|
Home | The Band | BMG | Books | Contact | Gear | History | Insta | Interviews | Live | The Music
NEWS | The Noize | Noize Facebook | Six years on the road | The Slade Forum | Webstuff SLADE INTERVIEWS1970's | 1980's | 2000 - 2013 | 2014 - 2017 | 2018 - 2020 | 2021 - 2023 SPECIAL Q&A SESSIONS
1980's and 1990's COLLECTED SLADE INTERVIEWS DAVE HILL TALKS' An interview conducted at the Top Rank Club in Reading on 25th February 1981. You've just started the second part of the tour. How has it been going? After that we did the Newcastle Mayfair and Sunderland.... excellent gigs. The Newcastle Mayfair was especially
excellent as it's mainly a hard rock audience with leather coats and all the bit! It looked hilarious, in actual fact it looked like we'd paid someone to do it! They were pretty gropey type birds and it
looked great during 'Whole lotta lovin', as one was holding onto Nod! Admittedly, we had to work at it though, because when we first asked for bookings from them, they weren't all going to have us straight away because they wanted to see us. And once they had done, and we'd been through that trip, they had us back. We have had a heck of a lot of dates come through for later in the year, which we are now having to consider. The group's personal plans at the moment are that we want to finish this tour, take a week or more off and then go in the studio and record a new lot of material. Then on the next tour we can start changing the act. We have stuck to the same act for the moment on account of the new people that are coming to see us, who have never seen the act anyway. I know that it must be boring for old fans, who have seen the same act so many times. But hopefully they will see our point of view, which I'm sure they will, that the new fans that are giving us that success, have got to see the act the way it is - and the way that the old fans have been seeing it. We are quite looking forward to changing the whole situation after this tour. We're not going to change the whole act... just get a few new numbers in. We'll have to drop some old songs and there'll always be some die-hard fans saying 'What have you dropped that for? It was the best number in the act!' It was like when we dropped 'Hear me calling', we got loads of people saying 'What have you done that for?', but they don't mention it now! For me, I'd love to keep changing things, but if you change them too quickly, it's like batting an eyelid - as a bunch of people could have totally missed it. What's it like with your wife just having a new son before you had to start out on the road again? What name are you going to call your son? You've been talking of some more concert dates. When will they be set for? Now that you've made it in Britain again, how about trying to make it in Europe and get the record released? You've got a new album coming out soon called 'We'll bring the house down. It's going to have some old numbers
on it, isn't it? It won't be the same as 'Return to base' as it will have a lot of the tracks pulled out and other numbers such as 'Dizzy mama' and 'Night starvation' and 'When I'm dancin' added, making up a more rocky album. It will basically consist of the live act at the moment, so anyone who's into the live act should like the album. But for the benefit of the old fans, new material is in the pipeline. After this tour we shall be making a new single and a new album. Will they be released to go with the May dates? So how does it feel to be 'back on the map' again, now that the single is in the chart? You've got the hit though, but nothing seems to have changed... How did you enjoy doing Tiswas? Will you be making more videos for the TV from now on? Jim Lea (chipping in) A NODDY HOLDER INTERVIEW from the Slade Supporters Club's November / December 1981 newsletter, in which he gets very, very enthusiastic (AND WHY NOT!!!) about their then new album 'Til deaf do us part'. Nod, could you go through the running order of the tracks on the new album and tell us what some of the
numbers are about? The opener on the album is The Rock ‘n’ Roll Preacher. It features some of the gimmick things that we do onstage already, with lots of hallelujah’s. Then we go into Lock Up Your Daughters, which is the current single. Then the next track is Till Deaf Do Us Part and that’s all about concerts and what the crowds get up to. There’s lines in it like – Hanging from the ceiling, the balconies are gonna break – and other lines that depict what the crowds do at gigs. The next song is called Ruby Red. It’s a number that we’ve had around for a long time. Me and Jim wrote it maybe two or three years ago. We tried to record it before but we never managed to get it down how we actually wanted it. We recorded it here first when Chas was producing us. Then, recently, when we were looking through the songs that we’d got for the album, we remembered that we’d never been able to get Ruby Red down on tape properly, but that it was a good, strong, commercial sound. So we added some new riffs to it and got it down and it’s a good commercial song. It might be in line for the next single. After Ruby Red there’s a track called She Brings Out The Devil In Me, which is all dead filth! It’s a song about a block and a chick…. And that’s the end of the first side. The second side opens with A Night to Remember, which is an out-and-out rock track, in the Dizzy Mama vein. It’s all solid rock riffs and a bit of a boogie number. We’ll be doing this one onstage for sure. It’s a number about a guy waiting to see his chick again – there’s no real story to it, it’s basically a quickly knocked off thing with rock riffs and a good beat to it. The next track is an instrumental piece that Dave wrote called M’hat M’coat, which is dedicated to his guru! It’s an eerie number with all guitars and synthesisers on it. Then there’s It’s Your Body Not Your Mind – all about a schoolgirl! It’s got all double meanings about things at school. Let the Rock Roll Outa Control comes next. This is all about audiences, the punters who come to the gigs and the stageshow type gigs. The next track is That Was No Lady, That Was My Wife. It’s about all the Flash Harrys that go down the discos – a type of ’oldest swinger in town’ thing. This one is especially based around Haden Donovan! Then the last track is Knuckle Sandwich Nancy. But we go into a little piece again of Till Deaf Do Us Part, which is the running theme through the whole of the album. In recording the album, did you use any different techniques, as the single out at the moment has a different
style to it? Have any dates been added to the tour? How many new songs are you hoping to bring in on the tour? How are things going abroad at the moment? Will the latest single be released in Scandinavia? How about next year, have you made plans that far ahead yet? How did you come up with the title of the album Till Deaf Do Us Part? Can you tell us any more about the split with Chas? I saw it the other day. When you compose a song how do you actually go about doing it? How do you remember parts of songs when you work on them? How we worked out the songs for the new album was by all the group rehearsing them in stages. We’d rehearse two or three songs at a time in Wolverhampton then come down to London and record them – rather than record twelve all in one go. Thus, as we record the numbers, if we feel that one or two of them don’t fit in with the mood of the album, then we put them to one side and leave them for a later date. Next, we’ll sometimes whip up a couple of numbers quickly that do fit in with the mood of the album, and record them. With this album, therefore, we have recorded about twelve tracks, not all of which will be used. We’ve got a few songs floating about that we’ve recorded but never put out. The time comes though when, as with Ruby Red, which we basically recorded yonks ago, that we hit on the right arrangements for the numbers and they now fit the group’s style and we can record them again. Do you ever record any numbers spontaneously in the studio? There’s a song on the new album called She Brings Out the Devil in Me, which just came out of a lick that we used to jam at sound checks. I put a melody and words to it, and we have a song. Dizzy Mama came about the same way. Sometimes things that you jam at sound checks have a natural feel to them and they go down well on record. Often things that rise like this go down better than when you sit down and try and write a song – maybe it’s better to just let them come naturally on occasions. Would you like Flame shown on TV soon? Do you think that the film being shown would give you the right sort of image nowadays? Did you see the letter in Record Mirror the other week from the bloke saying that over the last few years he’d bought all the Slade releases – but he’d only received a few new songs as you had duplicated lots of the numbers on different albums and singles? I saw it. The material that we have been using for B-sides and things has been the numbers we released when we weren’t getting hits. You have got to remember that the number of copies that these records sold was negligible. They would only sell one or two thousand copies here or there. We released things like Sign of the Times as an A-side single but it was withdrawn after only a week as we decided that we didn’t want it out as most of the radio stations refused to play it. It only sold a few hundred copies. People that didn’t buy that single or the Return To Base album, which only sold a couple of thousand would never have heard that song. That is the reason that we decided to put it out a the B-side of the current single With the Reading EP we decided to put on things like When I’m Dancin’ and Night Starvation simply because loads of people had never heard these songs before – they were only previously ever released on the Six of the Best record which did nothing at all when it came out. After we played Reading and we have the radio broadcast, everyone was saying for us to release a live EP of the show – which we did. Anybody who had bought the Six of the Best record wouldn’t have had live versions of those records! Also, when we had We’ll Bring the House Down in the charts and we started playing really big gigs again and getting over to a new audience, we released the We’ll Bring the House Down LP which was a compilation of numbers we’d released in the past couple of years. The reason that it charted was because the album contained all the numbers from our stage set and the new fans wanted these, so they bought it. They couldn’t have bought the old records they were released on because they were no longer available! We can’t win. When we put some of the old numbers out as B-sides on the We’ll Bring the House Down album the old fans complain that they’ve already got these songs. If we don’t do this we get letter of complaint from the new fans saying they can’t get hold of the old material! Look at how many letters you’ve had at the fan club from new fans says ‘where can I get hold of such and such a track?’. They can’t get hold of them anywhere unless we put them out as B-sides to our new songs! The B-side of the next single that we bring out will be a new song and won’t be pulled from the album. The track’s going to be Funk, Punk and Junk. It’s a track that we left off the album because it’s just not the same style of material as the album tracks. There’s been lots of our old material that has been bypassed though. There’s numbers like Burning in the Heat, Give Us a Goal and Rock ‘n’ Roll Bolero that we haven’t put out again. All our career we’ve had people complaining to us telling us that we’ve been putting out the wrong material. I remember you complaining to us that we shouldn’t have put Dizzy Mama as a B-side and that I should’ve been a single! In the end we’ve decided that we can never win. We’ve decided to make our own decisions and hopefully at the end of the day these will be the ones that will please the most amount of people! KERRANG! December 1982 - THE BISHOP OF BLUDGEON (Noddy Holder interview) NOW HEAR this! Slade are most definitely NOT a bunch of dry rot-infested bozos. As the above 'Zod' quote hints, Jim Lea, Dave Hill, Noddy Holder / Don Powell have had as much influence on today's Metal scene as the likes of Purple, Zeppelin, or Sabbath. How, and why, did this happen? I've a theory about it which I shall expound for your delectation, o lucky people. You see, in the early seventies, when many modern HM stars were just beginning to take an active interest in music, who did they have to copy? Very little Metal was heard on the radio. or seen on 'Top Of The Pops', whilst music from 'hip' supergroups such as Genesis, Yes. or ELP probably went over most of their heads. So, where did they turn for inspiration? To the stomping few whose brand of high-energy tunefulness regularly hit the charts- Sweet. Glitter. T. Rex, and Slade. And. since the earliest influence on any muso tends to be the most important, it's these outfits who've subsequently etched their mark all over eighties Heavy Metal. "Yeah, a lot of bands come up to us and say how much Slade has guided 'em," agreed St Noddy, the Bishop of Bludgeon, during a recent pre-tour chinwag. "I suppose we've also had a lasting effect on the kids who follow HM today. You see, about 10 years ago when we were having all those hits, these people would only have been eight or nine years old. They've obviously picked up on the band from all the exposure we had back then, and the songs have stayed with 'em. We certainly attract a very young audience nowadays- fans who just couldn't have been old enough to see us live when we first happened." But there's more to Slade than those golden days of yore. For, at a time when the FUN has virtually gone from music, these veterans are again on a one-band crusade to bring the glam back to metal, and put the smile back on the face of rock 'n' roll. It's incredible, yet undoubtedly true, that more than 10 years since they originally hit the top, Slade are still untouchable on-stage. They’re the unequalled gift to make each and everyone at a gig feel SPECIAL. Whether up in front of a huge festival audience, or playing the Allied Breweries' Workingmen's Club in Burton, they create an intimate atmosphere and are the ultimate good time rock 'n' roll stage act. A host of eager novices from Rox to Silverwing have tried in vain over the past couple of years to imitate the Wolverhampton quartet's style, but none has managed to come close. "We've always been the way we are now. A lot of bands these days think it's uncool to have a show like ours that just keeps on moving. But we plan our gigs to go from A·Z, with something happening all the time to keep the fans' attention from wandering. It’s professionalism to us, and I suppose in a way we have our roots more in traditional music hall than anything else. Everything might look off-the-cuff but in fact the shows are worked out in detail. "Of course, there's still room for spontaneity. We're always picking up on things at gigs, and incorporating 'em on the spot into the act. We've been known to have one gag running throughout an entire show - it helps to create a rapport with the kids. We've never been any different; Slade is a band that relies on audience feedback to really make for a good concert, In fact it was this element that got us discovered in the first place. In the late sixties, we did a club in New Bond Street (London), and only had about 20 people in. Those fans were really going crazy, though, and Chas Chandler came down, saw us working the audience, and signed us up" "I honestly believe that the way we perform means we can get away with lots or things others can't. I remember in our earliest days, there was one fella at a particular gig we used to do who turned up every time we played there. He was always the same - totally drunk, with two pints of beer in his hands and covered in dirt, I think he was a foundryman. But each time, without fail, he'd come up onstage with us and sing 'Skippy, The Bush Kangaroo', whilst we'd play a rock beat behind him. The audience loved it. In fact, they expected it to happen when Slade appeared there. Now, most bands would nave got bottled off for something like that. But, we did this sort of thing all over the place - if a guy wanted to come up and sing with us for a bit, we'd encourage it!" Indeed, even the most mega of bands can learn from Slade's relaxed attitude. For, as their new, absolutely incredibly live LP 'Slade On Stage' shows this lot begin a gig at the sort of level most hands would be happy to finish on! And, if you're at all sceptical of their prowess, then 'SOS' is guaranteed to change your mind. Forget about the occasional studio overdubs, they're irrelevant. What matters is the remarkable way da boyzz have captured their stage set on vinyl. With most live albums one ends up feeling like an uneasy eavesdropper on an historical event. But this one makes the listener feel a part of the whole show from the off. If ever a piece of plastic actually sweated itself into a state or frenzied exhaustion, then 'SOS' is it. "I think we've managed to keep the excitement of the gig virtually intact. It's true we had to do a few studio bits to tart it up, but these have been kept to a minimum. However, I've got to be honest and say that I'm not one of these people who believes a live LP should go out as it was recorded - whatever the quality. You've always got to remember that somebody is gonna pay hard earned cash for this record. And, whilst every effort should be made to preserve the atmosphere of a thing, if adding a few touches to it can enhance the final sound, then I think you owe it to the punter to do just that. "With 'SOS', though, all we've done is to make up for bits where, for example, a guitar string broke or something. Oh yeah, and we had to cut out part of the audience as well, 'cos one of the microphones in the auditorium at Newcastle City Hall {the only gig to be recorded~ was set up next to a loony. He kept on shouting into it "bastard!" at the top of his voice, so obviously that had to go. But, apart from those things, everything is faithful to the show. The LP was mixed by the band at London's Portland Studios. And, typical of their workaholic attitude, they recorded a new album while they were there, for which the current single '{And Now - The Waltz} C'est La Vie' is an excellent taster. "It's an album that's bound to surprise people. A lot of different styles have been incorporated, which perhaps aren't usually associated with Slade. ''It's funny, you know, in our early days we always found working in a studio very hard. We'd forever wanna do songs as we did 'em live, and just couldn't get to grips with studio requirements. But now we produce ourselves, things work out far better. We're more at home recording these days than ever we were in our big hit era. And, because of that we're making out best-ever music'" All of which brings me to a final point. It seems that the art of penning good, three-minute foot-stompers is fast being lost. Modern bands just don't seem to have the ability or inclination to write instantly memorable numbers in the classic mould of 'Goodbye T’ Jane' or 'Get Down & Get With it', Slade via such modem marvels as ‘When I'm Dancin', I Ain't Fightin' and 'Lock Up Your Daughters' are out on their own in this respect. So, are the band really the last of the great rock songsters? "It’s probably the most difficult thing in music to write a simple, good, three minute rock song. Certainly, it's far easier to pen a three-minute ballad. But, it saddens me that there seems to be no bands around who are even trying to do this. The trend towards cover versions obviously hasn't helped; I feel too many good groups see the cover as an easy option and a quick route to the charts. "I can't believe there is no new talent capable of writing three minute, catchy rock numbers. There are loads of truly excellent Metal bands around with great technical abilities. I m sure many of them could write great songs. Perhaps they lack the perseverance to keep on battling away until they have a hit, or else maybe no-one has given 'em the encouragement to go out and have a bash at it. “If I had the time, I’d love to take hold of a good group, and given 'em some guidance in this respect. What some of these young bands need is to spend a little less time on image and a bit more on material. Slade have always had an image, but we've never let it take precedence over the music. And if, as has happened, we release a single which flops, then we just take that failure in our stride and write some new, hopefully better songs. The great secret is never to let anything get you down – don’t panic and always have faith in your ability:' This is clearly a philosophy that's served Slade well for they've now been together 17 years- without a change of line-up. And, it's a measure of the high esteem in which they're held that rock 'n' roll minus these chaps is as unthinkable as your average semi-detached suburban house without electricity. Roll on 1985, and the 20th anniversary celebrations. STILL CRAZEE AFTER ALL THESE BEERS Click interview images to view full size.
