Around Christmas, wherever you walk in the United Kingdom, whether it be through shops, pubs, clubs, it's extremely likely you'll hear the rocking tones of Slade's "Merry Xmas Everybody". Even if you're at home, the radio and the television will at some point air the track - it's extremely difficult to miss in fact. But beneath all that lies something underrated and relatively unnoticed, and that's a group that has cut a slew of strong compositions, amounting to a weighty back catalogue. In fact, groups to have cited Slade as an influence include no lesser names than Kiss, Oasis, Cheap Trick, Quiet Riot, and James Blunt amongst many, many others.
On November 23rd, 2009, Universal Music issued the compilation "
Merry Xmas Everybody - Slade Party Hits". Grouping in 1966 as a new version of the
N' Betweens, vocalist
Noddy Holder, guitarist
Dave Hill, bassist
Jim Lea and drummer
Don Powell would revise their group name to
Ambrose Slade, eventually shortening it to merely
Slade. Throughout their career,
Slade have accumulated twenty-three top twenty UK singles, a number that includes six number ones. In the early seventies,
Slade were arguably the biggest group in the UK charts, notching up no less than eleven top five singles between 1971 and 1974 alone. "
Merry Xmas Everybody - Slade Party Hits" includes many of the act's signature tunes, such as "
Merry Xmas Everybody", "
Coz I Luv You", "
Mama Weer All Crazee Now", "
C'mon Feel The Noize", and "
Skweeze Me Pleeze Me".
Of those six UK number one singles, one resurfaces during the festive period each and every year since its original December 1973 issue: "Merry Xmas Everybody". Cut during 1973's late summer at New York's Record Plant, the track's chorus was recorded in an outside corridor, providing an appropriate echo. Noddy Holder had written a tune in 1967 entitled "Buy Me A Rocking Chair", something which he eventually discarded. Recalling the tune, Jim Lea used the melody of the 1967 Holder number for the chorus of "Merry Xmas Everybody". While in the shower, Lea composed a melody that would be used for the verses of the song. Notching up roughly quarter of a million advance orders, Polydor Records were forced to use their French pressing plant to accomodate demand for the single. Topping the United Kingdom's singles charts, "Merry Xmas Everybody" remained there for five weeks, losing its number one spot midway into January 1974. Since its original issue, the song has re-entered the UK singles charts on several occasions over the years (during the festive period of course).
On December 2nd at 12:00 GMT, Hit The Lights' Robert Gray telephoned reception at Truro, Cornwall's Royal Hotel, and asked to be put through to the room of Slade lead guitarist Dave Hill. Hill discussed "Merry Xmas Everybody", as well as Slade's early career.
Dave Hill: Hello?
UG: Hello. Is this Dave?
Robert?
This is Robert, yes.
Hello Robert. How are you? Alright?
How are you Dave?
I'm alright mate, yeah. Rockin' (laughs).
(Laughs) You sound like you're in a cheerful mood today Dave.
Very cheerful. I did a really nice show last night in Truro, Truro in Cornwall. We played to what I would call a really full house, which is quite amazing really, considering the economy. There was just so many people there, and on a Tuesday as well. It was remarkable - there was such a great mood. Mind you, there's a lot of nice things going on at the moment for us in Slade, so it's a really good time for us, especially being December as well.
Well everyone needs something to cheer them up, don't they?
I think everybody needs something this year anyway, especially with the economy. If I can do some good, then it'll be great. Entertaining people is just a great thing really, 'cos when you're entertaining, you get it back. It's a good feeling.
Would it be ok if I began the interview Dave?
Yeah.
"There's a lot of nice things going on at the moment for us in Slade, so it's a really good time for us, especially being December as well."
