The tragic story of Slade: The 70s' biggest UK band
- aimeeelkington153
- Oct 31
- 7 min read
They were arguably the UK’s biggest band of the seventies, and yet they barely made a dent in America. Slade has quite a surprising - and tragic - story.
So then… Slade: You’d be forgiven if you don’t remember the name, especially if you’re American. But you’ll definitely recognise their music.
Back in the early 1970s, Slade was everything. A working-class group of lads from Wolverhampton who somehow turned glam rock into a national treasure. Noddy Holder, Jim Lea; Dave Hill and Don Powell - they weren’t taking themselves seriously, but Britain was. As Dave Hill told Classic Rock in 2020:
“Most importantly, we had great songs. But the whole country recognized us as four working-class guys who’d got glammed up, stuck their fists in the air and were telling everyone to have a good time.”
Between 1971 and 1976, Slade racked up 17 consecutive UK Top 20 hits - six of which reached No. 1. They were all over the radio and in the British consciousness.
However, they weren’t always the glam rockers you see here:
They evolved from something very different. Way back in 1966, the first version of the Slade lineup operated under the name The ‘N Betweens, and played a blend of R&B and pop. They actually released a few singles, but nothing really landed.
Then in ‘69 they signed a record deal with Fontana, under the agreement they’d change their name and get a new manager. They did both, changing the name to Ambrose Slade, and hiring former Jimmy Hendrix manager Chas Chandler.
They started out with freakbeat and blues covers, and their 1969 LP Beginnings even worked in tunes from Frank Zappa and Marvin Gaye. But it flopped.
I can kind of see why they realised they should maybe change things up.
Then came the short-lived phoney skinhead phase - Doc Martens, shaved heads, and Sta-prest trousers.
This idea was the brainchild of their manager Chandler, who noticed not many bands were doing the skinhead thing, why not give it a go?
Back then, Skinhead was more of a fashion statement than the political ideologies they would later be linked with. But in the 70’s that was beginning to change.
Noddy Holder told Loudersound:
“We got a lot of flak for being a skinhead band. Television and radio were very high- handed in those days. It wasn’t an image we could sustain and get mass acceptance with.”
But they did actually score a hit during this phase, with a cover of Little Richards Get Down and Get With It in 1971. Just listen to this live recording… They were definitely finding their sound. And their voice.
I love that vocal style. Reminds me of a prime Brian Johnson or maybe even later Axle Rose, before he went all cat in a blender. Except Noddy was doing it 10 years before them. But the skinhead thing was a brief, stylistic tweak. Next came the glam era: they grew their hair, got some platforms on, ditched proper spelling, and basically became living embodiments of glitter and loud. Glitter rock, if you will.
And then the floodgates just opened. From 71 onwards, they were dominating charts. As I mentioned, between 71 and 76 they had 17 consecutive top 20 hits, including 6 No.1’s! That is an insane achievement.
Slade actually made history in 1973 as the first act to have three singles debut at number one on the UK charts in the same year.
To be clear - many bands, like the Beatles for example, had achieved three UK number 1’s in the same year - but Slade was the first act to have all three ENTER the chart at number 1.
They were even named the most successful British band of the 70’s, at least on sales of singles. Which is incredible when you think of who was big at the time. Seriously, think about it:
Queen. Sabbath. Led Zep. Pink Floyd. Genesis. Yes. David Bowie. And on and on and on.
Slade outsold them all, if the claim is accurate. But how? Well let's look at some of the songs.
It’s like hair metal before hair metal came out. You can clearly see the way the glam rock scene influenced all those eighties bands that came later.And they just kept pumping them out. Skweeze Me Pleeze me [gap] Gudbury T’Jane [gap] and of course, Cum on Feel the Noize.
It was a never ending assault of noise, riffs, call and return choruses. It was a riot.
Fun fact, Cum On Feel the Noize was actually inspired by how loud Slade’s crowds were.
Speaking of riots… Quiet Riot had 3 big hits in the 80’s… two of them were Slade covers! That’s how influential these guys were. And to go with the seemingly never ending hits, they were selling out massive shows, all over the UK. Their momentum seemed unstoppable, even if they hadn’t cracked the US.
Then, as always seems to be the way, life tragically slapped them down. Everything changed on July 4, 1973.
Powerhouse drummer Don Powell was involved in a tragic car accident. It left him with a smashed skull, and claimed the life of his girlfriend, Angela.
Powell was rushed to intensive care, where the outlook was grim. Suddenly, the wave had broken.