The Amazing Kami-Khazi Syndrome.
KERRANG! December 1983 When St. Noddy the Holder, that renowned Bishop of Bludgeon, fmally elects to trade in his multi-storey, stackheeled pulpit for a slow-burning log fire, bungalow-level carpet slippers and a Barbara Cartland novel (ah. the quiet life!), hell doubtless snuggle under his duvet (complete with Wee Willie Winkle night cap) having first offered praise to his 'Lordy Lordy' for creating Quiet Riot ('And on the eighth day .. .') Now, cum, on, the reason's obvious! The Los Angeles quartet recently blasted into the US Top Five with their version of that klassic, 'Cum On Feel The Noize' (or in Phil Mogg's case, 'Cum On Feel The Noze'), thereby awakening a whole generation of sibling Yanks to the pleasures of etymological contortion, and at the same time ensuring a steady flow of offshore bucks into the Slade reservoir. Bank managers, stockbrokers and hotel doormen now eagerly rush to call Holder 'sir', as they assiduously pump his flesh (to use a political hustings term) and feel his newly bulging wallet. If the 'silent' hell raisers from LA are the fast-food 'rocky burger' taste of the moment then Slade have undoubtedly helped light the flame that makes 'em so hot! For not only have QR struck a rich precious Meta1 vein with 'Cum On Feel The Noize', they've done it in a manner so like the Wolverhampton wacky racers - a case of Mike Yarwood and Harold Wilson! “It's a good version of the song. I don't think Quiet Riot have added anything to the original, but they've updated the sound." Noddy Holder looks professionally relaxed (everything Slade do has that air of the old pro' about it) as he contemplates higher things (a full can of lager stuck on a very tall shelf) whilst lounging across his publicist's couch. "We've actually been approached in the recent past by people wanting us to update one of our classics. But, not even seeing what a band like Quiet Riot have done so successfully with modern studio technology on an old Slade tune has persuaded us it's worth doing. There was a spontaneity and electricity about the numbers when we first did 'em that could never be recaptured now. There just wouldn't be the same feel so, no matter how much money is offered, we're not into prostituting our own heritage." Of course, why should Slade bother revisiting past glories, when QR are doing it for them? Rumour (unsubstantiated at present) has it that 'Mama We're All Crazee Now' and/or 'Gudbye T’Jane’ might well crop up on the stripe-happy lads' next album. So, there's every possibility that the Slade back catalogue will become legitimate plunder fodder for a host of American hard rock pirates (possessed of a sheep mentality) looking for healthy chart pickings. The irony of it is that Holder's heroes are presently without a US recording deal ("we're hoping to clinch one soon") and have always been regarded as too parochially British to rock 'em dead on the transatlantic route. But, in Britain during the early Seventies, Slade could boast more hits than any assassination squad. However, being in the pop business is rather like playing the fruit machines. You can get a run of luck when every coin triggers a jackpot, then inexplicably the winnings just dry up. There's no obvious logic to either streak and Slade have been stuck in the latter groove for some years, releasing a torrent of strong stuff that's scarcely dented the charts. Until now, that is, cos it's 'flame-on' time again as 'My Oh My' has burnt a cinder trail up the Top 20. A ballad in the tradition of 'Everyday' and 'C'est La Vie', this song sways with an almost waltz-style rhythm (a case of 'We'll Bring The Strauss Down'?) yet retains a north-face- of-the-Eiger (i.e. very rocky) foundation - balls to the waltz?? What sets it up as different from anything Slade have ever attempted before is the neotechnological sound gained by producer John Punter. "It was RCA's idea to get him in. They asked us to write a couple of songs specifically for singles release. So we recorded demos of two numbers, 'My Oh My' and 'Run Runaway'. When the label heard them, they flipped and thought the songs were great, but ... they insisted we get in an outside producer to do the final versions. To be frank, we thought the demos themselves were good enough to put out, however the success of 'My Oh My' suggests RCA were right. Working with an outside producer for the first time in, well, years (all recent Slade vinyl has been self-produced) was certainly interesting. It provided us with a fifth pair of ears and a new outlook in the studio. John was easy to work with in the end cos he was prepared to work with us rather than trying to dictate to us. And it was enlightening to actually do things in a slightly different manner to our norm, We built the sound of each instrument layer by layer with Punter rather than just putting down all the basic tracks in one go and then overdubbing," The thought might traverse a few minds that Slade were almost pressurised into using an outside producer by RCA. Indeed, given the fact that there's been a virtual Stalin-style purge recently of the label's comradely heavy rock roster (R.I.P Hawkwind, Alkatrazz, Budgie among others), were Slade in any danger of a concrete handshake? Whether or not 'My Oh My' is the birth of something big, we'll be able to judge when 'Run Runaway' ("a heavy jig") comes out in January. And that might well be the final song Punter records with Slade. The album is strangely titled 'The Amazing Kamikaze Syndrome'. Now, with some bands, a monicker like that would immediately throw up an explanatory comment like: 'Oh, it was inspired by an obscure Herman Hesse novel/a long-lost episode of 'The Prisoner”/a rare Salvador Dali portrait (delete where applicable). So, which is it, Nod? Could it be that Noddy Holder is a budding Freudian figure in the rock hierarchy? Psychological woargh-fare lives, head for the couch! Still, at least the above explanation will allay lascivious rumours that 'The Amazing Kamikaze Syndrome' is, in fact, a title inspired by a new type of Japanese outdoor super-loo!
As for the music, well, at the time of writing, I've heard not a screech or tweet from the album, so all I can do is refer you back to the Mayhem column in our last issue for track details and leave Holder to deliver just one comment ... It's in the shops now so check it out for yourself. And so, to a thorny subject - Girlschool. Since the release of the Holder/Lea produced 'Play Dirty', some rather silly comments have appeared in print concerning my supposed opinions on both the album and the band. So, let me briefly put the record straight. I still admire the gals. Furthermore, I applaud the direction they've attempted to take on 'Play Dirty'. I just think it's not quite come off. However, I'm most certainly not waging any vendetta against 'em and nothing would give me greater pleasure than to be forced into eating a slice of home-grown humble pie as 'PD' becomes an international best-seller, but… Not surprisingly, Noddy doesn't share my reservations. "Originally, we were approached just to do a single. Bronze Records were looking for a hit so we got together with Girlschool and recorded one of our songs, 'High 'N' Dry', plus one of their numbers. Anyway, things turned out so well that we were then asked to do the album. Spencer Proffer was being lined up for the LP and he even came over to meet the band. But in the end, it was decided to stick with Jim and me. "To be honest, I can't really bear to contemplate what might have happened had they gone off to Los Angeles with Spencer. He seemed like a nice guy who knew what he was doing, but the girls actually went into the studio to record the album with one song fully written ('Breaking All The Rules'), one half-written and a collection of partially thought-out ideas. We had to help 'em get the numbers together so I can imagine what a state they'd have been in without Jim and me to pull things together. "I was amazed how much time they wasted in the studio just writing. With the year gap between 'Screaming Blue Murder' and 'Play Dirty' I expected 'em to have ten strong songs fully written and arranged. In the event, a lot of expensive recording time was wasted on composing. "With Slade I'm used to having things totally ready before going into a recording studio and once work begins on an album we simply slog at it until it's ready, rarely taking extensive pub breaks. But I was talking with Ozzy recently and he told me Sabbath used to do things like Girlschool and I've since learnt a lot of other famous bands work that way as well, so maybe we're in the minority. "But, let me say this. Girlschool are potentially a great band and this album is very good. Certainly, everyone around 'em – management, record company - are convinced it'll sell exceptionally well. I just hope they're right." I bet he does!