Yes. Don Powell and myself were in a group called The N' Betweens, which was pre-1966. It was 1964. We were in a five-man group called The N' Betweens, and that group broke up in 1966. Don used to know Noddy from another group, and he said we were looking for a singer, 'cos Don and I wanted to carry on and reform The N' Betweens - three people had left. We knew about Nod, and he'd left a group. I met him at Beatties, which is a department store in Wolverhampton. I bought him a cup of coffee, and offered him the job (laughs). That's the truth. Jim Lea was at school, or just leaving school. We auditioned for a bassist, and he turned up amongst several others. Once we spotted Jim though, and when he started to play, I'd never seen someone play bass like that ever. He was like Jimi Hendrix on a bass guitar; he bent the notes, and just had tremendous power. It was just really unusual, so we gave him the job. We then went around to visit him with Nod, and he was playing violin in his house. "So ya play violin do ya?". "Oh yeah, yeah". We're thinking "Oh yeah", 'cos we used to like Stйphane Grappelli, and Django Reinhardt - we used to do a bit of jazz for a laugh, a bit of fun. We started to use the violin in the act, which basically led to a hit record. We used to do "Lady, Be Good", and sort of jazzy stuff.
We rehearsed in a pub opposite Nod's house as The N' Betweens, and then in 1966 we announced that we would be the new N' Betweens in a way. From '67, '68, we just went abroad to The Bahamas, which sounds fantastic, but it was a situation where there was someone living in the Midlands in Willenhall, who went to live there, and wanted an English group to go over and play in a pub. We got this offer, 'cos none of us had been on a plane ever. I mean, nobody went abroad in them days - it was too expensive. We got this offer in 1967, '68 I think it was, and went to The Bahamas, and we spent nearly three months there. We were supposed to be there for a month (laughs). We ended up playing in a pub called Tropicana, but what did for us Robert is that it helped us learn "Born to Be Wild" oddly enough. We were playing every night, and playing long, like The Beatles used to do in Hamburg; you'd go onstage, play, come off, go on again, play, come off, and go on again. You'd carry on doing that into the night. We did that, and it made us really tight as a group. We learnt a lot of unusual material, and we were just picking up a lot of ideas. When we came back from The Bahamas, we were a much better group. We'd lived together in just a room with a bathroom and a kitchen, and we had to live together in this one room, which made us close as individuals. Two months living together, when you've only lived with your mum and dad, was quite wary (laughs). But having said, it spawned a lot of fantastic tunes. When we came back, "Born to Be Wild" would be one of our show stoppers, because we did our own version of "Born to Be Wild" - by Steppenwolf that is. From other things, we developed a lot of Tamla and Motown, r&b and all that sort of material.
We came back, and we started playing. So really, from those early beginnings, we were to spend years and years playing up and down England - pubs, clubs, mega ballrooms, works, dances, and all that kind of thing - until we got spotted by a talent scout. This would be '69, '70, and he said "ya wanna get and record in London. You're pretty good". We were playing in a youth centre. What was happening was, unlike the scene today, we were together a long time before anything happened. It was a few years before we met Chas Chandler, and I always think that maybe timing's everything in the sense that if you're ready, and you meet the right people, then there's a strong chance something's gonna' work. We never did pop songs though - we always did unusual songs. We used to go to a place called The Diskery in Birmingham, and we used to get these imported records. There was a guy there that knew a lot about music, and we used to go into the booths in them days. You could play "45s in the booth, and if you liked them you bought them. That's what records were like long before downloads (laughs) - you had a piece of plastic. We used to learn some really fantastic songs. I mean, I don't know if you're aware, but we did recordings for the BBC; we used to do all these unusual tracks, like Moby Grape ("Omaha"), and The Moody Blues ("Nights In White Satin"), and all sorts of material. That was to lead to what we would do.
Chas Chandler came to this club. We were recording in Philips' Fontana studios, and Fontana's Jack Baverstock said "I think you should get some London management". Chas Chandler was looking for somebody at that particular time, because he'd finished with Hendrix, and was looking to manage somebody. He came down to this club in New Bond Street, and as he came down the stairs, he thought there were some records playing. He said "Oh, blinkin' hell. That's an unusual version of.." (imitates Newcastle accent) some song that we were doing that he knew, and then when he came in the room, he couldn't believe it. He said "Blinkin' hell. It's a band", sat down, and watched us, spotting the personalities and Nod's vocal power, the way we play, the way we were doing it. It's really weird, because he was a really tall man, and a Geordie. He thought we were a breath of fresh air, because there was a lot of indulgent music around at that time; boring, long guitar solos and all sorts of stuff was going on, and there was nobody breaking through with a lot of good songs. Although we did have guitar solos, they were always on the commercial side. He just said "I wanna manage ya". Something happens in life, and it gobsmacks you, doesn't it? We thought "Flippin' hell. This is Chas Chandler, Jimi Hendrix's manager, and he's been successful because he's been in The Animals". He took us on, and he probably spent a good two years watching us, getting us to write tunes. That was important. "Write your own stuff" he said. "You've learnt a lot. Now write it". He got us all to write, which we all did. We became skinheads - I don't know if you know about that, but...
