It's Slade

# So here it is Merry Christmas

# Everybody's having fun... #

Slade always had that indefinable thing that made people happy.

They were a proper geezers' band, but they dressed like the Diddymen.

They were the original Spinal Tap with their amplifiers at 11.

Noddy Holder's got one of the greatest voices in rock...ever.

# ..It's CHRISTMAS...! #

When you're top of the pops, it is the best feeling in the world.

# ..Ah...! #

Slade are one of the most successful pop acts of all time,

having sold over 50 million records worldwide.

In the '70s alone, they had six number ones,

a feat equalled only by Abba.

It began in the '60s when shouty bloke, Noddy Holder,

joined the N' Betweens, formed by toothsome guitarist Dave Hill and dreamboat drummer Don Powell.

The line-up was completed after the audition of cherubic classical violinist Jim Lea.

Don said, "I see you play the violin. Do you play any other instruments?"

I said, "I tried cello, but I didn't get on too well with it."

He said, "Did the spike stick in your neck?"

I don't know what the magic was, but there was something special.

We formed a foursome and went to the Three Men And A Boat,

a pub near Nod's house, to rehearse.

The first gig was Walsall Town Hall, April 1st 1966.

April Fool's Day, and we played the fool from then on.

Their first single, You Better Run, set the world alight...

but only the world between Wolverhampton and Walsall.

That came out on December 2nd 1966 on Columbia Records.

The record number was DB8080.

I seem to remember trying to get the local store to stock 500 copies

and trying to get people to buy it to get it in the charts. It didn't work!

It was number one in Wolverhampton for six weeks. It kept Green Green Grass Of Home by Tom Jones off!

After three years, the N' Betweens started calling themselves Ambrose Slade,

but the real turning point was a chance encounter with Big Chas Chandler,

formerly of the Animals, and Jimi Hendrix's manager.

He would mastermind their success. He began by changing the name -

Ambrose was out. From now on, they'd be plain Slade.

He was probably looking upon us as trying trying to change our image.

We had long hair, looked good, in fact we all had girlfriends.

I asked Chas, "What's news? What's causing controversy in the papers?"

"Skinheads."

Of course, Chas was, "Yes! Yippee!"

He'd found something, and he was on the phone right away.

He said, "I want you to become skinheads." I was, "No way! I've spent three years growing this!"

He rung me up, he said, "Hey, Davie..."

All he had to say to Dave was, "You's be a millionaire!"

I was, "What?"

I thought, "What have I done? They're nice guys. You can't turn them into bovver boys!"

"Too late!" he says. "They're out getting their haircuts!"

# I just don't understand it Why I let her get so uptight

# I don't think I'll stick around here, I ain't looking for a fight... #

My mum saw me off with my long hair. She brings me my tea the next day and spills it. She didn't know it was me!

Dave hated the skinhead days with a vengeance.

We played a lot of darts in the dressing room. We couldn't go out the front in case we got beat up.

This new skinhead band had higher stacks than we did.

Didn't like that. And they were louder than us. We didn't like that!

# ..But I don't wanna leave this town

# There's a lot of people round here who don't want me around... #

A skin audience weren't that rough.

Some of the Black Country pubs on a Saturday when people were pissed,

Saturday was fighting night! The skin audience wasn't that daunting.

We looked hard, though.

They knew who you were. "Slade? You're in there." The long-haired groups were elsewhere.

We played Bournemouth one night, full of skinheads.

They just saw right through us.

# ..Hold your head up, you silly girl

# Look what you've done... #

We weren't quite right because we'd got this violin player.

They were into reggae, you know?

# ..Silly girl

# Take a good look around you

# Take a good look... #

We couldn't do Top Of The Pops, cos the producer's son had been beaten up by skinheads.

The one benefit of the skinhead era was none of the promoters ever tried to ruck us for money.

They always paid up on the spot.

Nod looked good. Jim and I were awkward.

Ta very much. That was a Lennon & McCartney composition...

It was five years before we'd any record success. We slogged around, in the back of the van, sharing chips.

Nod developed as a frontman, and we had this song at the end of the show, Get Down And Get With It.