Noddy Holder plugging "Run Runaway" on TVAM 1984
During Slade's 1984 American breakthrough, the band performed on Dick Clark's American Bandstand show. Jim Lea interview from 1985, with Finland's Rockradio DJ Jukka Haarma. JH: "Today’s guest is Slade's Jim Lea, Slade's songwriter and bassist. Jim Lea visited Finland last Friday at the opening of an international satellite rock channel. And on his visit Jim Lea also hit Rockradio's microphone. On the previous time it was the golden throat Noddy Holder from Slade, when the year was 1982 and Slade were doing their Kuusrock gig at Oulu. But since then, this seventies super-band have fortified their comeback. Slade and Jimmy Lea." JH: "The end of the seventies was a time when, at least by following the media, one could have thought that Slade didn't exist anymore. Jim Lea, what do you think about that time period now?" Jim: "It doesn't bother me at all. I don't even think about it, because when the media was saying Slade were finished we were still working, we were playing, we just continued onward and onward and onward. And every gig we did was fantastic. I knew that the band was still good. I knew that we could still write good songs. I just looked around and thought 'We are right and they are wrong.' And our comeback started from the three day heavy metal festival at Reading 1980. At first nobody wanted us to the festival, 'Oh, Slade! Don't make us laugh. That band is finished.' But when Ozzy Osbourne cancelled his gig, then the organisers needed a quick replacement and at that state even we would do. And it started from that. Both the press and the audience received us well. But our gigs were just like formerly - we hadn't changed but the circumstances had. Heavy had come back." JH: "It has gone soon five years since the Reading festival and during that time Slade have finally had a breakthrough in the USA too. It feels good, doesn't it?" Jim: "Yes, well we tried to make it in America for many years. When we had our first success we tried, when we had a low point we tried, and also later on when we made it in England again. America just didn't want to know about us. They wouldn't even give us a record deal. And then at the end of 1983 Quiet Riot had 'Cum on Feel the Noize' and got on the charts. It wasn't until then that the record companies changed their mind and seemed to be thinking that if Quiet Riot can do it why not Slade too - the band is still alive. And after the single 'Run Runaway' became a big hit in England, then every record company in the USA seemed to be running after us. I walked into the hotel room in Los Angeles, put on the TV, it was MTV on, 'and number one video this week Slade and Run Runaway'. And I couldn't believe it!" JH: "Jim Lea, the latest Slade LP 'Rogue's Gallery' seems to be on the other hand that familiar, traditional Slade, but on the other hand there are also new elements e.g. those synthesisers, they occasionally bring to mind Van Halen's latest?" Jim: "Yes, yes, synthesisers are coming to rock a lot. I'm not or Slade aren't electronic people, you know. We like guitars played as loud as you can. But I think on a record to make things sound - it wasn't deliberate. I just like the sound of synthesiser. I don't mess about with sounds like Thompson Twins do, you know, it's really - it's not good for me. I use the synthesiser as rock 'n' roll instrument. On the other hand when I compose some songs with piano and the band play them with guitar, they sometimes sounded a bit strange and synthesisers fit better to those songs written by piano." JH: "People have said that Noddy Holder is the lungs of Slade and you are the brains of Slade. Is that fair?" Jim: "(Laughs) Oh, Slade is made up of four very different people. My role in Slade has been writing songs. I don't take a lot of notice of what other people are saying. As you said in the bad years, I said what I thought. My role has been some kind of opinion leader. I am the spontaneous songwriter and I don't need to go to some distant place. I can write songs even in a hotel room. That is what I give to Slade." JH: "Next year it has been 20 years since Slade was founded. Have you made so much money that that isn't the reason to keep Slade alive?" Jim: "No. I think there are very few bands or musicians or whatever who can do that, who could survive for the rest of the time on what they've earned. Because people always think you earn a lot of money, but you pay big taxes. In the early seventies in England we paid up to the 90% taxes. What we had achieved by then was a nice house over our heads. Nothing else, even though we have never acted like big stars do. We have never thrown money away. As said we can't stop yet, we must continue." INTERVIEW WITH DAVE HILL FROM THE MARCH - MAY 1986 ISSUE OF 'PERCY' We recently met Dave Hill at some recording studios in Birmingham, where he was putting the final touches
to some demos that he will be putting forward for consideration on the next Slade LP. We asked Dave why he is using this 16-track studio in Birmingham, as opposed to Portland? We discussed with Dave a little about exactly what a demo is, and how it differs from what we hear on vinyl. Where does Dave get his ideas from and has he ever considered doing a solo album of his own? When the Slade LP comes out, Dave is hoping to have one of his songs on it, or maybe two. Slade have now been off the road for the past few years, so we asked Dave how he feels about this situation. We enquired about how much disruption a tour would cause to Dave's family life. Things have been fairly quiet recently, for Slade. We asked Dave if he could explain why he thinks this is. Dave has always been fond of the fans and is often heard making mention of them in the various interviews
he does. We eventually started talking about the Reading Festival in 1980, which marked the turning point in Slade's
fortunes. It must have been a great experience for Dave that day . . "We walked on stage and there was this roar from the crowd. I thought 'that's pretty good'. Anyway, we went into the first number (Dizzy Mama) and I could see the reporters looking at us. I was dreading the end of the first number, as that is the point at which we can usually tell how a show is going to go. As it happens, I think we went straight into 'My baby left me', so we didn't really wait or a reaction. The confidence came when there was a reaction, as it built and built, sort of got bigger and bigger. I mean getting that lot to sing 'Merry Xmas' was like, amazing. I could see Chas at the side grinning. Tommy Vance played the recording of Slade at Reading the other week and I thought that was great. I got excited listening to that. I was lying in bed listening to it and going 'crikey, there's bits out of tune, there's bits of fun and it sounds great'. I took my mind into Reading and imagined us playing" Many fans have written in asking whether Slade will produce a video of one of their concerts one day. What
does Dave think of the idea? As Slade are now working on a new album, we thought we'd talk a little bit about the 'Rogues Gallery album'
and what Dave could remember about the making of it. A few years ago, Dave got involved with driving a couple of brides to their wedding, which was an event organised
by Keith Altham. Many of you will have seen the photos of this in the various newspapers which covered it. Did
Dave think (on that day) that he could have been doing that as a full time job if the Reading Festival hadn't been
offered to Slade in 1980? It seems that Dave always lives this sort of lifestyle, whereby one minute he is Dave Hill, 'the pop star' and the
next he is Dave Hill, the family man. "I also do jogging quite a lot, which is something I find quite stimulating. I just go over the fields and get a sweat going. I think it reminds me of when I'm playing, 'cos when you're on stage you get extreme temperatures of heat. You sweat a lot, you jump up and down, you come off and you feel wonderful - because, therapeutically, you've had an audience going bananas, as most of our audiences do. You know, I think I can honestly say that, even during the rough years, we have never had a duff night in our lives. We have always gone out and done the business." The interview continued, with a leaning towards finding out more about 1975 and the 'Flame' film era : Slade's first single in 1975 was 'How does it feel' and was the title track [Played over the intro] of the film 'Flame'.
Although the single only reached #15 in the UK charts, it was totally different to anything they had done previously
and seemed to be a pointer towards some of what Slade have recorded subsequently. . . We asked Dave about what he would say to the new fans who are trying to imagine what was happening with
Slade in a particular year? We enquired as to whether 'How does it feel' was written with the idea in mind that it would ultimately become
the title track of the movie? Slade did a farewell type of tour in 1975, just before they went to America. Radio One followed part of this tour
as an 'Insight Special' [broadcast in two one hour parts - one part documentary, one part a live concert from
The Victoria theatre in London]. We asked Dave what he could remember of this tour. Slade have always said that on looking back at the experience of making and promoting 'Flame' that it seems
to represent 'a big hole' in their career. We asked Dave what he thought of the idea of making another movie. Slade also brought out 'Thanks for the memory' as a single in 1975, which was followed up by another single
called 'In for a penny', which was from their forthcoming album 'Nobody's fools'. The 'Nobody's fools' album was released eventually in March 1976 and coincided with the release of the track
'Nobody's fool' as a single. The album featured female backing vocals that were supplied by Tasha Thomas.
Did Dave think that this had anything to do with the fact that the album only reached #14 in the UK charts (a
total flop by Slade's standards at the time)? We wondered whether Dave felt that in 1975, the band were beginning to lose control of their own destiny;
that they were beginning o be channelled into what Chas and Polydor thought Slade were, rather than what
the band thought? NODDY HOLDER INTERVIEW CONDUCTED IN LONDON 5th JUNE 1986 FROM THE JUNE - AUGUST 1986 EDITION OF PERCY. We recently met Noddy Holder at the hotel in London he uses when Slade are recording, Nod having spent
the past few days laying down some new tracks for the next Slade LP. The band are currently using Readan
Recording Studios, so we thought we'd ask Nod if he could explain the change from Portland? Over the past few years there have been several changes on the production side of Slade's recordings.
We enquired about who will be producing this current batch of songs? We enquired about whether the LP is expected to be released in the USA? Many of you have written to us, saying that a particular album track would make a good single, so we thought
we'd ask Nod how much say the band have on record releases? "It's no good us going in and insisting that we want a new single out, because if you know they're not keen on it, they're not going to push it. I used to go up there myself for four years between the time we split with Chas and when Colin took over our business affairs. I was virtually managing the band for four years and had to go up there and go though all this crap. I had to argue with them week after week, saying these things to them. I mean it's not just us - every artist has the same problem. If I had the choice, 'Walking on water' would have been released as a single between 'Myzster Jones' and 'Miracles', but I was the only one who thought so. RCA and the other band members weren't keen, so obviously it didn't get released. Everybody I spoke to on the streets loved that bloody song, and felt that it should have been the single." We asked Nod if he could tell us a little bit more about this latest batch of recordings? When does Nod expect another Slade record to be released? We asked Nod if he would be prepared to describe a few of the songs as a taster of what to expect? We asked Nod if he would tell us more about the 'Knights and Emeralds' songs? With the new album coming out in the Autumn, we wondered whether Slade had any plans to promote
it with any live work? "You know, it's not a case of me not wanting to do it. It's just that with my present circumstances, I've got to put my priorities in the right order now. I've given the band 20 years of priority and now I can't. I've got to give my kids priority because I don't see them that often. It was unfortunate that it happened at a time when we'd had a big flush of success with 'My oh my' and 'Run runaway' I can't say that there will definitely be a tour before the end of the year, and I can't say that there won't. My attitude might change in a couple of months time and I might say 'Let's go and do it'. I'm just leaving my options open. There's no way anyway that Slade can go on the road at the moment because of our recording commitments." (The Percy Editor then invited fans to write in to give Nod reasons why the band should tour. We all now
know they didn't work). There appears to have been some confusion over the last few Slade tours, especially the European tour
(Autumn 1984) and the UK tour (Spring 1985), both of which were originally planned to promote the 'Rogues
Gallery' album, and both of which were cancelled. We asked Nod to clarify this. "As for the UK tour, although it was virtually me that cancelled it for the reasons already given - That tour WAS NEVER CONFIRMED. The agent and promoter started promoting it and selling the tickets, and we hadn't even confirmed that we were going to do the tour. The tickets had already been on sale for two months and nobody bothered to tell us!" At the end of last year, a track entitled 'My oh my (swing version)' appeared on the b-side of 'Do you believe in
miracles?' We asked Nod how this came about and who is actually playing on it? At that point our lost had to leave us for an important meeting, so we bade our farewells and looked forward to the next time. NODDY HOLDER INTERVIEW FROM PERCY SLADE FAN Matt Shaughnessy managed to grab a quick interview with Noddy Holder in mid 1986. This was published in the July - September 1992 issue of Percy. How has Slade lasted so long together? How did the band originate? What was it like for the band in the early 70's? Of course, what followed in the late seventies was your 'duff period'. How did Slade handle that? Bands such as Kiss, Twisted Sister, Billy Squier, U2 and Iron Maiden, to name a few, have acknowledged that
Slade have had a profound influence on their music. Any thoughts on this? Any special plans for your anniversary? Speaking of songwriting, Slade has had 23 top 40 hits in the UK, second only to The Beatles. Who does the writing? Do you think Slade will be around in 2006? This issue of Percy ironically had the first actual mentions of Dave and Don carrying on (without Nod and
Jim) under the Slade name, with an advert for a large gig in Germany. There was no announcement or anything
that that was 'it'. Which makes the last question - even though it was from a few years before - just that little bit
more poignant
Don Powell was interviewed on 9th January 1987 for what was the magazine
of the Slade International Fan Club, 'Percy'. We next moved on to talking about the new house that Don and Joan bought recently in East Sussex. We learned
that Don has spent the last few months redecorating it. The conversation next moved to the fact that Don has started driving again and has recently bought himself
a new Ford Orion. "I had a bad experience in Nottingham, not so long ago in a hired car. I pulled into a self-service station and filled up, and then suddenly realised I'd put diesel into it. The guy in the kiosk watched me do it. I had to try to drive it with the wrong fuel in it to another station to get it drained off. When we got there there were half a dozen cars who had done exactly the same thing at the same station." Don and Joan also do some recording together, and recently put some music forward for the theme to the recent