Yeah, I know about that. I was going to ask what your thoughts were on Slade's skinhead phase.
I personally didn't like it. We all had long hair at the time, and we all looked pretty good (laughs). Basically, we all lost our girlfriends actually (laughs). We all shaved our hair off, and lost our girlfriends 'cos we looked horrible. But for me, I'm not that sort. I always liked fringes and boot-leg cuts. I was never into having my head shaved, but we did. Having said that though, in hindsight, it sort of worked in the end, because it made us noticed. But it took two years from when we grew our hair to become successful, because oddly enough, our hairstyles seemed to form from the skinhead look, like the unusual fringe I had - always a short fringe - unusual sideboards. Sometimes you do something in life, but it isn't that that will make it - it's something else that worked from it.
Chas would always encourage us, and record us. We had some weird releases with Polydor which didn't work, but we had this song called "Get Down and Get With It", which we used to do live, a Little Richard tune. Chas said "That song goes down so well everywhere. Why don't we record it?", so we went into the studio, and recorded it. I remember when we had our first airplay; we were driving around the West End, and it came on a review show on Radio 1. We all stopped just with baited breath. Listening to yourself on the radio was very exciting in them days, and then it charted due to popularity I think from the live shows. We then got the opportunity to use Jim's violin, which I said about right at the beginning...
"Coz I Luv You", yeah.
"Coz I Luv You", and that was our first number one. I'm sure you know the rest, because it's really history now. "Coz I Luv You", with the boot stamping that we did and the shouting, it was really a very, very different record. It wasn't like "Get Down and Get With It", a rock record. It was... People tell me that they heard it in bars and pubs, and that it stuck out a mile from anything else that was around, and that it was a good sounding record. I remember playing it to my sister, because each of us took an acetate home and played them to our mums, dads and friends. We got the same feeling from every one of 'em. They said "It makes me feel funny. It makes the hair stand on the back of my neck" - you know the saying, don't ya? I said "Bloody hell, this is having a right effect on people". When we got on Top of the Pops, with the look we had - the boots and all that business - we were different from anything else that was around. Of course, it was like The Beatles and The Stones; once they got on TV, they had the songs, but they had the look, and the look was so important. Telly was so important, Top of the Pops, because there was nothing else around at the time. There was no MTV, and there was no commercial radio. Radio 1 play would mean that the majority of the population would hear it, unless they happened to be listening to Radio 2, which was a different market in those days - it used to be more soft music. Radio 2 is a rock station now, which is rather good, but in those days, it was only Radio 1 that would play rock stuff, or chart stuff, and that kind of thing.
With us, we were fortunate, where everybody and his mate were watching Top of the Pops. It was the only show that would expose new material to people, and families used to gather around the television. When we first went on Top of the Pops, it was black and white - there was no colour (laughs). I used to wear silver clothes, which looked really good in black and white (laughs). Then colour TV came along, and of course, our clothes got brighter (laughs). It's a bit like flat screen tellies, and all the rest of it; once they get the idea, they then develop, like mobile phones. I had a mobile phone years and years ago, and hardly anybody had one. Everyone's got one now. But in them days, black and white TV was the only thing that was on. This was still the sixties, and then when colour came along, of course it opened itself up to a new market, especially if you were wearing bright clothes such as myself. It was just brilliant for portraying glam, glitz and front.
You were known for wearing some really distinctive outfits. How did some of those outfits come about?