Now, Get Down And Get With It with Slade!

# Well, all right, everybody...! #

If you think about the bovver boots developing into bigger boots,

and if you think about our audience all stamping...

# ..I wanna see everybody get up off your seats, clap your hands and stamp your feet...! #

It was atmosphere.

# ..Get down and get with it

# It's been a long, long time... #

I developed a hairstyle that came from the skinhead thing,

where I'd a very short fringe and very long hair.

# ..Watch everybody do the dance

# Get down and get with it... #

I was 13 and, all of a sudden, there was Get Down And Get With It.

It was, like, "Wow, man! This is some record here!

"This is pretty tough!"

# ..Get down and get with it... #

No-one's ever sounded like Noddy, or ever will.

# ..I wanna see everybody raise both your hands in the air! Everybody, everywhere!

# I said, clap your hands...! #

I always thought Slade were very loud. Very LOUD!

Louder than I liked to play!

JIM: I remember when we first went to Top Of The Pops,

the sets were all being held up with tape and it was all a bit tatty,

and it wasn't that wonderful ball you see on TV.

You could see that it had been stuck together.

Such is the arrogance of youth, I looked at it and thought,

"We can take this!"

Thursday night, there's this thing called Top Of The Pops.

There's no other music on telly, black-and-white TV, no videos, no missing it and recording it,

there was this moment when you saw these people having a ball.

# ..Get down and get with it Everybody, do the dance... #

Once we got our foot in the door with that first hit, Get Down And Get With It, it went ballistic.

# ..Yeah, yeah, yeah My, my, my, my, my... #

I got an idea for a rhythm.

Nod and I were into Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. I took my violin over to Nod's...

It was the first time Jim and I had sat down properly together to do a hit single.

His mum made a cup of cocoa. I said, "I've got this idea, this rhythm...

"And a shuffle..."

# I won't laugh at you When you boo-hoo-hoo

# Coz I luv you

# I can't turn my back On the things you lack... #

Half an hour later, cocoa was drunk, Coz I Luv You was born.

It was number one... (CLICKS) like that!

# ..I just like the things you do

# Ooh

# Don't you change the things you do... #

What was good about it was this clapping...

that we did in the corridor, and it came out really loud.

The record came alive. It was a good pop song to start with, but that was the icing on the cake.

# ..I just like the things you do... #

I'm not a student. I never went to college or art school...

I'm not good with words,

but Slade speak to me through the energy of the music.

We listened to the radio at 1.00 when the charts used to be read over the air and they played the records.

It was all da-da-da... and Alan Freeman.

They didn't pre-empt Top Of The Pops in those days.

So you'd sit there watching,

and suddenly it was Slade! "Yippee! they've done it!"

It was one of our career highlights.

# ..When you bite your lip You're gonna flip your flip

# And I luv you

# Though we're miles apart You still reach my heart

# How I luv you... #

Although you're number one in the charts, you're still a pop group.

You're still not serious. You're not the Who or the Stones or the Beatles.

You're just starting, but you've just had your first big one.

This is a stomper, so start leaping about a bit, feet on the floor!

The songwriting of Noddy Holder and Jim Lea would prove the foundation of Slade's success.

They couldn't spell, mind!

# I know just exactly where to be

# You know what my freedom means to me

# What it means, what it means to me

# Just exactly what my freedom means to me

# I say, "I know just what I want to be"

# You say, "What's it all supposed to be...?" #

In the Midlands, that was a phonetic way of writing at the time.

That's where that came from. That and trying to heavy it up.

# ..Hey, hey, hey What you doing to me?

# Hey, hey, hey Look wot you dun... #

I said, "Why don't we use the dialect?" It was on the toilet walls in the Black Country.

The lyric sheet is actually written that way.

When I jotted the lyrics down, I used to spell it phonetically in the dialect anyway.

And that became a trademark.

This idea on record looked good. It was a bit tricky with Merry Christmas Everybody...

It was used in schools for a while. Radio 4 did a documentary on it.