TV series 'Executive Stress'. In the Jun - Aug (1986) issue of the mag, we mentioned that Don had done a solo recording of the 1961 hit single
'Let there be drums'. We asked Don what the present state of play is with this recording. As Don is now getting more involved with writing again, he has had to find some new studios for recording his
demos. As many of you probably know, Don's wife, Joan Komlosey, is a rock journalist. We were interested to learn
that she once had the pleasure of reviewing a Slade concert at the London Marquee in 1980. It now seems a long time since Slade were playing the clubs, so we asked Don if he misses that scene now. Some of you have written in with some questions about the kit that Don uses on stage and in the studios. Don
told us a little bit more. Questions for Don Powell: Do you practice drumming when you are not on tour or recording? Do you enjoy making videos and do you think a bad video can kill a song? "Some months ago a certain record had a lot of radio play, but as soon as the video was shown on TV it completely killed the record. The record took a dive because of the awful video, but I can't remember who it was. I think videos do help really. There are so many these days." "The basic ideas for Slade videos come from within the band. We have the basic idea and then it is given to the video company and they come up with a story and pass it to us to see if we agree to it. We do have quite a say." Do you think that records demoed by Slade and not released my be released on a compilation album in the future? Where do you keep your gold and silver discs? Don had another appointment to attend, so at this point, we had to draw the interview to a close. Dave Hill was interviewed on 27.3.87 at Music Works studio. "On listening to opinion though, it seems to have been regarded as another 'My oh my' type song, which perhaps should have come out at Christmas. Everyone can say what they like now, and if it was a hit, they'll all be saying what a great idea it was. When 'My oh my' was released, it was just as slow to take off, but as soon as we got the radio play, it rocketed. 'Still the same' did virtually the same as 'My oh my' chart-wise in its first few weeks, but at the point where 'My oh my' picked up radio play, 'Still the same' was dropped completely, especially by Radio One." Over the past year or so, Slade have probably appeared to many of you as though they have no common objective anymore. It has been nearly three and a half years since Slade played live in the UK and nearly four and a half years since they played Hammersmith and Birmingham Odeon. Rumours have been flying around the press that they are about to split, and as there was over a year's gap between the release of 'Miracles' and 'Still the same', many of the public probably believed these rumours. We asked Dave if he could explain how things have changed over the last year, and the band's hopes for the future. "Fans might be feeling a little left out and a bit disappointed, but they've got to understand that 21 years now IS a long time to stay together as a group. We are a little older and we are still trying. I think that deep-seatedly within the group, every one of us would play live, but what we are searching for is a way to take us to another stage of success, and it's a hard route that we're trying. We're trying not to go out and do the Odeons and the regular gigs, getting the violin out and doing exactly the same as we did before. We want to go out and look a bit different and try something, but the point when we want to go out is when our current musical success will make the public ready and waiting." "We don't just want to go out and have people say we did a tour just to say we're around. Although the fans will be there and love it, the public at large will have an attitude of 'let's go and see how old Slade is, cos they're good for a laugh'. To try and put ourselves in a better category, I would like to see us up at the NEC and sell it out. So that we're not just doing the rounds for the rounds sake, we want to show our fans that we're not simply trying to stay together. We haven't reached the market that Dire Straits have captured and they've never been as exciting as us. If you think about us, we really ought to be in that level, shouldn't we?" "We could announce a tour now, but caution tells us that we'd do better to announce one on the back of a hit. We haven't called it a day on the touring and if luck would have it, we could be touring after this LP." We moved on to the next album and the next single. We asked Dave if he could update us on the present position
regarding these. We asked Dave if he could talk us through the songs on the album to give us an idea of what we might expect
and what some of the songs are about: THAT'S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR : "Another track produced by Roy Thomas Baker. This is a 'scarf waver' type of number, which now looks fairly definite for the next single." STILL THE SAME : "The last single, which in my view deserved to go a lot higher in the charts than it did." FOOLS GO CRAZY : "This song is a very up-tempo rocker, which sounds very 'Slade'. I think this one is going to be liked by the fans." SHE'S HEAVY : "This song is all about a big fat heavy bird who's got a heart of gold. A humorous track, though not about anyone in particular. The production is pretty heavy as well." WE WON'T GIVE IN : "This was thought by many people to be a good one for a single when it came out last year on the film soundtrack. [Knights and Emeralds] The film company wanted it out as a single, but RCA, who owned the rights said no. This is the last track on side one." WON'T YOU ROCK WITH ME : "A good sounding track to open side two. The verses remind me a bit of a Genesis song from a few years ago called 'Mama'. The chorus is much more like us though. The song is laid back while still heavy." OOH LA LA IN L.A. : "This is my favourite track on the album. There is something about the chorus on this one, which to me would make it a hit if it was released as a single. It is a very different sort of song for Slade. the lyric is very autobiographical - about the time we spent in Los Angeles a few years ago. One verse is about Don (George in the lyric) being pissed all the time. There is mention of the Marquee, which refers to 'The Sunset Marquee', where a lot of bands stay. there are trees in its garden with fairy lights hanging from them. There is a verse about 'Barney's Beanery', where we used to play pool all the time. This song was in fact written originally for the 'Rogue's Gallery' album and is based on the last time we were in L.A, promoting 'Run runaway." ME AND THE BOYS : "This is a laid back heavy song with a lot of chant in it." SING SHOUT : "A very up-tempo song with a live party feel to it." THE ROARING SILENCE : "This song wasn't originally going to go on the album, but it was put on instead of 'Don't talk to me about love' because it sounded so good. IT'S HARD HAVING FUN NOWADAYS : "Another laid back heavy song and the last track on side two. we started this song with Roy Thomas Baker, but in the end itwas taking too long and cost a lot, so we got Jim to finish it off." You will remember last time we interviewed Dave, he had been working on a solo album and had also put forward four demos for the new Slade album. We asked Dave whether this had progressed any further? "Well, I've got a girl singer called Jenny Darren, but I've also got someone else interested in covering one of my songs - Sinnita, who recently got into the charts with 'So Macho' and also starred with David Essex in the 'Mutiny' musical. I don't know for definite about this yet, though, but she's definitely interested." "The four demos I did with Nod have been put on ice for the time being. There was a track called 'Love is said', a ballad called 'Wild nights', a ZZ TOP sounding one called 'My motor's burning again' and another one which sounds a bit like 'Born to be wild'. As for my solo album, I've been so intermingled with what Slade have been doing that I'm still in the process of recording it." Since we last interviewed Dave, many of you will have noticed that Dave has now shaved off his beard. Dave told us some more about this . . . "Yeah, it wasn't long after that last interview I did with you that I shaved it off. I think it was my wife again who suggested it. I hadn't seen the other band members for a while, and they didn't even notice. Nod thought I'd had my hair cut or something. He couldn't quite suss out what it was." We wondered what Dave thinks of the idea of Chas Chandler coming back to produce one or two tracks - for old times
sake. We asked Dave about where he getting his stage clothes from these days and we learned that he doesn't go to any
specific shop anymore . . . QUESTIONS FOR DAVE HILL : WHERE DID YOU GET THE GANGSTERS GEAR FROM THAT WAS USED IN THE MYSZTERIOUS MISZTER JONES VIDEO? AS JIM AND DON HAVE INVOLVED THEIR WIVES ON THEIR SOLO PROJECTS, HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT OF
INVOLVING JAN? WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE SINGLE SO FAR, AND WHY? AS THIS IS THE 25th ANNIVERSARY OF THE READING ROCK FESTIVAL, WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE SLADE PLAY
READING AGAIN THIS YEAR TO FOLLOW UP THEIR 1980 TRIUMPH? HAVE SLADE THOUGHT OF WRITING ANY ORCHESTRAL ARRANGEMENTS TO GO AROUND ANY OF THEIR SONGS IN
THE WAY THAT DEEP PURPLE OR QUEEN HAVE? NODDY HOLDER INTERVIEW (24.6.87) FROM PERCY We managed to track down Noddy Holder on 24.6.87 at the Crest Hotel, Walsall. Evidently, Nod had spent the
previous two days at Bob Lamb's studios in Birmingham, helping Dave Hill with some vocals on one of his
songs. With the latest Slade album released throughout Europe and a release date for the USA soon to follow,
we asked Nod what sort of a reaction he'd had from the media. Nod explained to us that in the UK, RCA don't want to bring another Slade single out in the foreseeable future.
This doesn't mean that there won't be another Slade single in the UK for a long time as Slade were making
arrangements to independently release the track 'You boyz make big noize' on a new label called 'Perseverance
Records Ltd'. In the UK at the moment, Slade seem to be having some difficulty in getting their records play listed by Radio One,
which subsequently affects their airplay in certain other European countries. We learned from Nod, however, that
in the USA the promotion of a record works in an entirely different way . . . Many of you will have noticed over the years that a number of bands who use to support Slade on their concerts
have now gone on to be big names in their own right. Examples include Status Quo, Thin Lizzy, Suzi Quatro, Joan
Jett, Nick Van Eede (The Cutting Crew), Billy Bragg and U2. We asked Nod how he feels about this now. Many of you have written in to us enquiring about where to obtain a compilation video of Slade's promotional films
and TV appearances. Slade are in fact looking into the possibility of this, and Nod explained the sort of difficulties
they are encountering. With there being quite a few different Slade records out this year, we got Nod to tell us about the sort of
promotion he has been involved with for those records. Just recently, there has been a General Election in the UK. We asked Nod whether this is something that
he takes much of an interest in. We next moved on to what Nod does to occupy himself when he isn't working on his music. We asked Nod what his musical tastes are at the moment. Most of you will be familiar with seeing Nod up on stage as a performer, but we also learned that Nod will also
go and see bands live as part of the audience. We asked Nod of he could tell us of some of the bands he has
seen live over the last twelve months or so. At this point, we brought the interview to a close, having interviewed nod fro over four hours - the longest interview we have ever done with a member of Slade. There were miles and miles of tape to sort through and it was difficult for us to decode upon which parts to use in this issue. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- QUESTIONS TO NODDY HOLDER ANSWERED IN THE PERCY MAG THAT MONTH: How do you feel about the idea of recording a new studio version of 'Born to be wild' and releasing it as a single? What are your favourite Slade single and album? Do you have a complete collection of all Slade records? From the piano and vocal demo of 'My oh my' the lyrics have been changed on the finished article. Is this
a common occurrence? If the next Slade Convention could be organised for when the band had no other recording commitments, What sort of amplifiers do you use in the studio, and what sort of strings do you use on your guitar? When you first started to sing, did anyone ever tell you that you could not sing? JIM LEA gave an interview on 30.9.87 at The Dover Castle, in London. We met Jim on 30.9.87 at a pub in London called 'The Dover Castle', which is situated directly behind what used to be Portland Studios. It was the pub the band always used to use when they recorded at Portland, though sadly the studios closed down last year. We caught Jim in one of his philosophical moods and found ourselves talking about many subjects that have very little to do with Slade - some of which is reproduced in the magazine. To start with, we talked about the situation in America at the moment. In the last magazine we heard that Slade
were going to be flying to the States to record a video for 'Ooh la la in L.A.' In August, Slade appeared live on the Saturday morning show 'Get Fresh', and performed the songs 'Ooh la la
in LA' and 'You boyz make big noize'. Jim told me a bit more about this TV, the filming of which took place in
Carlisle. On the very night we were interviewing Jim, Radio One were playing the top 100 singles of the last 20 years to
celebrate 20 years of the station. Evidently, 'Merry Xmas Everybody' featured somewhere in the top 30 singles. There has been a rumour going about recently that Slade were offered a live slot at this year's Reading festival.
We asked Jim to comment on this. Jim informed us that he has recently made a production reel of some of the recordings that he has produced
over the years. In the early seventies, Slade were far more successful than many artists like David Bowie, Roxy Music, Rod
Stewart, etc, and yet now, despite the fact that none of them have had many hit singles recently, they all seem
to be on a higher level now than Slade are. We asked Jim why he thinks that this has happened. At the time we interviewed Jim, the 'You boyz make big noize' single had failed to break into the UK charts and
the album had effectively flopped world-wide. We asked Jim what Slade's plan is at the moment, and what their
attitude will be for the future. "There is a sort of wound-licking process going on internally within the band, which is understandable. We have spent the past two years recording and then promoting the new album, but haven't seen any reward for our efforts in terms of chart success. Once we have gone through that phase, and got our confidence back again, we'll doubtless get back to all looking towards the next project, be it an album or live work, or whatever." Before Jim started playing bass guitar, he used to play with The Staffordshire Youth Orchestra, playing a lot of
classical music. We learned from Jim that since the advent of CD's, Jim has got back into listening to classical
music. Over the past year or so, Jim has been looking objectively at the situation the band are in at the moment,
especially with regard to the touring problem. We finally moved onto what it is about Slade that has made them so successful as a live act in the early seventies,
and why they will always be remembered and respected for their stage reputation. At this point we concluded the interview, which we all enjoyed immensely. It was interesting to speak to Jim without being pushed for time as we normally are. . . . Speakout. The magazine of the Leeds Permanent Building Society.
