- 3 days ago
Fans from the USA, Europe and Leicester travelled from farand wide to celebrate the music of Noddy Holder and co at an annual event, this year held in the place where the band was formed
They included a famous children's TV presenter who fronts a Slade tribute band.
They included a famous children's TV presenter who fronts a Slade tribute band.
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00:00Here's a question for you. Which famous glam rock band is this? From the following clues.
00:0617 consecutive top 20 hits in the 70s and 6 number 1s, over 50 million records sold worldwide,
00:14a massive Christmas number 1 which continues to be played every year and formed right here in Wolverhampton.
00:21The name of the band of course is Slade and this weekend at Wolverhampton Arts Centre there was a convention
00:26celebrating everything Noddy Holder, Dave Hill, Don Powell and Jim Lee collectively Slade.
00:33Tribute bands, merch, the showing of the Slade movie in Wolverhampton City Centre and more.
00:40Let's find out what's going on.
00:43We're here outside Newhampton Arts Centre with Bill Lemis Slade.
00:47That's your rock and roll name isn't it?
00:49Now you've come from Leicester to see the bands and the Slade-based fun this weekend.
00:56But you haven't actually just met Noddy Holder and the crew.
01:00You've actually worked with them haven't you?
01:02Tell us a little bit about that.
01:04I'll tell you a lot, I've got many stories of block.
01:07Because I've got into the roadie and threw me mate, Nommish.
01:11He got me into it.
01:12But I used to turn up at gigs and help the road crew out at the time.
01:17And then, when I did that foot back, 10 or 11 gigs started.
01:24I've got a story of what happened and what you've seen, what was going on backstage and everything.
01:29What was going on backstage?
01:32I can't talk about that.
01:34Were you a fan before you got to work with the crew?
01:38Yeah.
01:39What is it about Slade?
01:41I don't know because it was just, I think later on it was a show down to earth.
01:50And I've liked, I took that, because I met loads of bands singing.
01:55And I've liked to treat them as normal people and they liked that.
01:59And they continue to perform today to an extent, don't they?
02:03Dave Hill Slade, yeah.
02:05Yeah, and two Slade Tribute Bands.
02:08Are you here for the weekend today or tomorrow?
02:10Yeah, yeah.
02:11Great, well.
02:12I'm here.
02:13I'll tell you, I know Slade UK did the first convention years ago.
02:18Got approval.
02:20Yeah.
02:20But I'll know Slade UK for you as well.
02:23Well, we can hear the Slade Tribute Band tuning up.
02:26So let's go inside and have a look in there.
02:29Thanks for talking to us.
02:30Right, cheers, thank you.
02:31And we've got two guys here at the convention.
02:34You've come all the way from Sweden.
02:36Please, introduce yourself.
02:38Hello, my name is Jonas.
02:40All the way from Sweden.
02:42Which part of Sweden?
02:45Just outside Stockholm.
02:46Maybe an hour and a half away.
02:49Cool.
02:50My name is Volkan and I come from the same place.
02:53Wow.
02:54It's a silly question, what brings you here?
02:57But you're obviously big Slade fans.
02:59Why Slade and how long has that been?
03:03Well, Slade's been since the early 70s, actually.
03:08Ever since my brother brought home his first single Goodbye to Jane.
03:11And I've got to school.
03:14And have you seen them plenty of times, the actual band?
03:18Never.
03:18Never seen them.
03:19Never seen them.
03:19No.
03:21I was too young back in the day.
03:23Right.
03:24Have you met any of them through the conventions?
03:27No, the first convention I met Don Cowell, the drummer.
03:31Wow.
03:32Fabulous guy.
03:33Yeah.
03:33Yeah.
03:34And yourself, have you seen them?
03:36No, I'm just a Slade fan and I'm a hang around for you a lot.
03:39So, I've never seen them live.
03:42I've just played some songs with them.
03:44Why Slade and not ABBA?
03:46If that's a fun...
03:46No, I've never liked that one.
03:50No, but...
03:51No, Slade is much better.
03:53And as we can hear, the music lives on.
03:56There's two bands playing here at this convention.
04:00There's plenty of other things going on.
04:02The film as well.
04:03Have you seen the movie that they're showing in Wolverhampton?
04:06No.
04:06We didn't see the film, but we were at the trumpet today.
04:11We're at the old star.
04:13Yeah.
04:13No.
04:14Okay, guys.
04:15So, you're here Friday and Saturday and you're going to enjoy yourselves.
04:19Yep.
04:19We will.
04:20A few drinks and plenty of music.
04:22Plenty of music.
04:23Do you know many people who come to these conventions?
04:26Have you met friends through it?
04:27Yeah, I met some of them.
04:29About five or ten of them, maybe.
04:31Keep contact on social media, Facebook and so on.
04:34Yeah.