Noddy Holder told Loudersound in 2020:
“Our tour had ended at Earl’s Court, and there were 18,000 people in to see us. We had a stormer of a show, and we were really riding on the crest of a wave. Then a week later Don had his crash. He was given 24 hours to live. It all came crumbling down in one day.”
The aftermath was brutal. Don had no working memory - he couldn’t even remember how to play the drums. The accident left him with no sense of smell or taste.
Amazingly, Don lived, and began to fight back to health. His mates' loyalty came through, and they refused to carry on without him - but backed him all the way. They did temporarily get Jim Lea’s brother to fill in on drums, but that was always a temporary stand in.
Within a couple of months, Don was getting his strength back, and finally they bridged the question:
“Do you think you can play live again?” He was suffering from severe memory loss, but they decided to take him out on the road anyway. Without Don, there was just no Slade.
In the same interview, Holder recalled:
“Slade was always all about us four people – four people who really gelled. Take away one of those people and that’s the end of it.”
Incredibly, they found that once Don started playing a song, he could remember it! And so they came up with a simple solution. Skip to 32:02 of this video to see what they did.
They overcame a life changing accident by just.. singing the tune to their brain damaged drummer, on massive stages to thousands of people. It took two years for them to coax him back. I absolutely love the refusal to lie down.
At this point, some of you - especially you Keen Mustard - are probably wondering when I'm going to bring up the Christmas Song. Well, now. That song was totally left field for them. And it came out of quite a strange place, at a strange time.
Partly, it was born out of a need to regain any momentum they’d lost. But it was also a hard time in the UK. Economically and politically, the country was under a dark cloud. They needed a boost just as much as the band did.
And then the magic moment happened: Jim Lea’s mother in law challenged him to write a Christmas song. Initially, he resisted, but then the band came around to the idea and set to it. Noddy had an old psychedelic ditty from way back in ’67, and Jim turned it into a glam-charged Christmas anthem.
The song just went supersonic. It was released in November 1973, and had sold a million copies by Christmas. It sold half a million in pre-sales alone.
That song cemented their ‘everyone-knows-that-band’ status.
But strangely, they were nothing in America. Slade toured America in 1975 - full stage show, gig after gig, opening for Aerosmith, ZZ Top, Black Sabbath, even Santana. In the UK, they were household names. But the US just weren’t interested.
But why? It really doesn’t make sense. You can’t say they were too bold or too brash: Aerosmith and Kiss were doing similar things in US arenas. And the live shows did go off brilliantly. But they just couldn’t get it to translate into radio airtime or sales.
One thing that might have impacted this was budgets: They simply couldn’t afford to spend a year or two in the US, both financially and logistically: they couldn’t afford to neglect their UK and EU fans. That scene was their bread and butter. So they only did small stints in the US.
In the later 70’s Slade even experienced a bit of a dip back home. The songs just weren’t hitting the same. Punk and disco were taking over. Things were looking bleak.
Then came Reading Festival, August 1980 - a lifeline. Asked at the last minute to fill in for Ozzy, they weren’t expecting much. But they tore the roof off. The crowd screamed for Merry Xmas Everybody in the middle of summer. Suddenly, nostalgia created a triumphant comeback.
And they were back in the public eye and hitting the charts again. They nearly had another Christmas No.1 with My Oh My in 1983.
Then came a curious twist: Remember I mentioned Quiet Riot? Their cover of Cum On Feel the Noize was a huge hit in the US. Suddenly, America gave Slade a second look.
1984’s Keep Your Hands Off My Power Supply - renamed and rebranded for the US audience - cracked the U.S. Top 40, and Run Runaway became their first top 20 hit in the US. Had they finally broken the states?
Sadly… tragedy struck again. Jim Lea fell ill with hepatitis C, and everything stalled. That second chance slipped away.. By the mid-80s, U.S. promise faded. By the early 90s, the original lineup splintered for good.
So, what are we left with? Slade were innovators.
They survived near-death, reinvented themselves, wrote massive stadium singalongs, and made themselves a household name. They wrote the song that is Christmas. Noddy once said they didn’t take themselves seriously. But they were deadly serious about fun, about connection, and writing bloody good songs.
They might have faded away in the end, but they left a massive legacy: You can hear their music in everyone who even came close to glam or hair metal in the 80’s. And all of them have credited Slade as big influences: Kiss, Def Lepard, and of course Quiet Riot.
Even very different acts like The Ramones and The Sex Pistols have credited their attitude and charisma as big inspirations. So, even if they never did break the States, Slade have a special place in the music world's heart.
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