DON POWELL INTERVIEW with Paul Lythe, FEBRUARY 10th 1988 Don and his wife Joan graciously invited me into their home in London to talk about how things are going at the moment. The band have yet to decide their plan of action for the rest of the year. So before finding out what he has been doing with himself, I first asked Don what he thought went wrong chart-wise with the last two singles 'You boyz' and 'We won't give in'. Do you really think it is the lack of airplay? But hundreds of fans wrote in to the station for plays of 'We won't give in' and Bruno Brookes was complaining
about it! I thought 'You boyz make big noize' was one of the most contemporary things to come out of the band for a long
time and deserved far more success. Enough said. Well, what have you been doing recently? Don's wife had recently been conducting interviews on BBC Radio 4's 'Kaleidoscope' for the World Service and
was a free lance journalist. She is also very knowledgeable about the antiques world and wrote columns in many
national newspapers on the subject. I asked Don if his wife is educating him on the subject of antiques and how
well is he doing? I reminded Don about one of those trips when he put diesel in the car by mistake. Had he learnt his lesson? How is your solo project coming along now? (At this point Don asked if I would like to hear the rough tape. I was very honoured and can best describe it as
a possible dance record with a rhythmic beat. I will definitely be interested to hear the finished product.) Yes. How are you coping with that nowadays? What sort of music do you listen to at home? How is your country residence coming along now? So life's based around Joan at the moment then? Did you see The Who coming out of retirement to perform live at the BPI awards? Don't you think Slade fans will be saying 'if they can do it, why can't you?' I watched you on daytime live and your drumming was well synchronised with the music. How easy do you find it
to mime on television shows? Simon Bates said recently that Slade seem to be haunted by the 'My oh my' hit. Do you think that this is true? Have you ever considered the use of kettle drums in the production of Slade material? The song 'Love is' was thought to be a good choice for a single in 1985, but wasn't liked by RCA. Couldn't that
be released on Cheapskate? NODDY HOLDER was interviewed in London on 20th April 1988. I met Nod briefly at this hotel in London and was greeted by him in the lounge as he was talking to two members of a new heavy metal band 'Marshall Law' (Andy Pike - vocals and Andrew Southwell - guitar), who were both quizzing our man on how he has managed to last so long in the business. Andy was particularly interested in some hints on how to keep his voice in shape whilst on their current tour. Nod gave some 'fatherly' advice, but explained that his voice had always been fairly easy to 'maintain', having left Doctors completely baffled as to how he does it, a long time ago! Having said goodbye to the new fans, I asked Nod if he had been doing anything of interest recently? How did they approach you to do it? Why did they particularly pick you? When will it be heard? How long did you take to record it? Were you pleased with the result? Do you think that the video compilation of the old favourites will ever be released? Now that you are not under contract with RCA anymore, will you be releasing anything for CBS in America? What do you think of the current situation here in the UK with the lack of interest in the last two singles? "It's always been the same in this business, luck and timing. I'm sure it will happen again for us. It's just a matter of the right song at the right time. Who knows why 'My oh my' should suddenly take off and have been such a huge hit, when the one before it did nothing? 'You boyz' was a great single, but obviously the timing wasn't right for it." Do you think that 'You boyz' or any of the non-hits would ever be re-released then? Have you had any approaches by other companies in the UK, or are you going to continue independently? You must lose some of the excitement, then? Will there be another single released this year? FAN QUESTIONS TO NODDY HOLDER FROM PERCY THAT MONTH . . Have you ever considered an album of Slade ballads? With the last real success being the Reading festival, do you think it would be a good idea to release a heavy
song along the lines of 'Won't you rock with me', which I think would go down really well? Of all the album tracks you've recorded, are there any that you regret were never released as a single? 'Hey ho
wish you well' and 'Ooh la la in LA' always looked as if they would be follow up singles. Will Dave's solo album ever be released and do you feature on it at all? What happened to the Andy Miller song you recorded a few years back? What happened to the duet with a 'famous' female singer and who was she? Are there any plans to release the 'older' material on CD at all? INTERVIEW WITH DAVE HILL AT SLADE'S OFFICES IN LONDON ON 27th JULY 1988 I met Dave at the office in London and asked him what he had been doing lately and how was the solo project
going? Do you intend to play any of it live at all? Will you be getting another band together, then? Have you settled on a singer yet? What will happen if this should take off? Where would that leave the band's activities? Wouldn't there be a conflict? Are you trying to do this independently, or will you be approaching a big name label? Do you have a problem thinking of ideas for your songs? Was there a genuine reason for parting with YOB 1? "For Slade the yob thing was always a laugh, but nowadays the whole 'yobbo' syndrome is far too offensive. I know that maybe the fans will think it some sort of loss, but I really feel like if you have owned something like, say the 'superyob' guitar that Marco still has, let's face it, whoever it belonged to it will always be 'Dave Hill's guitar', won't it? The same will apply to that number plate. So really, it will always be with you even though you're without it!" Were you sad about losing it on the big day? When did you start taking an interest in the Jehovah faith and will it affect your career in any way? "For the fans, I would say that the only thing that affects me really is that I don't celebrate birthdays or Christmas and I wouldn't want to perform 'Merry Xmas' on TV, etc. Don't get me wrong though, it was a great part of my life and I still like the song a lot. I'm not a baptised Witness, although I'm not far from that. I'm not quite ready, although I do do door service, which can be very interesting when people recognise me, because they will talk to me rather than close the door like normal. Overall it has made me a better man. I'm trying to be a bit more caring for people and make up for certain aspects of my past that I'm not too proud of. My kids are now 5, 7 and 13 years old and although I've been forced to stay at home a lot over the past few years, I don't think it has hurt, in fact it has brought us together more as a unit. On the other hand, I don't think a month or two away touring now will do me any harm!" Do you think that by not touring over the last few years it has allowed the band to experiment and record songs
that couldn't be played live on stage? What do you think about the lack of public recognition for the band at the moment? FAN QUESTIONS TO DAVE HILL THAT MONTH: What was the guitar tuning used on the slide guitar for 'Gypsy Roadhog? Do you find it easy to write your own songs? Why didn't Slade tour Denmark in 1980 / 1981 / 1982? 'We'll bring the house down' was a hit in 1981 and the
album was selling very well. I have a single called 'Run with the Devil' and I'm sure it's Slade singing it. Is it them? Did you really blow the headsets in the studio where you recorded the 'Till deaf' album? (I have it on good
authority that you did!) JIM LEA WAS INTERVIEWED AT SLADE's LONDON OFFICE ON 5th OCTOBER
1988. We had the opportunity to meet with Jim at the office in London and found him in
good heart. Our first question was bout his involvement with the new single by Chrome Molly and about what
was happening with it. "To cut a long story short, a couple of weeks later, Nod and I demoed the tune and sent it off to the company. Literally two weeks after that, 'Nothing's gonna stop us now' was released and flew up the charts. Unfortunately, the album was hastily packaged and put out before she'd had time to record our song, so we literally missed the boat!" What did they think of it though, and how did Chrome Molly eventually get to hear about the song? How long did it take to record, then? What sort of song is it? Why doesn't Slade take advantage of this fact and cater for a new market then? We then moved on to a letter that I had received from Ossie Crabbe in Ireland. He had written to me explaining
why he didn't renew his membership during 1988, using some very strong language. He wrote a 12 page letter,
levelling many criticisms against the band, explaining that he was fed up with nothing happening and that certain
events and no touring over the last five years had been a mistake. I had given Jim a copy of the letter at Earls
Court a few days before and he was very eager to discuss it in detail . . . "When we did the endless touring our loyal fans had us to themselves, but when we made it again, things weren't the same and we couldn't see everyone backstage like we used to - even though we wanted to. Now we have the situation where we're not in the limelight again and yet that contact is now missing. It's even more difficult and is a bigger problem for us now, because we must seem very distant to people like Ossie, who've probably never had to chance to even see us play live!" "One criticism I can't agree with was that in his aggression he was saying 'be aggressive' for me, he said 'What are you, a f***ing ballad band?' The thing is for example, just before I went on stage at Nottingham University, 'My oh my' comes into my head . . . There's nothing I can do about it . . What am I supposed to do? Suddenly here's a tune that sounds like a hit record to me. Does Ossie want creativity stifled and me to be blinkered saying 'this is how we're gonna be' and ignore any other style, etc? If I'd thought like that, we wouldn't have had a hit with that song, which meant we wouldn't have come out of the doldrums in 1983! We had hits with 'Everyday' and 'Far far away' and people DO like that sort of thing. So I couldn't agree with Ossie on that point. Mind you, even my brother Frank says 'Stop all this mucking about and be a rock band!' " "Ossie also asked why did we do a 'crummy' college tour with 'My oh my'. the truth is we'd already agreed to do that tour before the song became a hit and we didn't know what would happen to it, so it was all very unfortunate." "He also complained that only two of the band turned up at the convention . . and from my point of view I would like to say in the magazine to anyone who is interested that I am introverted and have great difficulty with being in crowds. I feel especially uncomfortable in that type of situation, because it's the way I've developed as a person over the years. I don't know whether I will always be like that and, who knows, one day I might be able to stand up at the convention and make a speech or something. Right now, though, I would feel very uncomfortable to go into a room with a lot of people who are fans. The other reason is that they will be asking the same kind of question as Ossie, possibly being as aggressive about it . . and in any case I haven't any answers for them!" "We've all got older and our inhibitions have changed over the years and Dave's are now out in the open about Christmas, etc. I think Nod's not saying he won't go on tour again because he won't, he's saying he can't at the moment! People's personalities change as they get older and there is absolutely nothing anyone can do about it! Unfortunately, Ossie's comments about not touring are difficult to answer. Our strongest point has always been live work and we have the power to steal the show like we did at Reading and Lochem. In fact we've recently been told that both shows 'died' after we left the stage because we'd used up all the energy the crowd had to offer, and for that reason it's a crying shame that we're not on the road." Do you miss it, then? Does that mean you would consider playing in another band? What else have you been doing this year? What is happening with The Dummies material? But you were so enthusiastic! You were, Jim! You were raving over 'Nobody's fool' and the others when you did them. Hasn't being in the studio recently re-lit the flame? FAN QUESTIONS TO JIM LEA THAT MONTH : In a previous interview Nod said you had a great back catalogue of songs. Why not put them out on an indie
label, like the Dummies material? Can you tell me how much money went to the Band Aid and NSPCC charities from the royalties of 'Do you believe
in miracles?' Who would you say was the best group to have supported you over the years? "He also reminisced about the time he and Fran Rossi first saw us, just after we'd shaved our heads and were at Manchester University. All the 'cool' bands were in one hall and all the 'pop' groups were in ours - i.e. The Foundations, Slade and Status Quo. Fran and Rick were standing watching us play and I could see them giggling , whispering and I thought they were taking the mickey out of us, but Rick told me 'You must be joking. We were saying that we thought you were blinding and we were amazed at all the gear you had on stage. We couldn't believe what you were up to!' He also remembered when Nod used to say '. . . and now we're gonna feature Jimmy, our bass player, on violin, give him a round of applause!" I told him that I also remembered seeing them sniggering to one another, thinking to myself that they thought what the hell was some joke violin player doing on stage? Rick's reply was that they were actually saying 'What next? This is amazing . . We thought it was incredible and we still do!' - which again was quite a compliment." "To be quite honest, most of the groups that we've ever met, however big, come up to us and say to us that 'You guys have done everything' and we certainly didn't realise that we now have that level of respect within the business ." On that happy point we concluded our interview. FEEL THE NOIZE! Dave Hill interview from Guitarist magazine, January 1989 Dave reminded me that Slade and The Hollies did a gig or two together. .. I remember Nottingham, a ballroom where The Hollies were well known at the time, and it must have been very early days for Slade. But I do remember they went down ever so well- I also remember them being about three times as loud as we were! IS THAT ABOUT RIGHT, Dave? Yeah, like a cowboy thing ... That's nice! Right... we'll get off that subject... So when did Slade come about? Was it through Chas Chandler - formerly bass player with The Animals and discoverer of jimi Hendrix? Were you writing then? So what did you look like at that time - was there a distinct image? ... Not the skinhead thing? So, Chas thought you looked like a breath of fresh air. Do you remember the first one you wrote that he was really impressed with? I remember, it was a real stomper! Did the record turn out more or less as you'd intended it? Was Chas very important on the production side - did he change things? That's what I meant about his contribution, because exactly those words were said to me. Whenever I went into the studio I'd worked out a solo which I thought was really clever, and sure enough, Ron Richards, our producer would say: "That's fine, but if you cut three quarters of it out we might have something that's usable." So I'm looking down the Guinness Book of Records here, and between October 71 and October 74 you had twelve top three records. That's a phenomenal success - if you were footballers you'd be playing for England. And they were all really good things, Coz I Luv You, number one, Look Wot You Dun was four, Mama Weer All Crazee Now - one - Gudbuy TJane, number two, then Cum On, Feel The Noize and Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me, both number one, My Frend Stan, two and Merry Xmas Everybody, of course, number one! That's right, and then you had two at three, you poor old sods - Everyday and Bangin' Man - then Far Far Away was number two. Did the companies start throwing equipment at you when you became big? Obviously you were getting bigger, more boisterous crowds ... would you have been miked up in those days? I saw a gig of yours, at Hammersmith Odeon. There was a very boisterous crowd, it was a great set, I enjoyed it a lot. Yeah. Well no ... Yeah, just popped in. I remember you had a thing built out from the stage, that you used to wander along ... But, as well as playing well, you did have great songs, songs that you could sing. Now, generally if that's the case with a song, you hear it once and love it, and you hear it three times and can't stand it. But they were quality songs, and they keep coming back. Have they released the Christmas one again this year? Not at all? How does that feel? So, as a live performing band, is it finished? We've been together 21, 22 years, as the same four, and I think back to the days in the van, and the purpose and the reason you did it all... But that goes, because you don't want to be in the back of the van any more, you're in a car, you're chauffeured, you've experienced success, you've been in nice hotels and you don't really want to go back to that to survive. We finished touring when we were number two with My Oh My, in 1983, but then we started to have a go at America, and we had our first hit there. We went over to the States and immediately started to go through what we'd done seven or eight years before, and we suddenly saw red lights. It was a bit like: "Hang on a minute, we've already done this", and it felt like we were going to go through the same stupidity again touring with the wrong people, who were trying to get on tours to be seen - a favour for Fred, so we can get on his show. Plus we weren't twenty years of age any more! It's very hard to turn the clock back. But the audience has possibly gone past that -you know what it's like: "I was never into the Bay City Rollers; I'm into Pink Floyd" - until the nostalgia thing whips round and then they go, confidentially: "Do