# ..I know what your mind is going through

# You know my mind is going through it too

# Through it too

# Going through it too... #

In 1972, Slade were practically glam royalty

in the court of the three chart kings, Marc Bolan, Alice Cooper and Rod Stewart,

but were they any good live -

could they hold their own alongside, for example, the mighty Quo?

We supported them on some tour they were doing.

In Australia.

I couldn't believe it. We'd been ruling the roost and, all of a sudden, they'd come along,

and we're supporting them!

I don't know how that happened, but the combination of the two bands on the one night at one concert

was great for the audience. Both bands really got it on.

They were a serious group. You had to be on the case to follow Quo.

# ..Hear me callin' Hear me callin' loud... #

Theywere having so many hit singles, we were saying, "It's too many!"

We were number one, two and three in the charts in Australia - like the Beatles - when we went there,

cos nobody ever went to Australia. It took forever to get there.

I would also like to welcome not only Slade, but Caravan, Status Quo,

and special guest stars Lindisfarne.

'Chas had decided, they had a huge hit in Australia at that time, and they needed to go to Sydney.

'Dave got out the map. He looked at it, very perplexed.'

He said, "Explain this to me.

"We're going to Los Angeles and then all the way back to Sydney."

Chas looked at him.

He gets hold of the atlas, bends it round into a circle and says, "Dave, the world is round!

"You just go round the other way.

"It's a globe, Dave!"

HE LAUGHS

Sheer Spinal Tap! Wonderful stuff!

It's good-time, partying music. And dressing casual! Dressing casual - like I am!

Chart success turned Slade into unlikely pin-ups.

The more they earned, the better they looked.

# ..Them kinda monkeys can't swing And them birdies can't sing... #

It was our first taste of screaming girl fans. God knows why we got screamers!

We weren't the prettiest bunch by any means!

I gather they did the sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. I dunno, I wasn't there.

But they were fools if they didn't!

He looked like some kind of Dickensian character,

with his big side whiskers.

He wasn't a handsome man, I'm sure he won't mind me saying!

He kind of screwed up his face,

and I think he took delight in the fact that he could look remarkably ugly.

SUZI: None of them were heart-throbs.

Don was probably the best-looking...

Used to spend more time putting make-up on than the photo shoot would take. We'd get there the day before!

Jagger's not exactly your pin-up, is he, but he's never been short of the female sort of things.

It's more than just looks. It's what's behind - the cosmic vibe!

JIM: Chas always wanted us to move to London right from the beginning.

Unfortunately, we didn't like these London clubs. We used to go to Tramp and didn't like it.

We always kept our Black Country roots. Nothing ever took that out.

They say you can take the boy out the Black Country, but not the Black Country out the boy.

It was great seeing Jack Nicholson at one table,

Marc Bolan over there and Michael Caine over there,

but they were just guys.

We were still the Wolverhampton lads.

We never pandered to trying to be hip or cool.

We couldn't - we hadn't a clue how to be hip or cool!

We hadn't got the first idea about it.

We used to get in the van and drive home.

We'd go through the night just to get home. You know, "Take Me Bak 'Ome."

# ..So won't you take me bak 'ome

# Take me bak 'ome

# We can find plenty to do And that will be all right... #

JIM: We played the Lincoln Festival. All the press were there.

They were saying this is why drugs and youth are going together - ban festivals.

-We went on there and we were booed on, "Get off!".

-This so-called hip, cool audience

thought, "What's this band doing on at this festival? They've had hit records!

"Why should they be on this hip festival?" I thought, "We'll show you bastards!"

And after the first number, they were all up on their feet.

# ..A superman comes to meet you

# Looks twice the size of me... #

It gave us this credibility as a great rock live act.

The next week, Take Me Bak 'Ome went to number one in the charts.

# ..So won't you take me bak 'ome

# Take me bak 'ome

# We can find plenty to do And that will be all right

# It will be all right...! #

It's great to sit here in the rain,

and we want everybody to get up really loud from the start!

Yeah!

Yeah!

# I don't want to drink my whisky like you do

# I don't need to spend my money but still do... #

The title Mama Weer All Crazee came from the Lincoln Festival,

because I was shouting this to them.