04:35Cool.
04:35Well, enjoy yourselves, guys.
04:37And thanks for talking to us.
04:38Okay.
04:39And we're here with two more massive Slade fans.
04:47They must be massive because they've travelled the world almost in terms of coming here tonight.
04:54And Kathy Nolter from West Virginia.
04:57You must almost be in heaven to come to this Slade convention.
05:02And Rudy Schulbert from Germany near Hanover.
05:07So, Kathy first.
05:09Why Slade?
05:12I've asked other people.
05:15They were raucous and loud and irritated my parents back in 1972.
05:22But I also enjoyed and I've always been a bass playing fanatic.
05:29But I played bass for a while and I loved it at least.
05:33Wow.
05:33Because, I mean, they did have some success in America.
05:36But not massive success in America.
05:38Bigger here.
05:39Did you hear them on the radio?
05:40How did you hear about them in the 70s?
05:42On the radio, yes.
05:43But I live in a small area and we had a top 40 radio station.
05:49And if they had a song didn't chart in a couple of weeks, you never heard it again.
05:53So, that's why some of their stuff did fairly well.
05:55Mama were all crazy now.
05:56Goodbye to Jane.
05:57Yeah.
05:58And then the rest of the stuff charted.
05:59Well, there was a cover version of that one, wasn't there?
06:02Mama were all crazy now.
06:04Well, and Come On Family Noise.
06:05Yeah.
06:06Yeah.
06:06That kind of helped bring them back in the 80s.
06:09But, I mean, you've been coming here for five years, haven't you, to this convention?
06:13Yeah.
06:13Well, it's a silly question, really, but what brings you here?
06:18You obviously...
06:18Well, the fans.
06:19Yeah.
06:20The Slate family.
06:22And it really is true that there's people here.
06:24The Slate fans are the best.
06:26Well, you've met, we've met in the short time I've been here, you've met quite a few people
06:30you already know from Facebook or meeting them at previous conventions.
06:36So, it must be like a little family.
06:38It is, very much.
06:39Yeah.
06:40Well, thanks for talking to us.
06:41When are you going back to West Virginia?
06:43Oh, I'm going back to London Monday and then we'll go back to West Virginia the week after.
06:49Cool.
06:50And, Rudy, welcome to the convention.
06:53We won't keep you too long because I know the band are tuning up.
06:56But, again, why Slate for you?
06:58Oh, I'm a Slate fan since 1973.
07:03A friend.
07:05He has the first Slate LP and I thought that's my music.
07:11And, in the late 70s, I started a German fan club in Hanover with permission of the record company.
07:23And, uh, um, Slate were no more touring in, uh, Europe.
07:28But, um, we met them at, um, uh, TV performances.
07:34And, uh, the record company invited us to the TV performances and we met the whole band, uh, the...
07:42What would they like to meet?
07:46What would they like to, uh, meet?
07:48Oh, it's, they, uh, it's really nice because, uh, they are talking to the fans.
07:54There was no barrier between us.
07:57It was just like friends.
07:59And, um, now I'm going here for 25 years.
08:04Wow, 25 years you've been coming.
08:07What would you look forward to most at the conventions?
08:10Is it the people and meeting older new friends?
08:13Yes, I will, um, with the conventions.
08:17But, um, in the meantime, I have a lot of, uh, friends, English friends here, or, uh, from other countries.
08:25And, uh, that's nice.
08:29You have to, you can to talk to people and, uh, every time you get, uh, when I take, uh, um, wear a Slate t-shirt, I, um, people talk to me.
08:42I talk stories from the past.
08:45It's crazy.
08:45Let's have a quick look at the t-shirt you've got on.
08:48Slade in Flame at 50.
08:51Very smart indeed.
08:52So, uh, enjoy, enjoy your time at the convention, both of you.
08:55And thanks for talking to us.
08:57Yeah.
08:58Have you met?
08:58We're here with Gwen and Glenn Dale, husband and wife, who met through Slade.
09:05Tell us a little bit about that, Glenn.
09:07Certainly did.
09:08I mean, I was running for Slade at the time, and I've known Gwen for a few years before that, and I was a Slade fan, and we've just got together by the way, and we've been together overseas for the last 22 years.
09:18Wonderful, wonderful. But to say Gwen is a Slade fan, I mean, tell us, tell us a story, because you were born and brought up in Scotland.
09:27Yeah, I was born in Dundee in Scotland, and I was a mental slave fan, and I had to go and visit Noddy's mum, and me and my next-door neighbour, we were daft pals together, and we jumped on a train from Dundee, all the way to Wolverhampton.
09:41We got a taxi to Walsall, and went to Noddy's mum's to find out that they were in America, and we had to get back on the train, and we only lived about a year there, and we both came back to live in Walsall, and I've been here ever since.