you know, I always thought they were great". They certainly don't seem to ... I've always said we all take second place to a great song. If people go out and buy a record, they're generally buying what they think is a great song, and it really excites them to hear it. So, with the right song you could be right back there, if you wanted, and then the stage gigs would fall into place. But it's hard rock and roll that you played, and the older you get the less likely you are to want to do that. In our case, our stage gigs evolved, and it isn't actually that much different to what we've always done. But it's amazing how the audience has matured, and sort of come along with us, and the success of He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother hasn't made as big a difference as people might tend to think. Well they do say the middle – of – the - road market is the biggest one ... I mean that song must have fallen into so many categories - people who heard it for the first time, people whose original copy was scratched, and of course it came out on CD, so there's another market. The funny thing was, Miller Light approached us recently and said: "We want to do another commercial, would you mind changing the lyrics slightly?" We said: "What are you thinking of?" and they said - wait for it: "How about - She Ain't Heavy, She's My Mother?" So you can imagine that... they're going to have this great hunky guy carrying his mother out of the pub, or something. So, apart from the fact that we didn't have the right to allow them to do it anyway, I think the song's a little more important than that... Do you remember your first guitar? Electric or hole - in - the - middle? But in those days you're not serious about anything. I could have just taken it up and dropped it - I'm quite favourite for going mad on something and eventually leaving it alone. I think Dad spotted that when I wanted a guitar - he said: "Well, you can have a cheap guitar and see how it goes", and he insisted that I had some lessons. I had a biology teacher, named Brian Close, who was giving lessons to this other kid, so I went to see him with the guitar, on my bicycle. I was left-handed, so I was trying to play it with the strings upside down and he made me change it round. He was trying to teach me a bit of music, but he would at least allow me to learn what I wanted to learn - he didn't make it like a studious programme of learning the guitar ... He was a jazz guitarist and it always sounded great when he was playing chords - it sounded real smooth, you know? So then I started to think of forming a little group on the estate. We didn't have an electric guitar then, so after about a year it was: "Dad, I ought to get an electric guitar", and there was a shop in Wolverhampton and I bought a Burns – a Vista Sonic… or something Sonic. It had a knob on it that would click and it would make three strings play bass and three strings play treble ... it was either Bi-Sonic or Vista-Sonic - a funny name. It must have sounded dreadful ... You played Gibsons, what do you think of them? I've seen it and I've often wondered what it is ... So it was a Gibson neck on a bastard body? Did you buy yourself an echo unit! Yes, one of my aunties took me to Manchester and bought me a Watkins Copycat - same thing, magic ... He was a musician in a famous group, he handled a famous guitarist and he knew the pitfalls and problems in groups. Tell us about when you went to the States. That's a shame, because the Moody Blues went over supporting various people, and it did work for them. They did it for years, until they turned up at some place and asked who was on that night and were told it was Van Morrison. They asked what time they would be on, supporting, and they were told: "You're not supporting, this is your audience - he's supporting you!" Did you know Justin Hayward? How would you feel about starting all over again - I don't mean in Slade, but in the business in general? There's a physical thing about what we did in Slade because it was that energy - plus the back-up of what we were as individuals. What was it like on the road - roadies to tune your guitars and suchlike? Did you realise, then, that the taxman was going to appear a few years later, for his cut? But you were aware of it, you didn't get lumbered. Well at least you were in a position to do so. An awful lot of bands who are enormous for a year or two, get the cheques in, go out and buy a Ferrari and totally ignore the fact that he'll eventually come knocking on the door. But, as I see it, twenty odd years on, when it comes up to Christmas, Slade start coming into people's minds, and that's a hole that we dug ourselves. Our hits were during the year, not at Christmas, but people relate us, like mince pies, to Christmas. Nevertheless it's nice to be remembered, at any time, but I'm not one to go polishing my discs and looking at past glories. NODDY HOLDER INTERVIEW, 22nd May 1989 A warm sunny day in London and I find Nod relaxing prior to recording another edition of BBC radio 2's quiz show 'Pop score'. A great delight for me to be able to interview your favourite front man and I'm sure you will be pleased to read what he had to say. I'm sure you must be disappointed with the lack of success of 'Let's dance', but was it really a genuine attempt
to make the charts or was it just a release for the sake of getting something out at Christmas? Are you always happy with distribution and the job pluggers do with your records? Who makes the choice of the next single? Is it just you and Jim? Did you contemplate releasing a new and unheard track? Was there any alternative to 'let's dance'? You obviously enjoy doing your radio shows for Piccadilly and Xtra AM. Is being a DJ something you intend to
pursue over the next few years? "Then the people from Xtra asked me if I was interested in doing a show for them, as they thought my accent would go down well in the Midlands. It's not something I've thought about doing as a full time career, but it's good fun and I enjoy doing it. It's something different." Are most of the requests on your show from Slade fans? How much preparation is required for your show? You've certainly made a lot of Slade fans happy by doing the radio shows, but whilst we're on the subject of
making the fans happy, is there anything to look forward to in the near future? Is it OK to print that in the magazine? Has anyone ever approached the band with the idea of making a film about the life of Slade? I was talking to Dave just before Christmas about his solo project and he expressed a desire to play a few
smaller venues just to try out his material and get the feel of playing live again. As you've helped out vocally
with some of Dave's stuff, I wondered if you would consider singing with his band if you were asked? In the last edition of Percy, it was mentioned that the Earl's Court film had been found. Have you decided to
do anything with it yet. Is the film actually owned by Perseverance Ltd? 1991 is the 25th anniversary of Slade. Can we expect some kind of celebratory record or video to mark the
occasion? DAVE HILL INTERVIEW FROM THE JULY - SEPT 1989 ISSUE OF PERCY. This was an interview that I was looking forward to and the day held a surprise or two that I really had not anticipated, so read on. Thanks to Martin Brookes for sparing the time to come along and act as Slade historical advisor for the day. We met Dave in the boardroom at the London office and the first and most burning question came first. Dave, we all want to know what's happened to the Nod and Dave single. We are constantly having letters
wanting to know when it is going to be released. "It was just a thing we did for fun. Nod and I got together to do it and we recorded one of my own songs, which is also good and will probably be on the b-side. 'Crying in the rain' came from a bit of a jam. We actually did an Elvis song as well, 'A fool such as I.' Although it's not as good as the Everlys song, Nod sings it really well. We've got the prospect of the band thing as well, which is also with Polydor, but we've got to get a decision and I hope to see the record out within the next couple of months, and I'd like people to have it. It's a good piece of work. Not highly produced or anything. It's just done on a 16-track up North and it's not high-tech - just done on a feeling really. Unfortunately, I can't give you an answer on a release date so you'll just have to hang on a little longer." What else are you doing studio-wise? Your own material? "I'm also writing a few songs, some of which are with Slade in mind for the future, maybe the next album. But until we get a decision on it, we can't say a lot about it, so yes, say negotiations are still on." Do you think Chas Chandler could re-kindle some of the old magic, if he came back as your manager
and producer? "Colin Newman is involved with the band on a management level, but each of us has our opinions and that gets a little complicated and sometimes you could do with a person to say 'do this and do that'. But, it's very hard now to impose a situation where we are told what to do. No-one's going to take that anymore. You've heard us say at Fan Club conventions that we are looking to have a future and further the band and put it back into some sort of successful state again. And it's probably taken this type of 'doing our own thing' situation to maybe arrive at something that's going to work for us all. What was happening before was that we were making LP's for record companies and maybe all of us not enjoying it 100%. I think if we make another record together we'll enjoy it more because of our individual experience on our own projects." Do you think that your 25th year together in 1991 is a good reason to get a new album out? A lot of fans write in and suggest making a live video sometime in the near future to celebrate 25 years of Slade. I was hoping to have Don here today and get you to talk in depth about your years together, but Don couldn't
make it. So Dave, are you aware that you and Don have been associated with bands for over 25 years now? Going back to our discussion earlier, re producing and looking out for new talent. When the day comes that
Slade are no more, will you concentrate on that type of work? You said you were writing some new songs with Slade in mind. How did your only solo composition get onto
the 'Til Deaf' album? During your last concert at the Glasgow Apollo and in previous concerts, you were joined on stage by a local
character by the name of 'Jet Mayfield'. Can you confirm how you met and his whereabouts now? Have Slade ever been invited to play concerts in the USSR? Dave brought a number of stage costumes along to auction through the fan club - The white 'All join hands' outfit, the 'Run runaway' long black coat with chains, The 'Lock up your daughters' (Dutch sleeve) leather jacket. He also brought the black and red leather jacket used on the Belgian sleeve for 'I'm a rocker'. He was hoping to raise some money for the purchase of some equipment to use for home song demos. Fans were invited to send in their bids via the fan club. So that's where those stage outfits went. THE SLADE ARCHIVE FINDS A GOOD LONG JIM LEA INTERVIEW from 1990 from Percy I sometimes get nervous before doing interviews and this time was no exception. Of all the band members Jim Lea remained an unknown quantity as we had only met briefly a couple of times before. The Myzterious Mr Lea put me at ease immediately we started talking. I’ve spoken to Colin Newman several times over the last three or four months and he has told me about the
negotiations with Polydor for a new album, so as I’ve said to both Nod and Dave in the past – when can we
expect some positive news? Are you prepared for it if the deal does come off? Has this rest period given you time to write new songs or have you just got the music business out of your
mind altogether, not that you can, as it’s been a big part of your life? But have you had time to write new material? A number of fans have asked why doesn't Dave Hill get more material on Slade records? Have you done any production work lately? We get letters asking if there are any songs in the can that could be used as a special issue just for the Fan Club? Would you consider letting Stock, Aitkin and Waterman produce you, possibly under a pseudonym? Another subject that a lot of fans write in about is the possibility of doing a couple of special live shows, because
there is not a really good live film or video of you in concert. Do you ever pick your guitar up and put things down on tape at home? Is there anything you’re working on as a Dummies or China Dolls type project? Would you consider putting any of this material out on record? So how are you going to know if it is worthwhile, will you send it out to record companies to see if they want it? Did you record in London or the Midlands? I know if I put this in the magazine thousands of letters will come flooding in asking when you’re going to release
the tracks. I’ve asked both Nod and Dave in the past if they thought it would be a good idea to get the DMC or the Music
Factory to do a Slade megamix. I think it would be a great party record and a good commercial opportunity. On that rather amusing note I turned off the tape recorder and thanked Jim for his time.
From the July - September 1990 SLADE International Fan Club Newsletter
NODDY HOLDER and DAVE HILL INTERVIEW Normally I think myself lucky to arrange an interview with a band member once a quarter because they are all busy men doing one thing or another but this time I feel extra lucky to get together with two band members for a cup of coffee and a chat about Slade, old, new, future and past. I had a meeting with Colin Newman recently and he held up a 58 page document, a contract from Polydor for some
new material. Have you signed it yet or are you about to? Dave: It’s the usual stuff, dot the ‘T's’ and cross the ‘I's’, you can only do this and that with our permission etc, and of course the financial side has got to be good. So it’s just a case of the four of you to say yes and sign on the dotted line. Do you foresee any problems? Dave: You know what it’s like when you’re making records, we’ve got to have money to make records, the way it always works. We’ve got to look at it sensibly, we’re not kids anymore and obviously we see ourselves in a good position with the 25 year business next year and all the old product that’s got to be taken into account. I’m looking forward to seeing what the contract says. We cannot say that much about it because it’s up to the four of us to get together and thrash it out. Is it a case of you each getting a copy of the contract in the post, signing it and sending it back after you’ve
discussed it with each other? Is that the costing for an album you are talking about? Dave: I think it’s a sensible thing to do for a record company. They’ve got to check out what we can do and if we have a hit with a single, then it’s good for them to have an album deal with us. Nod: We’ve been waiting for eighteen months now for this deal and we’re not going to jump in with both feet just for the sake of having a single out. Whatever happens, we’ll be having a Hits album out, and all the old albums will come out on CD, signed, sealed and delivered, but we can’t give you a firm answer about new product. I’m really looking for the biggest ray of hope that you can give to the fans. I suppose the good news will have to wait for the final magazine of the year? With all this business going on with Polydor, will it affect anything that Dave may be working on as a solo project? Dave: They don’t want you doing anything willy nilly just when you like, they want all your efforts to go into their product unless you get special permission to do work outside the contracted terms. Nod: It could prevent Dave bring out an album of his own, so we don’t know until we see the fine print. They might want Slade, but not anything Dave wants to do be himself. Dave: I’ll consider all that personally and weigh it up between my stuff and the interest of the band. The financial commitment the record company make could well make it worth your while leaving solo projects alone for the time being. Nod: H was in that position before with the RCA deal, he wanted to do some solo stuff and so did Jim, but they could not go through any other company, so if RCA did not want the solo stuff they were f…ed. When you decide you’re going to make an album, do you deliberately try to keep it a secret? Is that for any particular reason? Did you decide the running order of songs for the stage act as well or was that a joint effort? Dave: We could never be accused of drastically changing the stage act. We always had the violin bit and me on the speaker and I suppose we knew that it worked well. Nod: In the seventies we’d throw something out of the act and the punters would go berserk, so we’d have to put it back in. We had to try new songs like Darling Be Home Soon and Move Over and we’d probably only leave those songs in for two tours and then we’d put them on an album when we knew they worked. Just A Little Bit is another case. Our theory or rule was if we went out on tour with an new album we’d put three or four new tracks in the stage act but people would still think we were doing the same show as the year before, so you see the changes were subtle so the rhythm and dynamics of the show were still there. Do you still get big promoters offering you £50,000 or big money to do a live show? Dave: They don’t realise we have not played together for years, they think you just get on stage and off you go, it does not quite happen that easily. Nod: The type of promoter who offers that sort of money are the ones who don’t know anything about rock ‘n’ roll. They’ve just got lots of money to throw around. I only asked that question out of curiosity and to get an idea if you were still a sought after band. Dave: You’d have to be good as well, we’ve got a reputation to keep up. Nod: In a position like ours you’ve got to be great. There’s no half-measures with us. Other bands go out and do a half-arsed show, but not us. We’ve got to be great, because we’ve got pride. I think most fans would admire you for that, although there are a lot of frustrated fans who wouldn’t. What do you do on Sunday, or how do you relax when you’re not working?