We were actually singing, "My, my we're all crazy now!"

Chas thought we said, "Mama". He said, "Play Mama again." "What?"

# ..Mama weer all crazee now

# I said Mama weer all crazee now... #

From the skinhead period to sort of like the Star Wars bar was just to make it more colourful.

# Gudbuy t'Jane, gudbuy t'Jane Painted up like a fancy young man

# She's a queen, can't you see what I mean, she's a queen

# See, see she's a queen

# And I know she's all right, all right, all right, all right

# I say you're so young You're so young... #

I can remember Noddy and the mirrored hat and the driving force of the music.

It really was music that made you feel great.

I stood in the middle of the stage with huge beams of light coming from the hat.

It looked absolutely phenomenal. I could move the hat and light all the audience up with the mirrors.

It became a symbol of the glam rock years, really, the top hat with mirrors.

# ..Gudbuy t'Jane, gudbuy t'Jane Get a kick from her '40s trip boots... #

I saw this long black coat with a zip up the front.

I thought - silver!

Dave was on the planet Zog for this - he took to it like a duck to water.

They looked bizarre and didn't quite have taste in their appearance, but the music was better than anyone's.

I asked them to make me it in silver. They said, "Yeah."

But he'd never change in front of us - he used to go into the toilets to change.

And my standard line was, "Come on, H! Reveal!"

Out he'd come and I'd be, "Oh, God! You can't go on looking like that!"

His standard line was, "You can laugh! You write 'em - I'll sell 'em!"

Have you ever seen Elton John? He wore mothballs at one gig! Talk about what I wore!

His music's serious, isn't it?

# ..Gudbuy t'Jane Like a dark horse see how she ran

# Gudbuy t'Jane, gudbuy t'Jane Spits on me cos she knows that she can... #

We did a gig in Liverpool,

and I'd had these whacking great boots made, never thinking they'd be hard to walk in.

-They were big.

-He could hardly walk.

It was the height of our career, the Liverpool audience was great, but they rushed the stage.

The bouncers wanted to get us off the stage. I heard an enormous crack.

Rushed him off to hospital - he'd broken his leg.

They said, "You're busted, mate!" I said, "What am I going to do?"

So we decided to get him a wheelchair to whizz about the stage in.

I got baking foil out the cupboard and wrapped it round the plaster.

I used to get hold of him and whizz him round the stage,

and take him to the edge of the stage and try and topple him out, and he used to panic.

HE LAUGHS

And Don bought me a parrot for my shoulder.

# Baby, baby, baby... #

1972 - it was a very good year for Slade.

By comparison, 1973 was bound to be a quiet one.

# ..Yeah...! #

We'd done a gig where the audience roaring was rattling the wall -

amazing volume, and our volume had to be even higher!

# ..And I don't know why

# And I don't know why

# So you think my singing's out of time, well it... #

So this one night, I was shouting so hard, you could actually feel it in your chest.

You could feel the applause going da-da-da in your body,

which led to Cum On Feel The Noize.

# ..Cum on feel the noize

# Girls, grab the boys

# We get wild, wild, wild

# We get wild, wild, wild

# So cum on feel the noize

# Girls, grab the boys... #

The first gig I ever went to was Slade at the London Palladium.

I had never experienced anything so loud,

or seen girls that looked so glamorous,

and lads so excited.

The London Palladium was everything. All the famous people had played it, there was the revolving stage...

but not this night!

I said, "You'll have to clear the pit out. It'll be pandemonium when we come on stage."

And the guy says, "No! We've had them all here - Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Judy Garland."

"We've had 'em all here."

But never a rock show!

# So cum on feel the noize Girls, grab the boys... #

They came on and looked the same as they did on Top Of The Pops,

and literally 20 yards in front of me!

# ..Cum on feel the noize

# Girls, grab the boys

# We get wild, wild... #

There were problems with the Palladium people cos the balcony was shaking.

The balcony was like this.

I remember it to this day. It just blew my head.

The kids had come over into the orchestra pit.

Drums were up in the air, sheet music... It was total chaos.