09:57And was that because you fell in love with Walsall, or fell in love with Slade, or both?
10:01Definitely Slade, I didn't fall in love with Walsall.
10:05No disrespect to people from Walsall.
10:07No disrespect from Walsall, no.
10:08But, yeah, I mean, you've met them, haven't you?
10:12I've met all of Slade, yeah.
10:13I've been to Don's house.
10:15He lives in Denmark.
10:16Yeah.
10:17He invited us to help, and he stayed there for a week, yeah.
10:21I've been to Dave's, I've seen Dave, I've been to Jim's, and I've never been to Noddy's house, but I went to his mum's when I was only, like, 16, so.
10:29Any regular at the conventions?
10:32Oh, yeah, I used to run the conventions.
10:34I used to do the conventions myself, yeah.
10:35Well, not myself, me and Diane, we used to do the conventions together.
10:39Yeah, brilliant.
10:40And, Glenn, what are you looking forward to most this weekend?
10:43Just making all Slade fans, only so you've got me on the conventions, and just the music, and just get it together with everybody.
10:51It'll be a great night.
10:52Well, great story, thank you both of you, and enjoy the evening and the weekend.
10:56We do.
10:57Okay.
10:58Now, all the people watching this video might remember a programme called How To on ITV.
11:05When was that?
11:06It ran from 1990 to 2005, 16 years in total, and I actually did the pilot in 1989.
11:18In fact, today is the 35th anniversary of the broadcast, the first ever episode of How To,
11:23with me and Fred Dynage and Carol Vorderman, who never went on to do anything out there.
11:28No, this is Gaz Top, by the way, who's a megastar to kids on kids' TV in the 80s and 90s, was it?
11:35I was, that was old, yeah, yesterday.
11:37Yeah, amazing to meet you, and obviously you're a big Slade fan.
11:40Just show me your, yep, the jacket.
11:44Slade are the whole reason I'm a television presenter.
11:46Really?
11:47Yeah, I never set out to be a TV presenter.
11:49I wanted to be either the first Welshman on the move, or the bass player in Slade.
11:54Yeah.
11:55And so I learned to play bass, I put bands together when I was a kid, that led to me being
12:01in bands, and then being a roadie for a band called The Alarm, we moved to London, that
12:06led to a successful rock and roll career with them, and then I got a television career off
12:11the back of that, and my years with rock and roll, so if it wasn't for Neville John Alder,
12:16Donald George Powell, Dave Hill, and James Wilde Lee, I wouldn't be standing here right
12:23now talking to you.
12:24And have you ever met them, or have you ever interviewed them?
12:27Yeah, yeah, yeah, many, many, many times.
12:29I made a documentary about them in 1986, the first documentary I ever made for television.
12:36It's on YouTube, it's called Perseverance, the story of Slade, and they were kind enough
12:40to give me loads of time, we had a proper chat about everything, and I've made several
12:45things with them since, radio documentaries, and I tried to persuade Noddy Holder to let me
12:50make a documentary about the 50th anniversary of Merry Christmas to everybody, two years
12:55ago, and he wouldn't do it, he couldn't, he didn't want to do it, he's kind of moved on
13:01to new things, so yeah, I'm still very active in the Slade world, I come to the convention
13:07every year, I thought I'd put a band together, I was going to say, you're playing tomorrow
13:12and tell us the name of the band.
13:14Well the band, I don't use the name Gaz Top anymore, my name is Gareth Jones, it's always
13:18my name, but people refer to me as Gaz Top, so as a kind of a joke, I've put a band together
13:24called the Gaz Top Slade Obscura Orchestra, and the joke is, we're not an orchestra, there's
13:31only four of us, and I'm not Gaz Top, but they are Slade Obscurities, we're going to play
13:36B-sides and album tracks, in some songs which have never even performed by Slade live, and
13:44the band I've got to play them with me are just outstanding, so it's going to be genuinely
13:50cool, we're reimagining some of those tunes, and I think people here, probably Slade fans,
13:56you know, they love the B-sides as much as the hits, and so they'll be deeply rewarded
14:02by our efforts, I was going to say, do you think Slade mega fans that are here, do you
14:07think they'll know all the songs, or will there be some, yeah, any, any, you know, hardcore
14:11fan, and the people who've come to this are generally hardcore fans, actually love the B-sides
14:17and the album tracks, more than the hits, we hear the hits everywhere, on the radio, on
14:22TV, you never hear some of those greater tunes on B-sides, which were good enough to be
14:28hits in their own right, well it's wonderful to meet you, because I remember sitting on
14:32the sofa, as I spent most of my time sitting on the sofa watching kids TV, and you were
14:38a real star, you still are a star in my eyes. No, I'm just a Slade fan, Paul, by the rest
14:42of us, big up the West Midlands. Cool, thanks for talking to us. Thank you.
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