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.
