOTES

Noel Gallagher (1999)
‘They were a proper geezer’s band, but they dressed like the Diddymen, didn’t they?’

ACE FREHLEY (Kiss, 2023): In the late seventies and early eighties I’d get together with my friends and we would blast some Slade. Noddy Holder was just such a maniac. Cum On Feel The Noize is a great drinking song. I guess all of Slade’s songs are great drinking songs.

John Lennon: "Noddy Holder's got the best voice in rock, apart from me."

DEE SNIDER:
"I'm a HUGE fan of the English band SLADE....Slade songs are usually uniquely comprised of a hook (catchy repeated melody and lyrics) for the verse, a hook for the B-verse, and a hook for ......the hook. Jim Lea and Noddy Holder are amazing songwriters! "We're No Gonna Take It" is a full-on Slade-inspired romp. All my anthems are. Thank you Noddy and Jim, for the inspiration and songwriting lessons. I couldn't have done it without you." (from his book "Shut up and give me the mic")

DEE SNIDER in 2021:
It’s little known, but they wrote “Cum on Feel the Noize” and “Mama Weer All Crazee Now,” those two Quiet Riot hits. They were a big inspiration. I mean, they inspired a lot of bands — bands like KISS, Cheap Trick, Quiet Riot, and Twisted Sister. Without Slade, there wouldn’t be those bands.

RICK BUCKLER of THE JAM:
“Funnily enough, I vividly remember Slade’s performance that night,” (November ’78 Great British Music Festival at Wembley Arena) “I’d taken the piss out of ’em previously ’cos they were the old establishment and part of the past, but I thought their set was really powerful. For The Jam, though, it was the first time we’d played a really big venue and we stepped up to the plate that night. The whole mod revival thing was starting to gain pace and we were emerging with a sound of our own. It was an exciting time.”

BRYAN FERRY of ROXY MUSIC:
"We're not a singles band. I certainly don't want to see myself sliding down the Slade / T.Rex corridor of horror". (NME, 1972)

EDDIE MACDONALD (THE ALARM):
"I always wanted to be in a band was cemented at the age of 12, when I ran away from home to follow Slade. That band changed my life, and when the Clash and the Jam came into my line of sight, the future was written." link

RAT SCABIES (THE DAMNED):
“The way I play is my non-musician way, honest and passionate. I mean, Joey Ramone would never get through the X Factor these days, but he knew who he was and that way he had a great voice. Slade, Noddy Holder, those guys knew who they were and they brought that through in their music. Great band, Slade.”

PHIL LYNOTT:
“We were used to playing small clubs and colleges at the time, with just the occasional bigger show back home,” says Lynott. “And we had our audience, who would stand around, listen, applaud. It was all very cool, very macho. But the audience on the Slade tour, they were kids, and they wanted to jump around and scream and wet themselves and get excited and, after that first show, Chas Chandler, who was Slade’s manager, came backstage and said, ‘If you can’t give the kids what they want, you might as well go home now,’ because we just stood there and played.”

ERIC BELL OF THIN LIZZY: "It was unbelievable. We got booed off the stage. Slade were fabulous. They weren’t great musicians individually, but as a group they were fabulous. They went out and actually slayed the people, they really did. Philip especially would be watching this from the side of the stage and watching what Noddy Holder did. He was a great frontman, Noddy was." link

GENE SIMMONS OF KISS - 'The Real Rock & Roll Hall of Fame' article, Classic Rock magazine 2015: ''Kiss were an American band, but were a product of British bands. The Beatles, The Small Faces. And Slade. Especially Slade. Most bands were mice. Slade were men. In many ways they taught Kiss everything we know. They had the songs, of course, and the look, but they also had the presence. That was the most important thing. Until that point no one had worked out how to command an audience. But you've got these four hooligans from the middle of England, in their top hats and ridiculous boots, bellowing out these huge soccer anthems, and crowds would riot ! I remember thinking : 'Wait a minute, that's genius. Why aren't other bands doing it ?' In that respect they were possibly the biggest influence on what we did. That whole larger-than-life thing ? If Slade didn't exist, that wouldn't exist.''

Gene Simmons (Kiss):
"Slade was certainly our greatest influence; not only in the crafting of rock songs but also as performers. Before Slade, no one really knew **** about how to make an audience riot. We really got off on that. There would probably never have been us without them."

".....we liked the way they (Slade) connected with the crowd and the way they wrote anthems... we wanted that same energy, that same irresistible simplicity"

PAUL STANLEY OF KISS - on Slade as an inflence:
"That gets kind of taken out of proportion," says Stanley. "I loved Slade because of the sing-along directness of their songs. I loved Noddy Holder as a front man. My mirrored guitar came from seeing him with a mirrored top hat. But I don't believe they were part of the blueprint."

ALEX CHILTON of BIG STAR:
"Well, all in all I sort of look at the Big Star records as being a little bit innovative, you know? And by that I mean in a mostly musical sort of way, and not so much in a literary sense. I look at the tunes that we wrote, and I think that some of them — a few of them — are pretty good. I listen to the music, and I think that some of it shows a good musical mind at work. That’s what I think is good about those records. I see them as being the work of sort of young, fairly promising musical minds. I’m not as crazy about them as a lot of Big Star cultists seem to be. I think they’re good, but then again, I think Slade records are good, too"

WILLIAM REID (JESUS AND MARY CHAIN):
" I’m thinking of bands that I love, and I haven’t achieved what they've done. Like The Sweet, you know? And The Slade. I love the British bands that were me and Jim’s heros. We thought they were just f**king brilliant....... Well, Slade and Sweet and Marc Bolan. I mean, that’s what I'm talking about. In America, people have absolutely no recognition of anything like that. They don't. They really don't."