First of all, they came about by me experimenting with my own ideas. For example, I used to dabble around with women's long coats, because you couldn't buy anything in them days that would... Men's clothes were shirt and trousers, very much like you worked at the bank. I loved musicals, and I loved the stuff from my youth. Don't get this wrong, but I went to a shop, and I saw this yellow blouse. From a distance though the blouse looked like a shirt, but it had a big bow on it. I stuck it on, and I thought "Ooh". I had some black trousers, went onstage, and saw the reaction on people's faces. Everyone was just smiling at me, like it was a bit funny. When I came off, one of our friends came backstage, and he said "That's a great shirt you got on tonight". I said "It ain't a shirt - it's a woman's blouse", and I thought "Ding". A bell rung in my head. "Mm.. I'm gonna look into this". Then I started looking for some unusual clothes, and got this long, long coat which was black. I got a tin of one of those spray paints you use on cars, and it was silver (laughs). I sprayed this coat, and made it silver. When I went on Top of the Pops, people thought "Wow. What the bloody hell's that?". It was like a silver wizard, a bit unusual.
I then went to Kensington Market in London, which was the place where Freddie Mercury worked, and was selling clothes. There were all sorts of creative people in Kensington Market. I went in, and I saw these platforms. I'd been messing around with women's boots, because I couldn't get anything that was high. I bought women's boots, and I used to break the heels. In Kensington Market, there was a bloke making platforms in wood with a proper heel. I thought "This is interesting", so I said "Can you make me one of them with more platforms?" (laughs). I've always been over the top; if it's one platform, it's got to be two with me, or three. I mean, it ended up about half a foot I think (laughs). I started it off, and then I said "Make it in silver". I saw this bloke in Kensington Market, and said "Can you make me that long, black leather coat in silver?". He did, and that was my next outfit. I don't know if you ever saw Reeves and Mortimer, but they did a send-up of us lot called "Slade In Residence": Vic Reeves did Nod, and Bob Mortimer did me, and then some of the other blokes in it did the rest of the members of the band. They portrayed exactly what we wore; they used silver for me and big platform boots, and they used plaid, checks, big sideburns and a massive hat for Nod, and they did a send-up. To me, that was a compliment because it was exactly how Reeves and Mortimer would've grown up with us in terms of how they portrayed us, and how they copied us. That's the biggest form of flattery in a way, a bit like a cartoon of Mick Jagger - you know who it is because of his lips and everything, in the sense that he's an unusual looking person, and it was the same with us.
I had a big smile, short fringe, glitter and mod sideboards, and Nod with this powerful voice. You then have Jim and Don, a powerful bassist, and a powerful drummer. Really, nobody could work out how we came together in a sense, but like with everything else, it worked. It took I'd say about eight years though from 1966 to when we made it. It was a lot of slog, and a lot of playing, and a lot of experience, before we cracked the charts. I think we couldn't have made it earlier though, because we weren't ready, but I think when we made it, we then developed. We started to do some huge festivals - we did one in Lincoln I think with The Who, and The Beach Boys, and a load of big names. We went down a storm on it, and Stanley Baker, the actor from 'Zulu' (1964), was the presenter. We basically stormed it. We were a band that was having some hit records, but we weren't in the calibre of The Who and all that, but suddenly, we moved from the charts into being a credible live act. We got into Melody Maker, NME, Record Mirror, and Sounds - front pages - and that really boosted our career.
We then went on to make the more raucous material such as "Cum On Feel the Noize", and "Mama Weer All Crazee Now", and "Gudbuy T' Jane", and "Skweeze Me Pleeze Me", where Nod's voice really blossomed into being one of the most powerful singers in the world really. A very unique voice, very powerful - nobody sung like him really. The good singers from the Midlands were Robert Plant, who was a friend of ours - he has a great voice - and then there was Nod. They both had styles, and they were both the top singers from the Midlands for that kind of rock material. I think it's the endless touring that developed Nod's voice - he used to blow microphones at the BBC. He was an extremely powerful singer, and if you ever did a gig with him, you'd know what I mean. He'd just blow your head off when he started singing, but like anything else, it's a unique voice isn't it? Chas Chandler was our guiding force, and he helped us through all the big parts. Polydor was a great record company. John Fruin, a big managing director of Polydor, a great MD, and a great motivator for the company, and I think such a help to us.