Dave: Get up, have a cup of coffee and scone. Life for us is different as we’re not 9 to 5 people. We all come from families that had Sunday dinners so that’s what we do now, it’s full circle really plus the fact we toured the world for years and had hotel food day in and day out so a Sunday lunch with the family is great. Nod again has a different life style than I do, he probably does set things on certain days of the week. Not so much with me. I go to Witness meetings, write songs and have a curry on Fridays, but generally speaking I fit things in around the family and lead a quieter life than Nod. Nod: That’s about the same for me really. Do you NOT do things because you’re afraid you may get pestered by people who might recognise you? Do you have a clear division of your working and non-working time? Dave: The press can ask very personal questions that could upset you. It’s like Cliff Richard, they always want to know if he’s ever slept with a woman. Nod: It’s the same with us. Cliff always gets that style of question and with us it’s Merry Xmas or Don’s accident. They ask how he is, as though it only happened a couple of years back, or they ask how Jim Powell is getting on after the crash. Going back to a comment you made earlier Dave, have you written any more songs since Wild Nights? Nod: There’s a lot of stuff in the can, maybe 5 or 6 tracks with me on. The songs are written by Dave and Bill Hunt but the approach Dave has toward recording is different to how we record for Slade. They’re Dave’s songs and he knows how he wants them done. Dave: Yes, that’s right, and Nod also puts a few ideas into the recording as we go along. Would it be true to say that you and Jim do most of the work on your songs in the studio first and then bring
Don and Dave in as required? Dave: We went to John Punter and did My Oh My and Run Run Away and that was a new experience for us, not being sure what he was going to do. In fact, Jim put the question to him at RCA and asked what he was going to do for us. It really involved a new process of recording from the way we’d been used to. We were a little uneasy at first, but the sessions did bear some fruit in the end, in fact we jammed My Oh My to start with, didn’t we Nod? Nod: With My Oh My, me and Jim put down a demo on piano and voice first. John Punter had to start from scratch
with that track. He put it down in layers. He started with a good drum track and then did three tracks on piano,
three on guitar, three on vocals and three of everything else and then took the best of each and put them together. We’d never worked like that before, but it worked. It was the same with Run Run Away and it worked fine. Then we
went onto the Rogues Gallery album and John Punter didn’t want to work the same way on that one. It became a
bit of a saga. It took a lot of time and eventually turned out to be a great album, although I feel there was something
missing. Something that is the Slade trademark was missing, but then the next album, Crackers, was totally the
opposite way. It was back to out and out Slade and that turned out to be our biggest seller of the ‘80s. Dave, do you ever fancy producing any tracks for the band now that you’ve had some experience with producing
your own stuff? Nod: It gets down to technicality in the end. Technicality takes over from performing, so we brought in Roy Thomas Baker to try and capture Slade’s old sound from the early ‘70s with late ‘80s technology, which is what we wanted, a producer to take our old enthusiasm and put it into an ‘80s mould, but it ended up spending three days on the drum tracks and the rest of us sitting around doing fuck all. Hours and hours on technicalities. That’s OK for a technical band, but not us. To me, it’s a total waste of money and looking back on You Boyz, the tracks he did do not sound any better, even though his tracks took twice as much time to produce. The end product is no better. Nod: I’m not knocking him as a producer, but everything took so long, he spent 20 days in the studio with us doing two songs, yet he went on to produce a complete album with T’Pau in a month, so he was working in a way with them that he should have been doing with us. The best way with us is to get it down quickly and capture the spontaneity that always captures us at our best. It’s what you leave out on a record that makes it simple and uncluttered. If you take too long and add track on top of track, you’re not a band, you might as well make solo records with guest musicians. That’s not us, we are all part of the jigsaw that is Slade. Are you still going to be a self-managed band now that the time looks right for some band activity, assuming that the deal in the pipeline comes to fruition, or would you be thinking of bringing in a manager? Nod: I don’t think anyone could manage us in the sense of The Manager like Chas did. Colin looks after our business affairs and legal side of things, but no-one could be an artistic manager, especially after all the years we’ve been together. No-one could start telling us what to do after 25 years, because they just wouldn’t know the background of the band, and no matter what we told a manager, there are only four people who know the whole background story. Someone may have theories about what we should be doing and what we should have done, but they will never know us as we know ourselves. No-one would have a clue how to handle us. Dave: I wouldn’t say a manager wouldn’t be useful in some ways, but he couldn’t manage the artistic side. Phil Collins has got a manager, but no-one tells him how to write his songs, or how to record them, but just advises on the financial side of things. No-one is going to tell Phil Collins what to do and no-one can really tell us what to do after all this time. Nod: We know ourselves where we are going wrong and what we are doing right. It just happens that the four of us don’t always agree what’s wrong and what’s right, but you will always get that situation in a democratic band situation. All the fans are expecting something to happen soon now that the back catalogue deal has been signed
with Polydor, any comments on that? It would have been nice to have announced that something new was about to be released. Maybe next time. Have you got anything ready in case you get the call to go into the studio and do a single? Well, on that note of hope, we will leave the interview with Dave and Nod, and, of course, if anything more positive comes up you’ll be told about it double quick. NODDY INTERVIEW From Jan/ Feb/March 1992 issue of PERCY, the Slade International Fan Club Newsletter. It’s been a long time since I interviewed a member of the band, simply because there wasn’t much that was new and interesting to talk about. Most of the old issues have been covered, regularly, so it’s been a deliberate policy to let things go for a while. I’m glad to say that the last three months have put an end to that argument good and proper, so, Mr Noddy Holder, first question; Malc : Now that RWOS and Universe have run their course, in this country at least, what are the general feelings
of the band? Malc : Do you know of any sales figures for RWOS? Malc : Out of RWOS and Universe, which one was your personal favourite? Malc : Who’s decision was it to release Universe so soon after RWOS, the band or Polydor? Malc : I only heard it played three times on Radio 1 and each time it was raved about. Malc : Could Polydor re-release Universe if they wanted to? Malc : Do you know if Polydor have any plans to release the two singles in America? Malc : There are some rumours circulating that you have been offered some large and prestigious gigs for later
this year, ie Donnington. Malc : So what happens now in the light of the probability that you will not be doing an album for Polydor? Malc : It’s quite apparent that all the material on Wall of Hits was not the definitive collection, was that a deliberate
ploy to be able to use some of the excluded material on another Hits album? Malc : Were the two singles expensive to make? Malc : I there enough material ready to fill an album should the right set of circumstances arise? Malc : Are they new songs or stuff that has been around for ages just waiting to be used up? Malc : Anything that you consider good enough for another single? Thanks to Nod for an interesting chat which I hope has enlightened some of you and answered some of your
questions.
DAVE HILL INTERVIEW with Malcolm Skellington from 'Percy'
April 1992.
I always find it a pleasure when it comes around to interviewing Dave Hill, as he always comes up with something new to tell us, and this time proved to be no exception and even more of a pleasure to talk to Dave over a good lunch. First of all Dave, can we give the sceptics out there in Fan land a straight answer about Slade? Are the
band still together, and are all these rumours about a split nonsense? I hope that put paid to the rumours and puts a lot of people at ease about the band situation, but is there anything
new in the pipeline for the immediate future? I suppose the rumours of a split might have arisen from people who have heard that you are putting a band
together of your own. Can you fill us in on that one, Dave? Is there anyone else in the band that we know? "A lot of people know that I do a fair amount of charity gigs and I really enjoy myself, so I want a band who can do a tour. And I can entertain some Slade fans who come to the gigs and give some of my own material a chance to be performed. I've no intention of calling the band 'Blessings in disguise', I'm still fiddling with the idea of a title and at the moment I think it will be an all-male band." It's good to hear that Don is keen to be out there with you. Will you be performing Slade material in your set? What sort of time scales are you looking at to get prepared and on the road? I hear that there is a possibility of you getting together with a writer and putting a book together. Is this true? Anything else happened to you lately? "I'm still doing some Rainbow House work, a bit energetic though, this time. I took part in a fun run. That's about it really, although a nice thing did happen recently when this yuppy type chap got out of his Porsche and came up to me and said 'You're Dave Hill aren't you? I'd like to thank you for making my youth great', which made me feel good and that what's happened over some of the years is worth it." INTERVIEW: NODDY HOLDER & DAVE HILL, SLADE Riff Raff 1992 / 2018  ANOTHER 'TRICK' IN THE WALLTwenty years after their first Number One, Slade are back, looking to new heights and a fresh bite of the cherry. With a single getting plenty of airplay and a Top of the Pops appearance freshly behind them, the Nineties Slade, it seems, are in with a chance.
The Wall of Hits compilation is now in the shops, ready for the Christmas market, and should prove something of a pointer to further success. If things go to plan, Noddy and the boys will be in the studio next year working on new material for a mid-year release, and would have then completed the first stage of the new Resurrection. Meeting Noddy Holder and Dave Hill in a London hotel lounge I start by asking them which way things will develop and how do they see the present Slade package. Noddy replies first: "We've always been a rock band, but we have tended to change a bit from album to album. If you listen down the years, you'll find a diverse selection of styles creeping in. We've gone from making out-and-out rockers to soft records with a keyboard feel." Dave cuts in: "We've all got different tastes. Nod might like stuff that I don't and vice versa, but the common link between all the band is the band edge that makes music exciting. We are capable of doing a ballad like EXTREME and THE SCORPIONS have done recently, but our hearts lie in something more up front." Why is it you've kept so quiet on the live circuit? Noddy: "We have taken a long time out, but it was important to do so. We’d reached a stalemate position. There is no point going out touring unless you feel good about it. Playing without the right energy just creates a negative feeling. The main problem with long-lasting bands is they do tend to repeat themselves and often fail to come up with fresh ideas. Every time we've felt this happening to us, we've put the band on hold. It allows us individually to follow other pursuits and means the band is fresh when we get it back together." What kind of things did you get up to? "Dave was doing his own solo stuff, Don's been playing with other people, and Jim’s been doing a lot of production for other acts. I've got my own radio show in the North and the Midlands, playing music from the 70s so there are other things and plenty of life outside Slade." Going back to the early days, what made you adopt a skinhead image, when it was more closely associated with reggae? Dave first: "It did confuse a few people but the image did depict the hard hitting rough sound which we played." Noddy continues: "We did get a lot of backlash from the image, but it did help break us. Later we made it more colourful and people accepted that. We never attracted a skinhead audience. We were always big attractions in the universities and colleges, and it's through constant work there that we got our name. We were about the only band at the time who didn't have long hair. Whatever its down points, the image was at least instant." How does it feel being back in the charts again? Back to Dave: "It does feel odd in a way. I was listening out on Sunday for the chart position. It's like it's all new. When I had my first number one I was 26 and that felt old at the time. I never expected I'd still be around 20 years on." Noddy continues: "In the Sixties you just didn't consider being in a band if you were over 25. It's only now that the whole rock n' roll game has grown up. This is the first time that so-called rock artists who are in their 40s and sometimes 50s are still making records. Video and old film have helped many older bands survive, giving younger audiences a chance to get into things from earlier periods. Wall of Hits is also coming out on video, and that in itself is a sort of history on film." Talking of video and film, leads us onto "Flame" the movie Slade made in the early Seventies. Taking a serious look at the business, the film is far different from any of the BEATLES or ELVIS Ventures before. Picking up some critical acclaim and prayers within the industry, the film wasn't what the young fans expected. Noddy takes up the story: "None of us could act but we got by because the characters were based on ourselves. We weren't too impressed with the original script, so we got the writer and director to come out on the road with us for a few weeks. They soon got a clear picture of life in a band, and the new adaptation was far more real." Dave cuts in: "We passed because we didn't have that many lines to speak." Noddy: "You didn't. I did!" Dave: "Yeah, they took a good look at my acting early on. I heard someone wanted me killed off in the first scene." Noddy: It couldn't have been that bad because Channel 4 showed it on a Friday night sometime back. We didn't want to do a 'Hard Day's Night' thing, so we went for something close to home, having a serious as well as humorous side. The film did show the black side of the business, and in many ways destroyed a lot of myths." Dave again: "The critics were kind to us, but a lot of the fans were shocked." Wasn't it a bad move, showing a young audience the non- glamorous side of the business? "Career wise it did us no favours, but it was a great experience. It did pull apart the facade and perhaps kill off some young support, but 15 years on I think the movie stands up and is something I'm pleased to have been part of." Looking to the future, how do you say things going? "We never have planned too far into the future. You never know what tomorrow will bring. We've got a single out now and another to follow, so we must build on that. There's a whole generation of people who've never heard of us so for a while there's a lot of promotion to be done." Noddy for the last words: If things take off and the singles and Wall of Hits do well, a new album for 92 is on the cards. After that I don't know. We looked dead and buried at the end of the Seventies, but went on to big things at Reading in 1980 and Donington the next year. We don't know what's around the corner, but we're ready and looking forward to having another go. Mike Harris, Riff Raff, January 1992 Good old dayz There were four of them. The singer resembled a carnival barker from a minor Dickens novel, with mutton-chop side-whiskers, his curls- fronded head surmounted by a top hat festooned with circular mirrors, his trousers a ludicrously uncool display of Rupert Bear yellow checks. The guitarist affected a long silver wig and grinned with goofy bonhomie, possibly to distract piss-takers from his suicidal nine-inch platforms. The bassist was a foxy, intelligent-looking Ganymede whose clothes (uniquely in this galere) looked as if they might belong to him. The drummer chewed gum, looked like a Millwall fan and walloped the skins with an air of abstracted aggression - he might have been lost in some mental synthesis of Free Will and Predestination, but you wouldn't have bet on it. Slade were a curious-looking bunch; and between 1971 and 1976, they conquered the known world with a string of brilliant, if orthographically-challenged, three-minute singles ("Cum on Feel the Noize", "Coz I Luv U", "Look Wot You Dun"). Slade was the rock band about whom students like me tried to feel snooty, even while dancing ourselves stupid to "Mamma Weer All Crazee Now". We didn't approve of them (my dear, the clothes! and the spelling!), but we couldn't resist them. When the music world divided into heavy metal and sobbing singer-songwriters around 1971, Slade were the noisy Jack- the-lad brigade that didn't muck about with million-watt riffs, or