They wouldn't let my dad in either cos he was getting on a bit.

And we came out, and there were girls in hot pants.

Girls at school wore school uniform, so this was like, "Wow! What is going on?"

# ..And I don't know why

# And I don't know why

# Any more... #

We got banned from that chain of theatres after that - but we'd warned them!

One, two. One, two.

That summer, Slade played London's Earls Court.

At that point, they were the biggest live act in Britain.

# ..You know how to skweeze me... #

DAVE: The fans told me, "You should've been in the Tube - it was glitter, Noddy's top hats..."

We had all these number one records, we were at our height in the UK, we were cream of the crop.

Skweeze Me Pleeze Me was number one in the charts. Things were never better.

# ..You're making it easy... Oh-oh

# And I thought you might like to know

# When a girl means yes, she says no You know how to skweeze me

# Oh-oh... You know how to pleeze me

# Oh-oh... You're learning it easy

# Oh-oh... And I thought you might like to know... #

We sadly came down to earth with a bump.

You're at the peak of success and something kicks you under.

Don's probably my best friend and we're still working together now... That was a heck of a shock.

# Every day, when I'm away And there's been a few

# Every land, I need a hand

# To help me come through... #

His girlfriend was killed...

Angela... and he was in a very bad way.

All that...Earls Court gig and all that tour and everything, meant bugger all, really.

# ..And it won't even show

# And no-one will know... #

He looked like he'd been crucified. Smashed up and his hair cut off and a loincloth...

At that point, I said, "He won't last the day." Looking at him, you wouldn't have thought he would.

My life was saved by two nurses who happened to be going on duty at the hospital that night.

They must have arrived just after the accident had happened.

They kept me alive until an ambulance came, and I've never yet found out who those two were.

The fact that he could have suffered brain damage and might not play again was terrible, was heartbreaking.

I remember waking. I was shivering.

I didn't know why. I was on a bed of ice, to keep my temperature down. I panicked, pulled the tubes out.

I didn't know what I was doing there.

The tenterhooks, the feeling of would Slade remain, would they be able to work again without a key member?

We'd had a meeting at my house with Chas to decide what to do. We decided to carry on.

The accident was tragic, terrible.

It was extremely upsetting.

But, as I say, life carries on... and I was at my brother's house...

Frank was plumbing in the dishwasher and overheard the conversation.

He said, "James, I'm your man."

From plumber to drummer!

DAVE: It was funny with Frank. He's a fan. He's a good lad.

He didn't have Don's power, though. Don's an immense drummer.

It would certainly never have been the same.

The magic was always the four of us together. That was always the magic.

# My friend Stan's got a funny old man, oh, yeah

# Oh, yeah... #

While Don was in hospital Noddy and Jim wrote songs and gurned,

while nouveau-riche superyob Dave Hill went shopping for houses.

I went to this house in Solihull with this estate agent.

He says to the woman, "I've got an unusual gentleman outside who'd like to have a look at the house."

I walk in with a big hat on. The woman's going, "I know his face!" I was all over her daughter's bedroom.

"Oh yeah, I'll have a slice of this," and I went and bought it on the spur - as you do.

I thought I lived next door to a huge house.

I thought, "Sounds quite stately," until I found I was next door to 500 girls! And we were in the charts!

This television company came down to film me moving in.

I was coming in a gold suit and glitter to a house with no furniture!

Hi! Thanks for inviting us over.

It's not the sort of pad I was expecting.

Did you expect a silver one? Yes!

GIRLS: We want Dave! We want Dave!

I couldn't go out. I was a prisoner.

How will you cope with that? I really didn't expect that.

'People slept in my garden and left me notes. If you lived in a council house, you've not had carpets.

'It was all lino that we had. It was all carpets in this house.'

I don't know it that well, but this is what they call the lounge. It was the lounge before.

The dustmen wore dress suits and people shampooed and set the lawns.

You're 20 years old, you've got 500 girls next door,

you've got girls all over the country shouting for you...

How does it feel? It feels great.

Anybody who says it's not good is an idiot. We like being popular. It's great.