Of course, we were breaking ground with unusual guitars. I presume you might want to ask me about my "Superyob". I was playing Gibsons at the time on all the hit records. I went to London, and my dad was with me. He bought me this double cutaway Gibson, and there was nothing like it, because it wasn't really a Gibson. The guitar was a Gibson neck on a special body made by a man called Sam Lee, who was a China man who worked just off Shaftesbury Avenue when my dad bought this guitar for me. Chas Chandler said "Phwoar". We got my "Superyob" onto record, and it really worked, and for years and years, I used it on all of Slade's hits. I mean, I call it my "Dad's Guitar". My dad's dead now, and I just named it fondly after him because he bought it for me. I keep it as a treasure now, as opposed to using it live. But with my "Superyob", I thought "Wow. This guitar thing's interesting", and then I thought "I'm wearing all these unusual clothes and space gear, and all this kind of thing. It'd be great to have a guitar that went with it".
I got this couple in the Midlands, who were designing my clothes to... because once I stopped doing my own creations. I mean, after I'd done an outfit called the "Metal Nun" - you may know about that or you may not. I went on Top of the Pops with what I thought was an Egyptian outfit, and somebody nicknamed me the "Metal Nun" (laughs). After that, I got these two designers who really worked out what I was gonna wear. They designed this amazing looking guitar to match my costumes, and it was gonna be a stage prop, but it ended up being a really good guitar. It was made by John Birch, and there was a guy who worked at John Birch called John Diggins, and he was pretty well known as a guitar maker. He's a very good guy, actually. He was involved in all that, and of course I went on telly with it, and it was like "Wow". Funnily enough, you know when you don't know who's watching ya? Marc Pirroni from Adam and the Ants.. I don't know if you know him at all, but he was watching Top of the Pops..
"Entertaining people is just a great thing really, 'cos when you're entertaining, you get it back."
Yeah. He was watching me. I didn't know him, but I saw him make himself a success. A great band was Adam and the Ants, who had a great look, and then I met Marc. Oddly enough, what happened was I sold the guitar to a shop in Birmingham up in Broad Street, and it was in the window. The shop used to use my guitar as their calling card, and Adam and the Ants were playing in town. Marc Pirroni was just looking at some guitars, 'cos he collected 'em. It was in the window, and he went "Blinkin' hell". I think the story goes that he said "What do you want for that guitar? I want it" (laughs). He bought it, and it's actually in the Great British Music Experience at the 02 Arena now, that guitar. It's got some clothing of mine, and it's in a special room dedicated to all the British music over the last fifty years, with bits of clothing from Bowie, and Sweet and all those folks. I don't know if you've ever been there. We're playing in the 02 anyway this year. We're going to do the Indigo Rooms, a theatre in there, and I'm looking forward to having a look at it actually (laughs).
When you're doing something, you don't realize the effect it has on people. People say to me "You still enjoy playing?", and I reply "Yeah". I'm sixty-three, and I think when I was twenty-odd or whatever, I probably thought we would've lasted about five years. I never thought I would've been having this conversation with you today, if you know what I mean. We're still drawing in massive crowds, and working all over Europe. There's such a demand for it at the moment, and we got this Christmas album that just came out - you probably know about that anyway - with Polydor / Universal, and they got some good people on it. Hopefully, that will chart. I mean, I could just see by last night. It just felt good. Alice Cooper was on the telly the other morning, and he was just talking about guitarists. He was dead right; he just said "If you want to learn about good songs and riffs, the only ones that were ever really written were written back in the sixties and seventies".
People who are buying guitars now are actually trying to learn "Smoke On the Water" (Deep Purple), and ZZ Top, and Deep Purple, and Sabbath, and Slade, and all those kinds of bands - because they can play it on the guitar. It's not keyboard intended, though I love keyboards. It's very earthy, isn't it? Very hands on is guitar, and it's very personal. A guitar feels good when you got it on your body. McCartney always used to say that when he wrote songs, he always felt more comfortable with the acoustic on him with Lennon, because it was earthy. If you go into a house, and it's got real wood doors, they're the kind of doors that are there forever. They're of a really good quality - they're not plastic doors. They got a very earthy quality about them, which is what I really like about what we do, and the guitars, and writing.
