SLADE - THROUGH THE YEARS
Slade, if you believed the 'official' line were formed in 1966 and played their first gig at Walsall Town Hall on April 1st of that year. A misnomer most often perpetrated by Noddy Holder himself, often with the added bonus of stock 'Rent - A - Nod' quote number 148 "...April Fools day and we've been playing the fool ever since.."
There is so much rubbish bandied around about the band and their timeline that a proper fully verified chronology of the group of men that made up the band needed to be researched and compiled in meticulous detail, especially as the band didn't just magically appear on April Fools day 1966 ready made for the journey that they would take on their way to conquering the world (well most of it) during their headiest days in the 70's.
Noddy Holder, Dave Hill, Don Powell and Jim Lea came together as a unit that were eventually managed and honed by manager Chas Chandler into one of the worlds premier rock bands, with a writing partership that was to rival Lennon & Mcartney for a few years as Lea and Holder churned out solid gold rock classics with almost monotonous regularity.
But they were not magically enticed out of a top hat in Walsall in 1966, their story starts naturally enough in the Black Country but three years earlier when the various members started their very seperate journey to stardom. There is only one source of information that is in depth and accurate enough to be included within the pages of Slade In England, and it is with some sense of honour that this research can be included here.
During a lifetime of following the band from their earliest days right the way through to the demise of this once great rock band, the Slade In England Official Slade historian Chris Selby has left no stone unturned in his quest for authenticity pertaining to one of the Black Countries most endearing exports. All of the information that you will find in this timeline has been researched and verified by Chris during his many years spent sitting in dusty archive rooms and tracking down the people who have been able to verify and supply the information from the earliest days. If in the unlikely event that you find an erroneous entry please let us know here at Slade In England, additionally, if you find there are gaps in the chronology that you can fill in please don't hesitate to let us know, your memories or even photograpahs and newspaper clippings may well be the missing piece in a bigger puzzle and all information will be welcomed.
My thanks, and indeed all fans should be thanking Chris for his dedication to the history of the band and the veracity of his work.