GIRLS: We want Dave!

GIRLS CHEER

Dave, please! I've not had it once yet!

'I eventually had to move.' HE LAUGHS

Later that summer, Don Powell seemed to have made a full recovery.

He left hospital and prepared to tour with Slade again.

# When you wake up in the morning You can't remember much about the night before... #

When I first realised that I'd got amnesia, I used to fight like crazy, which was the worst thing I could do.

The memory thing was a problem, but we just took it on board.

I didn't realise at the time and we came to rehearse to do something.

They said, "Let's try Cum On Feel The Noize."

"How does it go?"

# ..The bangin' man, he says he can

# Time after time... #

Nod shouts, "We'll do Merry Christmas," which was number one then,

and I'm going, "How does it go?"

Don grabbed me, "Jim! Jim!" "What?" "How does it go?"

"Sing it to me!"

While I'm talking to the audience, Jim's saying to Don, "It goes like this..."

Once he got the start, he was away, he knew it.

We always know when it's Christmas in England...

# So here it is Merry Christmas... #

# So here it is Merry Christmas

# Everybody's having fun

# Look to the future now

# It's only just begu-u-un

# Are you waiting for the family to arrive..? #

That song had two of my best lines.

"Does your granny always tell you that the old songs are the best?

"Then she's up and rock'n'rolling with the rest."

# ..Does your granny always tell you

# That the old songs are the best?

# Then she's up and rock'n'rolling... #

Part of the record's success at the time was definitely what was going on around -

three-day weeks, TV going off at 10.00pm with power cuts...

# ..Everybody's having fun... #

The whole structure of the country was very dismal. The Christmas record was very optimistic.

I think it lifted people.

And I knew that I wanted it to be very working-class lyrics,

what normal families went through at Christmas.

I'd had a few drinks, I was in good spirits. I was in festive spirits.

Suddenly, these lines were coming into my head.

# ..Are you hanging up your stocking on your wall...? #

As soon as I got that first line, I was on a roll then.

The basic two melodies of the chorus came from the very first song I'd written.

The original lyrics were really hippy, acid...

# So won't you buy me a rocking chair to watch the world go by

# Buy me a looking glass to look me in the eye... # That was the original lyric.

To get it finely tuned and right took me three or four hours.

# ..Look to the future now... #

It still sounds fresh, though now you might be sick to death of it!

It gets rereleased every year! It must've sold 50 billion copies!

DAVE: I was walking around a shop in Birmingham looking for something,

and Merry Christmas was playing on the thing.

I opened the clothes and this woman was singing it on the other side.

And there was my face!

-Is there a particular lyric in that song that you like?

-Yeah, at the end when he says, "It's Christmas!"

# ..It's Christmas...! Look to the future now... #

It's brilliant, innit? It's the shouting. It's just pure...

it's pure emotion.

Merry Christmas Everybody had been Slade's sixth number one in less than two years.

Now their manager Chas Chandler looked to a new creative challenge for his boys.

The result was a feature film - Flame.

None of us had ever acted before.

We were dipping our toes into uncharted waters.

Essex had done That'll Be The Day.

It was the next step for us.

D'you actually like what we do?

The movie explored the harsh realities of life in a fictional rock and roll band,

but would Flame backfire on Slade?

You see, it's all a matter of packaging.

Promotion... > I'm not a bloody fish finger!

We weren't too bad at the acting. We got away with it.

-I'm the singer.

-How do you do?

I didn't read the whole script. I only read my part.

I didn't even know what it was about half the time.

We were asked at the premiere, "Have you done the right thing

"by exposing the downside of the music business?"

'I could see what they meant.'

-You're a good live act - that's all.

-Excuse me!

-But tonight was crap!

-You're just second-rate comics with a third-rate audience!

-And a fourth-rate agent copping 10%!

# ..Cos many years from now... #

Flame failed to win any Oscars.

But at least the tunes were corkers.

People listen to Slade and they think of Cum On Feel The Noize and Mama Weer All Crazee Now,

but How Does It Feel is easily one of the best songs ever written, ever.