I think the guitar and then the piano are the best instruments in the world to write melodies on. If you think of Jerome Kern, and Rodgers and Hammerstein, and all those people, and all those wonderful songs that Fred Astaire and all those people sang, Judy Garland and all that - they were all written around pianos. It's like Shirley Bassey's new album ('The Performance', November 2009) - I can't sing its praises enough. Actually, I think the album is lovely, and is actually a wonderful achievement. She's a great artist. Seventy-two I think, and...
From Wales...
Abso-.. I mean, Manic Street Preachers wrote a song for the album. It's brilliant. "The Girl From Tiger Bay". Absolutely mega - I wish I'd written it. I like the Manic Street Preachers. Pet Shop Boys and all them wrote songs for her, and age doesn't really get in the way, does it? It seems like if an artist has true abilities, they seem to last.
It's like a fine wine.
Yeah. My guitar playing seems to have developed. I can still kick it, and I can still hit the notes. I'm not a twee player - I'm big on melodies. I grew up with Hank Marvin, and I probably try to ape Hank Marvin in a way. I love Hank's abilities to play a melody.
He's brilliant, isn't he? From The Shadows.
Oh, an absolute genius that guy. He introduced me to being a lead guitarist, and I'm sure it was the same for Gary Moore, Eric Clapton and all them. They would have learnt Hank Marvin's solos, because The Shadows' instrumentals were awesome. I mean, "Wonderful Land" and all them songs. It just sent shivers up me when I first learnt to play, when I used to be a kid with a guitar and a little amp in my dad's front room. Listening to the radiogram, and you had to bloody keep picking the stylus up because as you were going through, you hadn't got the digital repeat function. You had to pick it up, and used to end up scratching the record. "Phwoot". "Oh, bloody 'ell. That's the solo coming up. I've just scratched it" (laughs). But I tell you, it was awesome listening. You see, in those days music was learnt by ears - it wasn't learnt academically. There's nothing wrong with learning to read, but it had much to do with feeling I think, with emotions. You had maybe a natural ability towards wanting to be in a band, wanting to play guitar. It had to come from inside, and it did with me.
My granddad was a classical pianist. I never met him, but his name was David, and I understand he was really good. I wish I had met him, but I think through my mom, music came into me and it came into me via the guitar, which was the preferred instrument of the day. I play bits of classical guitar as well, and I like the really odd jazzy bits, and I play bits of piano, so I can be multi-functional. Things were more individual in the sixties and seventies, and we hadn't got everybody cloning the same thing. There's nothing wrong with learning ideas, but I think the way we had to learn was from the greats really. We listened to their records, and we interpreted them in our own way.
To be honest, in Britain I think there's a lot of really good talent, but it's got to be found and nurtured, and there's got to be a shift in the music scene. I feel our music is everlasting, and helpful to young bands, who tell me frequently, from Oasis to James Blunt, and all sorts of people I've met. I mean, James Blunt did "Coz I Luv You" onstage when I watched him, and he was at the peak of his career. He was doing one of our songs at the Civic Hall in Wolverhampton, and I was in the audience. I thought "Oh, bloody hell". You wouldn't imagine him doing that, would ya? I just didn't realize that he would've listened to us, but he did, and I think because we're very British. As I say, the scene at the moment has loads of good stuff out there, but it's not being heard at the moment. To keep music alive, we need to look for those people out there who will make a difference. I don't know if you agree with that, but...
Yeah. The problem is that there's a lot of focus on these imports from America, if I'm being honest.
Yeah. Obviously, television's a bit strange these days, but I feel that if I get opportunities to find bands, I will. I mean, I like a lot of music that's come out. I like Coldplay, because in my inward self, I can understand why they're popular - I can just tell by listening to some of their songs. It just attracts me. There's something in it, and it's very good. I like the guys in Coldplay; they seem like a really nice bunch of chaps, and they work together as a unit. It's really good. I watched them making an album - I think they were doing something with (Brian) Eno (who produced June 2008's 'Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends'). Anyway, I listened to them, and watched them talking.