concept albums or with dithery Neil Young introspections. They were just the fun tendency and England lapped them up until her attention was distracted by punk. Meeting Noddy Holder, the band's charismatic front-man, you're instantly pulled back to the time when he was one of those figures who transcend working-class culture and become popular icons, like Henry Cooper, Gary Lineker, Barbara Windsor... "It wuz a bit of a blur, really, them days," says Holder now, in his unreconstructed Brummie contralto. "All we saw of the Seventies wuz hotels, dressing rooms, airport lounges, the inside of aeroplanes and coaches, the stage, television studios, recording studios... We didn't have mooch sense of the outside world. Any time we did have off, we'd run back home to Wolverhampton and go down the local poob, because that's the one place you'd get a sense of reality. We wouldn't get mobbed there. In fact, if we ever got big-headed, they'd soon pull us down to soize. Because we still knew everybody, and everybody knew uz...". Everybody - ah yes, that word. The secret of Slade's success, in my humble submission, is that they gave the impression that they spoke, or sang, for everyone, enveloped the whole world of Brit-rock in a fond, beery embrace and told them to have a good time. It's that boundary-crossing feelgood factor that explains why, for instance, Harvey Nichols, the ritzy department store in Knightsbridge, should have thrown taste to the winds two years ago and featured, on the festive wrapping paper given away with their glossy magazine, the image of a beaming Noddy, endlessly repeated a la Warhol's soup cans, with the legend "Merry Xmas Everybody", after the band's ubiquitously best-selling seasonal yell. And now everyone seems to want a piece of him. "Even Max Bygraves did a cover version of `Merry Xmas'," he says proudly. "And the guy who's the Japanese Cliff Richard brought out "Cum on Feel the Noize" and went to No 1 with it". And so, famously, did Oasis, the nation's most influential band. Noel Gallagher sang "Feel the Noize" on Jools Holland's Later TV show last year and it sounded pretty damn good. "They sent me tickets to their homecoming gig at Maine Road, Manchester," Holder recalls, "and played the song as an encore. It were a great ego-boost for me, 40,000 kids going crazy over a song I wrote 23 years ago. I were dead choofed. It proved that those songs were good. Put in the roight environment, they're still valid today." Valid? Environment? These sociology-degree formulations aren't what you expect from such a guitar-drubbing crowd-pleaser. But then we are having lunch in the Groucho Club, surrounded by a whole roadshow of media analysts, and The Grimleys, a one-hour Granada TV film by Ged Mercurio, is about to be released on a critical world. It's an extremely funny rites-of-passage story of a precocious teenager in Dudley, 1975, who falls in love with his English teacher (the gorgeous, wide-eyed Samantha Janus) and battles for his future with both his sofa-becalmed slob father (Nigel Planer) and his sadistic PE teacher and love rival (Jack Dee). It's on tonight and you mustn't miss it (but the video will be in the shops on Monday). Noddy Holder appears, under his real name of Neville, as the school's classical music teacher, amusingly named "Noddy Holder". "It's a bit of an in-joke really," he says genially. "Ged wrote the part specifically for me. He's a Midlands lad, and it's a bit of a piss-take, to put me in as myself, but as far removed as possible from popular notions of me." The screen Holder is a nice guy, the kind of teacher to whom the troubled adolescents confide their problems. Given that the real-life Noddy was an accomplished musician when barely in his teens, I wondered what his own music teacher was like. "When I think of school back then," he says, "all I can remember us doing in music was stand up and sing 'ymns. There was a teacher and a piano, but all we did was 'ymns. But I was singin' in public from when I was six years old." He used to accompany his father to Walsall Labour Club where his father sang "You Made Me Love You" in the haze of roll-ups and brown ale. And Noddy? "Me, I'd sing summat like `I believe for every drop of rain that falls/ A flower grows...', but don't forget, it were a little Michael Jackson treble before me voice broke." He sang the line again in a demented falsetto that made all the windows in Dean Street quiver. "So heartfelt. Big ballads, tear-jerking stuff for the working men after they'd 'ad a few pints. You can't go wrong. Know what I mean? It's that old trick of showbiz - make 'em laff or bring a tear to their eye. I was too yoong to make 'em laff, so... You learn all the tricks that way, performing on stage." Manipulation and showbiz are recurring themes in his conversation. Many people have underestimated Mr Holder, thinking him a Midlands hayseed with a shouty voice and a funny wardrobe, who sang a few decent songs and amused working class teenagers. They're quite wrong. I've rarely met a performer so full of gleeful calculation about his and his band's image, their performance, their career path. Slade, for instance, started out as a skinhead band, then called "Ambrose Slade", a name fatally suggestive of an Edwardian ballet critic. Were they - boots and braces apart - ever real skinheads, as in "bovver" and queer-bashing? "Ooh now," said Holder with an affronted yelp. "We did the skinhead thing because we wanted an image to set us apart from every other band around at the time, all the long-hairs. And skinheads - well it wasn't a political thing in those days, just a fashion thing. We never encountered any violence." But booking agents were justifiably apprehensive. "It did put a lot of people off booking us, and TV and the media," he concedes, "so we changed it after we had our first hit. We still had the platform boots and shortened trousers, still wore braces and those shirts. But we had the hair feathered differently, and wore more colours. As soon as you get some colour, you're less threatening. People accepted us over night as a different band." Their new incarnation was as part of the "glam rock" phenomenon, a couple of years of sequinned lunacy when (inspired by David Bowie, T Rex and Gary Glitter) large truck-driving heterosexuals minced about unconvincingly in blue eye-shadow and stuck gold and silver WH Smith merit stars on their clothes. Slade were far too tough and street-wise to look good in Bacofoil (especially the drummer). So, if they weren't skinheads and weren't really glam rockers, what were they? Music hall throwbacks? Amazingly, the answer's yes. "Music hall. That wuz it. I got it all from me dad. His favourites were Al Jolson and Max Miller. And I got all the hand movements from Jolson and the clobber from Miller. The clothes I was wearing were straight from the Max Miller handbook." My God, he's right. Slade was a direct descendant from The Good Old Days... "Oh it's obvious now, when I tell yer, but nobody realised then. Everybody nicks stuff. It's the old showbiz tradition, isn't it? I've always watched people on stage, seen how they do it. I loved the way Max Miller would walk on stage and people would be rolling on the ground before he even told a gag, just because he looked the business. Get them on your side, before you open your mouth and you're home and dry. That was my adage, even when I was a little kid." But surely he was too young (at 51) to have seen the Cheeky Chappie in person. "Of course. But I've seen the pictures, and me Dad had the records. When I first heard him, I cracked up. I didn't understand the gags, but it was his delivery. I couldn't believe it. And when I was old enough to understand, I realised it was something you could take into rock 'n' roll. Nobody'd done it. All you had to do was take what he had and make it Seventies. Instead of the white fedora Max had, I had a top hat with mirrors on..." The idea of the hat came to him while watching a mirror ball on a stage. During Slade concerts, they'd kill the lights, then shine a spotlight on the Noddy titfer, and send searchlight beams all over the squealing auditorium. "It was just 30 seconds out of every show, but people never forgot it. They went berserk. 'Course," he says modestly, "you only need three or four tricks like that in a show and you've got them suckered right away. And with a lot of hit songs to back it up, you were home and dry. We were a top live attraction for years and years around the world, purely on the strength of those tricks." He was once an accomplished guitarist, with a special fondness for Django Reinhardt, after whom he has named his youngest child, now two and a half. At 11, Holder was playing jazz guitar. Then he adapted the pop tunes on the radio to what he'd learned from his Django-loving teacher. "But I wouldn't say I was a great musician. In fact, I got worse as a technical musician, the more successful I got playing pop. I wasn't doing any difficult stuff like I did when I was young. I concentrated on being the singer." This was aided by a dumbing-down process insisted on by their manager and producer, Chas Chandler, who used also to manage Jimi Hendrix. "Chas always said, keep it short. No solos. Me and Jim , the bassist, we became kings of the three-minute pop song because Chas pushed us into it. Left to ourselves, we'd have been doing 10 or 15-minute songs. But he said, `No way. You can say all you wanna say in three minutes. Get the first 30 seconds right, get the intro and the hook into the first half-minute and you've got a hit record. If you're going to put a guitar solo in, make it short and memorable, so people can even sing the solo, and it becomes an extra hook.' And he was right." So that's how it's done. Becoming a rock star, having a hit, having 20- odd other ones, conquering the world - Noddy has a sweet but slightly exasperating way of suggesting that success is about following a few simple rules. He's a man, I think, of enormous optimism, seemingly impervious to negative thoughts. Listening to him talk about his and the band's fortunes since 1976, when punk swept glam rock aside, you'd swear they'd been chart- topping stars right up to last week. In fact, they've been up and down, ignored, feted, gone on nostalgia tours, metamorphosed into a heavy metal combo, been plagiarised (by Kiss, for instance), been rediscovered, anthologised, had their records re-released, turned up in Viz comic and been lampooned by Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer. Noddy now sits, a slightly bewildered but lovable figure, pondering offers of acting work, invitations to TV quiz shows and similar signs of iconic status. Whatever the truth of the past 25 years, in Noddy Holder's hindsight, everything - and everybody - has been for the best. Everything's turned out just fine all round. Interview: Noddy Holder - Still feeling the noize. In the 1970s Slade was to rock music what the Monster Raving Loony Party was to British politics. Dressed up to the point of absurdity, a lot of people underestimated the importance of both these institutions until they were no longer there to cheer us up. Because exquisite good taste was never quite the point about Slade, was it? First there was the music. This fact might be an unfair reflection on the band's versatility, "we wrote lots of ballads" says Noddy, but Slade have been famous since 1973 for writing the ultimate Christmas anthem rock song, Merry Xmas Everybody. And then there was the image. You could never accuse Slade of being cool. The four of them were no oil paintings. And then there were the clothes - Mad Hatter hats, cut-off tartan trousers, braces and huge kipper ties. Glitter in their hair, feathers, space suits and platforms you could build a bridge over. "I was a bit of a spiv," Noddy says in his autobiography Who's Crazee Now? You don't say Noddy. But that's what you get from this Walsall-born man. He sits back in his seat, stares into the middle-distance and shoots from the hip. No pretence, no "airs and graces" as he would say in a strong and gritty Wolverhampton accent. As he tells the story of Slade it is quickly apparent that the glam and glitter was always kept strictly for the wardrobe. Since day one Noddy seems to have been born with confidence. He admits it himself. "I didn't know when or how I was going to make it into the music business," he says, shaking his big mop of fuzzy, blonde hair which still does little to betray his 53 years. He launches almost immediately into reminiscences about his family. He came from a typical working-class family, born in Newhall Street, Walsall in 1946. His dad Jack, who had been a Desert Rat in the Second World War, and mum Leah never fully understood what their only son was all about. They must have scratched their heads a few time at his on-stage outfits. But he is not bitter about that. He does not remember his parents ever saying they were proud of their son, but then they did not have to. "I just saw the look on their faces. It was like they'd seen the light. They finally understood why I had been doing it all these years. This was about ten or 12 years after being a professional musician. I'd been doing it professionally since I was 16. I had a band for four years at school." So it sounds like Noddy has always been in some sense a one-man band. An only child, he was thrown on to his own resources from a young age. He manufactured the confidence himself. Perhaps that is why he talks about Slade and its success as though it was a matter of fate. All Noddy had to do was go with the flow. He leans forward in his chair, warming to his theme. I have been warned that Noddy shouts rather than talks. This is not strictly true. He just says everything adamantly. He admits their style was "bad taste" but then corrects that. "It had nothing to do with taste. We were always colourful, even in the early days before we were famous. We always had an image. We just made people laugh. If you can get people to smile then you're halfway there. People took to us and warmed to us just because we looked outrageous. I think they were shocked more than anything else. No one else was doing it then." I suggest this might have been part of Slade's image problem later. They might have enjoyed three decades of chart success, even into the early 1990s, but they were always dismissed as something of a novelty band. Perhaps the image became a distraction? Noddy says the recent rewriting of Slade's history, helped by 90s band Oasis doing a cover version of Cum on Feel the Noize and the revelation that Nirvana's Kurt Cobain was a fan, has been a huge compliment to the band. But what has done most to rehabilitate the band from the superficial glitter of glam rock is simply the passing of time. When Noddy wrote a hit song he always knew it. Slade put together Merry Xmas Everybody in the heat of a New York summer while the band were on tour. It suggests how business-like Slade were behind the scenes. It went to number one the year it was released and every Christmas since has received massive airplay. The single is never out of circulation Noddy tells me. More copies are printed around the festive season but it is always in the shops. And he never dismisses its enduring appeal, even though it appeared to be the pop equivalent of an albatross around their necks. It makes you wonder why Slade never produced another Christmas song just to cancel out the other. At the very least it would make a change for them to play a different tune. And he has a theory as to why the song has endured for 26 years without any sign of waning. "They try too hard to make it festive. If you listen to our song, it's got no sleigh bells, no Christmas sounds, no mention of Santa or holly and ivy. It's just a straight-forward rock song. The only thing festive about it are the lyrics. And that's proved by the fact that it was number one in France the following Easter after it was first released. It climbed its way up the charts very slowly and eventually got to number one. But the French did not have a clue what the song was about." Although Slade still continues to this day, Noddy is no longer its frontman. He chose to leave in 1992 because he wanted to try out new things. And he has undergone a successful reinvention, unlike many a former rock band member. He has a weekend radio show with Manchester's Piccadilly Radio and has just starred in a second TV comedy drama series The Grimleys where he plays a music teacher called Neville Holder who was once in a band which never made it to the big time. Neville is Noddy's real name, but only his mother calls him Neville now. He says he is enjoying this latest chapter in his life. He once wrote: "Look to the future now, it's only just begun. . ." Divorced with two grown up daughters, Noddy is a father again to a son called Django and lives with his partner, 19 years his junior, near Manchester. The name Django is after Django Reinhardt the famous jazz musician. Noddy knows a lot about Django, having been taught to play the guitar by a jazz musician. In fact Noddy's record collection is pretty serious. He lists the artists who have influenced him - The Beatles and The Who in the 1960s, Marvin Gaye and Otis Redding in the 1970s. He thinks the Fun Lovin' Criminals in the 1990s are fabulous but soul and black music is his main love. He thinks the carefully manufactured pop and rock bands who dominate the music scene today are not likely to last as long as Slade. "We kept the original line-up. Nobody has ever achieved that, nobody." And nobody has yet emulated Slade's winning formula. "What we did is still valid today because nobody is doing what we did, not all in one band anyway. They might do the music but nobody's is having a laugh like we did." Noddy Holder, Who's Crazee Now? My Autobiography, is published by Ebury and is available now in all good bookshops at £16.99. A new series of The Grimleys will be broadcast early next year. |