# ..Do you know, know, know what it's like to be searching in your own time?

# All you're attempting, experimenting

# All of the time... #

It's brilliant. Go and buy it. It's on the Greatest Hits - track 13.

# ..What it's like to be searching and suddenly find

# All your illusion All your confusion

# All left behind...? #

JIM: Although we aren't really remembered for the gentler side of the band, that was always there.

That sort of happy-sad vibe.

We're remembered for being the guys who make a lot of noise,

but we didn't always.

# I've seen the bridges of the world and they are for real

# I've had a red light on the wrist without me even getting kissed

# It still seems so unreal I've seen the morning... #

Most of the world loved Slade, but the USA remained unconquered and unconvinced.

The band even moved there for two years, but the Americans and Black Country glam didn't mix.

# ..And I'm far, far away... #

DON: Concert-wise, it was great.

We just couldn't get a record away.

We're in America at the moment.

I hope everybody's having a great time on the 500th birthday of Top Of The Pops.

Wish we could've been there getting drunk with everybody!

They couldn't understand a word we said. It was impossible.

I did have trouble understanding them. They have very thick accents.

Their accents are thick, not them!

America was not ready for and didn't want a good-time happy band.

CHRIS CHARLESWORTH: Slade's act was somehow uncool for America.

Flamboyant showman was not cool.

America had had Watergate and Vietnam. It wanted to feel sorry for itself.

It was not looking for a good time.

They returned home in about '77,

sort of down and out,

slap-bang into the middle of the summer of punk in this country.

# I'm so happy to see you

# And you're so happy... #

The late '70s was a bit strange for us, definitely, because we were considered boring old farts.

It was black and black clothes and belts and studs and chains coming off their noses and bad teeth!

-There was no light at the end of the tunnel.

-It was Year Zero.

It had a political side to it. It was almost like Pol Pot.

"What do we do now?" We felt like rock dinosaurs.

Anybody who'd been successful before was out of it.

Money was difficult. When records dry up, where do you go? You've got to survive, you see.

We almost broke up around then.

I had this idea about doing weddings, you know, rent a pop star.

I could drive them to the wedding.

JIM: Dave was going to start a wedding-car business.

Not one of his brightest ideas.

DAVE: I told Chas. I thought it was a good idea. He rang me up a week later to say he'd had an offer.

It's a funny world.

The call came from Reading that Ozzy Osbourne had pulled out.

He didn't feel his band, Blizzard Of Ozz, was ready.

I told Nod and Jim I wouldn't.

Dave was having none of it. He was adamant, he refused.

Chas was on the phone again. "Are you thinking about it?"

Something was twitching, and then he talked me into it.

# Oh-oh-oh-oh... #

There was a buzz about the place that it was going to be right for us somehow to play that day.

I wanna see everybody get your boots on and raise both your hands in the air!

Glory hallelujah!

# Turn the megawatts way up loud

# Come on Let's start shaking, come on... #

JIM: We walked on stage. In 45 minutes, we went from a no-hope...

to huge... We were back - big time.

# ..We'll bring the house down

# We'll bring the house down

# We'll bring the house down... #

JIM: The crowd were all going so crazy and someone shouted out, "Merry Christmas!"

The middle of summer, heavy metal concert, tens of thousands of people all singing Merry Christmas. Crazy!

That night driving home, I couldn't sleep, thinking of what we'd just done. And I was about to leave.

They must've been shocked we could still play after all these years together.

For some strange reason they must have thought we couldn't anymore.

By the early 1980s, American glam metal bands like Kiss were openly copying Slade.

Quiet Riot even topped the US charts with Cum On Feel The Noize.

# ..Oh, no! Cum on feel the noize...! #

We'd released it ten years before, and it never saw the light of day.

And they take it to number one.

Following Quiet Riot's success, Slade themselves finally broke into the American charts.

-# ..If you're in the swing...

-Oh, yeah, everything

-# If you're in the swing...

-Run, run away

-# See chameleon...

-Lying there in the sun

-# All things to everyone...

-Run, run away... #

I suppose our time had come in America.

