Your quiz question for this week is, who were the most successful British band of the 1970s in terms of singles record sales? The answer? Slade. They charted 19 singles in seven years, six of which were number ones – three of them entering the chart at the summit and every one of them penned by lead singer Noddy Holder and bass guitarist Jim Lea. Noddy is one of the nicest men in the business and have one of the most distinctive voices. This week’s suggestion is quite possibly their most underrated hit single.
Their formation was fate, guitarist Dave Hill and drummer Don Powell were both members of a band called the Vendors in 1964, Noddy Holder was the singer with Steve Brett & the Mavericks, the Vendors soon became the ‘N Betweens and gained some success as a support act to the Hollies and Georgie Fame among others. In 1965, coincidentally, both bands had boarded a ferry bound for separate gigs in Germany. During a conversation, Hill asked Holder if he wanted to join their band, he declined. When they arrived back in their home town of Wolverhampton, Hill asked Lea to join and he agreed. Not too long after, Hill approached Holder again and this time he agreed. Over the next two years they toured the midlands covering Motown and R&B classics and Holder then began to demonstrate his showmanship flair. It won’t be the only time Noddy turned down an offer to join a band.
In 1969, they were recommended to Jack Baverstock at Phillips records and after he heard them, he agreed to sign them on the condition they signed with a London-based management company and changed their name to Ambrose Slade. They were Initially reluctant, but eventually agreed. During one studio session, The Animals’ bass player, Chas Chandler, came by the studio and was impressed with what he’d heard. He went to see them live a couple of days later and was even more impressed and offered to manage them, they also dropped the ‘Ambrose’, adopted a skinhead haircut – apparently in order to gain publicity – and recorded their first single Wild Winds Are Blowing which was credited to The Slade and went nowhere.
They then signed to Polydor records and released Know Who You Are followed by a cover version of Shape Of Things To Come that had been written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and first recorded by Max Frost & The Troopers in 1968. Their first UK hit arrived in the summer of 1971 with Get Down and Get With it that opened with Noddy’s stentorian, ‘Well alright everybody, let your hair down, Want to see everybody get up off their seat, Clap your hands stamp your feet, get down get with it’. They were off and running.
They became a big part of the glam rock movement of the earlier 70s and as Holder’s stage presence grew, so did Dave Hill’s stage costumes. The pair were forever trying to upstage the other most often will Hill waiting to see what Holder was wearing and Hill going one better. He once dressed as a metal nun for a Top of the Pops performance and his knee-length high heeled boots are legendary. Noddy’s voice was loud, brash and authoritative and used it with great style. his normal speaking voice was similar albeit a little more mellow, but you could never imagine Noddy singing a gentle ballad, well that was until he did with Everyday in 1974, a love song that went to number three. Later the same year, they released Far Far Away in a similar style and that went one place better. It was followed by this week’s suggestion, How Does It Feel?
It’s believed to have been written on an old out of tune piano with half the keys missing. Lea wrote the music whilst still at school but did nothing with it for a few years when he played it to Noddy who liked the tune and decided to write some lyrics.
In 1975, Slade ventured into film with Slade In Flame and both How Does It Feel and Far Far Away were included. Many considered the film a failure, the band didn’t. Noddy has often said how proud he was of it and it didn’t diminish their reputation was many suggested it might. It was a very accurate story, the plot charts the rise and then the fall of the band Flame (all four members of Slade) and Tom Coni as Robert Seymour – the head of the agency who manage the band and Alan Lake as the unlikely named Jack Daniels, the lead singer of a rival band. On the first day of filming, Lake was sacked for drinking, but was reinstated after his wife, Diana Dors, agreed to keep him off drink until the film was completed. The story highlights the music industry and their motivation for doing most things for their own personal financial gain. No wonder numerous people in the industry hated it.
How Does It Feel had a perfect place in the film. The song was Slade’s 14th UK hit and peaked at number 15 – the first not to make the top five since their debut hit. Was it because not enough people saw the film because of the critic’s review? Who knows, but it’s still a respectable chart placing and did spend almost two months on the chart. These days, a song that enters at number 15 is likely to have sunk without trace the following week.
The song asks how does it feel watching ‘upside down’ and, ‘Cause many years from now there will be new sensations, and new temptations and the third verse asking, ‘What it like to be searching and suddenly find all your illusion, all your confusion, all left behind?’ Its use in the film sets the scene all about a band dealing with the struggles in that type of industry and how their lives and career are affected.
The follow up, Thanks For The Memory (Wham Bam Thank You Mam), would be their last top 10 hit for six years until 1981’s We’ll Bring The House Down reached number 10 and two years later, the beautiful ballad, My Oh My took them back to number two for Christmas and unable to nudge past the Flying Pickets’ cover of Yazoo’s Only You.
In 1980, during a slight lean period and following the death of AC/DC’s Bon Scott, Noddy was offered the chance to replace Scott but declined, saying, “My loyalty was to Slade and there’s plenty of life left in my band yet.” In 2020, Holder was Wyatt Wendels’ guest on My Planet Rocks, the station’s equivalent to Desert Island Discs and Noddy chose AC/DC’s You Shook Me All Night Long’ as one of his favourite tracks.
In 1993, and after 26 years with the band Noddy retired to look at other career prospects having got fed up with the constant arguing and having to deal with the day-to-day band matters. Lea followed suit, Powell briefly left to work with his partner in the hotel industry, but when Hill decided to carry on as Slade II, a name which Holder had suggested, Powell re-joined and Craig Fenney on bass, Steve Makin on guitar and Steve Whalley on lead vocals completed the new line up. The band are still active with a completely new line up, but Hill remains the only original member.