Take That have got elements of being a good bunch of blokes. I didn't see their concert at the 02, but I bought the DVD, and I was very impressed. I mean, they're very talented, and Gary Barlow's a great writer. He wrote a song for Shirley Bassey, actually. So.. he is certainly in my book anyway - he's probably up there with McCartney and all them in his writing abilities. There is really good material there. Oasis I thought was a good concept. Noel Gallagher and.. really good. Noel has particularly mentioned us. Funnily enough, he picks on a song which we're thinking of doing live actually - a song called "How Does It Feel?", which was from a film called 'Slade In Flame' (1975). It was nice of him to pick on it, 'cos it's got some of Nod's best lyrics. When you listen to it now, it sounds like it's now all the time, like with what's going on in the world. It's funny how some songs never sound dated, and just sound like you could've written them now.
Over the years between us we've probably written... certainly Nod and Jim being the prolific writers. We all wrote at first, but Nod and Jim came up with some great material which I'm very pleased that was in my life. I'm very fond of them, and our chemistry together is a unique experience, almost like being in a marriage (laughs). A band is like a marriage, and you've got to go through the hard times together. We went through a lot of difficult times, but came back again with more success through perseverance really, and sticking together. The great thing is if you're a great live act, you've always got a chance.
"When you're doing something, you don't realize the effect it has on people."
We recorded that in New York. I don't know if you know the story, but Jim's grandmother said "Nobody writes Christmas songs anymore", because it was all "Jingle Bells" and Bing Crosby. Nod wrote a song about riding a rocking chair (entitled "Buy Me A Rocking Chair"), and he wrote it in our early days before our success. Jim thought about what his grandmother said, and he was in the shower. He came up with a verse, and remembered that Nod had this melody - they put the two pieces together. Nod said "Well, let's make this a Christmas song", and he went off and had a few bevvies down at his dad's house, something like that. When he was merry, he was thinking of what everybody was doing. Now this was 1973, and Britain was in the midst of a lot of strikes in 1973. It was a very difficult time for the public; there were a lot of power cuts, and all sorts of things going on.
We recorded the song in New York in the summer, and we looked like a bunch of nutcases singing "Merry Christmas" in the corridors of Record Plant Studios, where John Lennon used to record. It was an office block, and the Americans used to come in in the morning. We were there singing "Merry Christmas", and they thought we were a bunch of loony British. "Oh my God. What's this noise?" (imitates New York accent). They couldn't believe it. They'd gone to work with their suits on, and we were recording "Merry Xmas Everybody". We couldn't have conceived at that time, in the summer, that this would be such a huge phenomenon. Looking at it now in a somewhat more wise way after the event, I think when it came out in December 1973, "Merry Xmas Everybody" had a certain sound about it. It wasn't a jingle bells record. The song didn't have sleigh bells and all that kind of thing on it, but just talked about working people getting together, and granny twisting, and rocking 'n' rolling, and just what people were doing at Christmas. It captured that.
When it came out, Chas Chandler rung me up and said "Are you sitting down man?". I said "What do you mean?". He said "You've just shipped a quarter of a million records". In just one day, though - one day - quarter of a million records went out. It was in such demand that Polydor I believe ran out of records, and they had to import from France. They had to import records to keep up the demand. It was just breathtaking what was going on. Although we had had a lot of number ones, this was awesome this thing. This was a being taking on its own meaning, and it was brilliant. The thing about Christmas is you're everybody's best mate when that comes out (laughs). I walk around the shops, and even in Truro where I was knocking around today, everybody was on about it. It's great to be talked about than not.
To be honest with you, we've had a lot of great songs that we've recorded to me. Not all of them have been hits, but we've always written good material. We've had a lot of hit number ones, and good songs like "Far, Far Away" which was very popular abroad - they weren't number one, but they were very popular. The Christmas one is on its own. It's a joy. If you saw the faces of the people last night that we played to, I think that speaks volumes. You play the Christmas song at the end, and no act can top it - it's just awesome. I said last night that we got this Christmas album out. It's great, because the audience will all go out and buy it because it's Christmas. Some say that Christmas isn't Christmas without Slade.
Yeah, definitely. Thanks for the interview Dave - it's much appreciated.
Thank you very much Robert.
All the best, and take care.
Bye.
Bye.
Interview by Robert Gray
Ultimate-Guitar.Com © 2009
Good interview 
definitely one of the best glam bands ever...and their cover of Hi Ho Silver Lining is just golden!