KEVIN DUBROW OF QUIET RIOT ON CUM ON FEEL THE NOIZE:
"Still not a fan of it. The song is based on the melody of “Three Blind Mice.” As a '70s-based, blues-rock singer, I like things like Humble Pie, Free, Spooky Tooth. Slade is the furthest end of the spectrum you can get. But, like any of the record companies, they wanna play it safe. “Cum On Feel The Noize” was not a hit in the U.S. for Slade, but it was for us."

Kurt Cobain (Nirvana):
"Absolutely. Slade! A band that would never bend over."

Noel Gallagher (Oasis):
"Slade was never pretentious. It was just music to them. Pop, rock, soul....it was all the same to Slade. They wrote great songs. And, besides, I'd like to raid their wardrobe."

Noel Gallagher:
"Slade are more important to the rock canon than Radiohead."

Joey Ramone (The Ramones): "I spent most of the early 70s listening to Slade Alive thinking to myself, "Wow - this is what I want to do. I want to make that kind of intensity for myself." A couple of years later I found myself at CBGB's doing my best Noddy Holder."

Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple):
"When Slade broke in 1972, I began to get really nervous. Here I am killing myself to write the next incredible riff (and then I see) these four blokes pounding out four chords over and over and loving every minute of it. I bought all of their albums and thought maybe I wanted to join the band. (Bands like) Slade really inspired me to get back to my root of inspiration: heavy, intelligent but fun rock and roll."

Steve Jones (The Sex Pistols):
"Slade never compromised. We always had the feeling that they were on our side. I don't know but I think we were right."

Tom Jones:
"If you notice, around 1972 I started doing much different music. I couldn't do the heavy rock thing anymore. Noddy Holder was around kicking every singer in the ass. I never wanted to be a pop singer. Christ, how I hated Noddy!"

Alice Cooper:
"Slade was the coolest band in England. They were the kind of guys that would push your car out of a ditch.""I love Slade. One of the oddest looking bands of all time..... Twisted Sister lived on Slade, and so did Quiet Riot pretty much. They wrote the catchiest songs around."

Paul Weller (The Jam / The Style Council):
"The whole punk rock thing really happened because of bands such as Slade and the like; rock bands that wouldn't back off."

David Coverdale (Whitesnake):
"Whatever happened to bands that rocked like Slade? Y' know, that no-bullshit, f*** you, in your face, we're bad-as-hell-and-we-know-it kind of band?"

Roland Orzabal (Tears For Fears):
"The truth is, for this (New Musical Express) compilation (album) of cover songs, I wanted to record my version of Slade's How Does It Feel more than anything. Yet, Oasis had already chosen Cum On Feel The Noize. NME feels that too much Slade is not a good thing. Really? I had to settle for the divine Mr. David Bowie. I did my best with second best! ha!"

Robert Christau (music critic for ROLLING STONE & THE VILLAGE VOICE):
"I judge a good rock and roll 'encyclopedia' by whether or not Slade is included."

Roger Daltrey:
"I think Slade is a wonderful example of what a Rock & Roll band should be. They are the ultimate Rock & Roll band, I think. They're fabulous."

Elton John:
"I just don't get it, you should be the ones playing these massive stadiums - you're made for it." (1973)

Ritchie Blackmore - MELODY MAKER OCTOBER 1971 On 'Coz I Luv You':
"Is this the MM staff band? I think I recognise it now the guitarist is speeding up. The song isn't bad. I like the violin. It's very course, but the guitar needs speeding up a lot. It can't be East of Eden, and it's certainly not Family. Slade, yes? They are a good group because the don't care about the notes and there is a public wanting that. Another group might be too inhibited to do what they do."

Sean Rowley & Jeff Lloyd:
"We're here to fawn over Noddy."

Seasick Steve 2010 (Brit Awards Radio 2):
"That place was packed and you guys tore that place up. That was a Rock band!"

John "Rhino" Edwards - Status Quo:
"I thought the best violin player was Jimmy Lee out of Slade. Oh, he's just brilliant. He's a brilliant musician, that guy. He's a serious bass player. That band are so under-rated as players. So original." (Interview by Anthony Bentley © 2010) - http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/intervie ... k_off.html

Stuart Elliot: Cockney Rebel:
"They were a great band...actually they were far better musicians than we were!" (In conversation with the forums Mr Memory Man Dec 2010)

Lester Bangs:
"Slade are gooder than sh*t."

Robin Zander, Cheap Trick:
"I almost got mugged going to see Slade one night. With Ten Years After at this bingo parlor. I probably blew my ears out because I saw the two loudest bands I’d ever heard in my life..... Slade was definitely more impressive. They were so cool live, I don’t even know how to explain it. They were a pop band, but they sounded so heavy to me.

One of the reasons we’re called Cheap Trick is because there was a performance of Slade, and Tom [Petersson] looked at Rick [Nielsen] or Rick looked at Tom and said something like, “These guys use every cheap trick in the book.”

Sean Yseult (Interviewer) "Really? That was about Slade, so those guys influenced you when you started?"

"It was more attitude than anything else; they had a lot of attitude and real positive songs. We just took it to a different level. Our songs are different, so that sets us apart, but we did a tribute, a song on The Latest, by Slade. When the Lights Are Out.”
Offbeat - Nov.1. 2011

Robert Plant:
“I’m 17, full of myself, in a youth club with Noddy Holder … We’d borrow Noddy’s dad’s window-cleaning van for our gear, buckets clanking through the Black Country streets, so to have a record that was going to be pressed, have a dust sleeve – it was showing-off time.‘Well, we’ve got this deal with CBS, Noddy.’ And Noddy goes: ‘That’s all right, we’ve got one with Columbia.’ And then I found out it was the same bloody song!” (2nd Nov 2017, The Guardian)

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