To capitalise on their new success, Slade toured America

with their old chum from Brum, the sobering influence that is Ozzy Osbourne.

DON: We were offered this tour with Ozzy Osbourne.

We flew to the States and did a few warm-up gigs, if you like.

Every time they tried to do anything in America, something happened.

They should have been as big as the Beatles.

I began to feel ill. I didn't know what it was. The doctors didn't know what was going on.

I was in San Francisco with them and they said they were going home. Jim had hepatitis. I said, "What?!"

I felt as though I was dying, something weird was going on.

We come off stage, and Jim collapsed in the dressing room.

And it was just one of those points in history, just like the Beatles at Candlestick Park.

We didn't know that that was it.

# We all need someone to talk to My, oh, my

# We all need someone to talk to... #

But the crunch came when we were set to come home,

and CBS had arranged this personal appearance for us in Cleveland, Ohio.

# ..We all need someone to talk to My, oh, my... #

There was something within us that was saying, "We've trod the boards for 20-odd years."

We were standing there, Jim's ill, these tapes going behind us, I'm singing live...

It was like doing a television show but in front of thousands of people.

# ..If you ain't got nothing planned

# We all need some loving My, oh, my... #

It was like karaoke! I'm looking... "What the hell are we doing?"

The end of us live was the end of the band, really.

I got in the car and I said, "This is never going to happen to this band again."

"Never."

That was the last time we toured together. That was '84.

It was fabulous for young lads, but when I'd done it that long, I didn't want to do it any more.

It had no attraction for me any more. I was getting offered other stuff.

And I wanted to try other stuff.

I came to the point where I thought,

"If I don't try to do this other stuff now,

"I'm never going to try it."

Slade were dead as a live act, but Vic and Bob just wouldn't let them lie.

MUSIC: "Gudbuy T'Jane" PLAYED AT HIGH SPEED

Vic and Bob?

Absolutely brilliant.

-Oh, dear!

-I don't really know why they picked on us.

Coming in now, Dave.

He's doing my hairstyle, "Come on," in this Brummie accent.

That's it, Mr Hill, finished. How does it look, Jimmy? Is the bend even?

Bustin' Dave! What you laughing at, Noddy?

In a surreal kind of way, it's pretty much what were like then.

And in 1995, when Oasis's Noel Gallagher did a spot of radio DJing,

a Slade fan made a novel suggestion for Noel's next record.

# ..I don't know why... #

They sent me and Dylan into the back room to look at the CDs.

So Noel was looking through this CD collection,

and I'm looking through,

and I spot Slade Greatest Hits.

I said, "Noel, you've gotta play some Slade!"

If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't have done it.

# ..So you think you've got an evil mind Well, I'll tell you, honey... #

NOEL: Liam being Liam, if you watch the Top Of The Pops footage,

the best bit about it is, he's so blatantly miming out of time.

It cracks me up, man.

# ..So you think my singing's out of time, well, it makes me money... #

"Girls, grab the boys, We'll go wild, wild, wild." It was like Oasis.

JIM: It's uncanny when I write a song and people say it's like Oasis.

It's putting the cart before the horse.

OASIS: # ..So cum on feel the noize... #

I went to see Oasis at Maine Road, and they did this as the encore.

We found out Noddy was up in the balcony.

I hope it was as good for him as it was for us, cos it was brilliant.

It was great seeing 40,000 kids singing along to it, a song that was more than 20 years old,

and the audience were singing along to it in the '90s.

# I love that music I love that sound

# I love this new channel I've found... #

Since then, Dave and Don have started touring again as Slade II,

Jim recovered fully from hepatitis and still writes songs,

while Noddy has become a radio DJ and successful actor.

-Thank our lucky stars we packed in them daft ideas about starting a pop group!

-Cheers.

I'm always getting asked when we're getting back together.

I don't know why people can't accept it won't happen.

I thought we might do something for the Millennium or something. I'm sure somebody would love us.

# So cum on feel the noize

# Girls, grab the boys

# We get wild, wild, wild

# We get wild, wild, wild

# So cum on feel the noize

# Girls, grab the boys

# We get wild, wild, wild... #

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd