Slade was one of the very biggest bands of the 70’s and to people of a certain age and younger fans all over the globe their hit singles are standards that have more than stood the test of time. Whether you grew up on Top of the Pops or came to the band via the bands they in turn influenced it’s hard to underestimate the significance of the band from the West Midlands.
Their grip on the charts in the UK was incomparable in a decade brimming with great sounds – notching up 17 consecutive top 20 hits. Their Christmas single ‘Merry X-Mas Everybody’ is still one of the very biggest selling UK singles of all time and decades later Slade’s single sales are staggering. Now all of those hits are collected together on ‘Cum On Feel The Hitz’ and of course they’re back in the Top 10 again.
When I was asked if I wanted to talk to Slade I instantly knew who I wanted to talk to – Jim Lea the man behind it all, and the man who gave me so many great childhood memories. They say never meet your heroes because they can never live up to your expectations. Over an hour later we were still chatting, so let’s put that tired old cliche to bed… So here’s some yarns about the days of yore, some old for sure but with new details I must admit I’d never heard before. There’s the first song Jim ever wrote, meetings with Bowie and Cat Stevens and so many more stories. Honestly I could have chatted all day…
Mark: Hello, is that Jim?
Jim: It is Jim.
Mark: Thank you so much for talking to The Rockpit. How are you today?
Jim: Well for someone in the music industry it’s tough, but I’m here! (laughs)
Mark: It’s an early one for you?
Jim: It is! You’re going to have to give me a bit of latitude here and there because I’m not quite awake! (laughs) But I’ll be OK!
Mark: Some strange things have happened in the lead up to us talking, a friend in Tasmania who is a massive Slade fan got in touch for the first time in years and another old school friend got in touch too. Many years ago when I started Grammar School there was a kid in the Upper Sixth who whenever he saw me he kept calling me ‘Jim’ and I had absolutely no idea why, and it took me a few weeks to pluck up the courage to ask him why and he told me that I looked exactly like a young Jim Lea out of Slade!
Jim: That was in England?
Mark: It was. And that was what prompted me to go out and buy my first Slade album, I’d of course heard the singles, seen you on Top of the Pops and you were already very much a part of my childhood, But that was the day I became a real fan.
Jim: I’ll have to thank him! (laughs)
Mark: Let’s start at the beginning. Take us all the way back if you can to that very first audition for the N’Betweens the band that became Slade?
At this point the phone went silent for a few minutes, Jim had disconnected the call. As an interviewer of course at this point it’s when you start to wonder if you may have asked a question so soon in the interview that has completely lost the interest of the interviewee! Thankfully Jim is soon back on the line.
Jim: Ahh! There you are!
Mark: Technology is conspiring against us!
Jim: Tell me about it! I hate it, I really do!
Mark: It gets worse the older we get!
Jim: It does! I’m 71 this year, the rest of the band are 74 the same age as Donald Trump!
Mark: (laughs)
Jim: (laughs)
Mark: That’s an interesting thought! (laughs) If only Mr. Trump had joined a band.
Jim: (laughs)
Mark: Lets take it all the way back and that first audition. I must admit one of the things that always fascinated me about early Slade was your sound, it always struck me that you had a guitar player’s approach to the bass?
Jim: That’s exactly right, yeah. The problem that I had at that time was (a) I wasn’t fully grown, and (b) I looked like a child. So being small and playing a bass I couldn’t get in to see any bands play in any pubs. You know kids couldn’t go into places where they sold alcohol so that was very difficult for me. So I was self-taught and I just developed that style because I didn’t have any reference point. So when I did the audition I don’t think they knew what they were looking at! (laughs) It was all very fast and I just thought “Well I’m not going to just plonk along like all the other bands.” So that’s what I did, I played my way and that’s why I think I got the job really, I just wasn’t like anyone else. Being self-taught I just got on with it, you know.
Mark: And you obviously impressed all concerned and I guess the rest is history. Let’s fast forward a bit now. What were your first impressions of meeting someone like Chas Chandler?
Jim: Chas? Well it was about 1970, we’d been together about 5 years and the Record Company which was Fontana at the time wanted us to have a London management. So they asked John Gunnell, who was the brother of Rik Gunnell, they owned clubs in London. So they said Rik is going to come and see you with a range of songs for you to play in a club called the Bag O’ Nails. That was a place where The Beatles used to go and the Stones, all the bands used to hang out there. So anyway we were playing there knowing that John Gunnell was coming to see us. So the DJ came over and said “Guys, guys can you take a break?” And he said to me “Jim there’s somebody who wants to talk to you at the back of the club, so can you guys give it 20 minutes?” So I went over, and this is the 1970’s when light in clubs was pretty scant, there wasn’t much of it, and there was this chap talking to me, we were all sat down on low stools, and Chas is a very tall guy, but I didn’t know who he was. And he was asking me all these questions and I said “Are you John Gunnell?” and he said, “No, no I’m not John Gunnell – this is John Gunnell” and I turned to him and just said “Hello” I mean I was terrified! Then he introduced me around “That’s John’s wife, and this is my wife Lotta, and my name is Chas Chandler.” He told me that he’d been managing and producing Jimi Hendrix, but that had seemed to have come to nothing now so he was looking for a new band. Then he said ‘Can I ask you some questions?” and I was there for a long time. And when he told me he was Chas Chandler I didn’t know what to think because I could hardly see him in the murky lights. Then he started asking me all kinds of questions: “How many gigs did we do?”, “How long had we been together?”
Mark: You got a good grilling!
Jim: I was so nervous. The last time I ever spoke to Chas he wasn’t managing us anymore and I was in a recording studio and he was in an office upstairs and he came down and said “Jim do you fancy having something to eat?” So I sad “Yeah OK” so we went and got something to eat and I asked him “Why did you sign us? What was it” And he said “When I came down the stairs”, it was a spiral staircase, metal, and he said “When I came down the stairs I heard this track playing and I turned to John Gunnell and said, “Gosh this is a great cover version of this track.” And he came down and it was us playing. So he said “So I was sold on you before I even saw you.” He thought we were the greatest he really did. So I said so what did it for you? We were just playing, we didn’t know you were there. We knew that John was coming but not Chas. Well he said “Well first of all Dave stuck out, I thought there’s someone with a personality, he’s obviously trying to get his face into the camera as it were.” (laughs). Even when there was no camera there Dave was like that! Then he concentrated on Don, then he concentrated on Nod, and then he said “But I never took any notice of you at first, then when I looked, I spent all the rest of the time watching you.”
Jim: He said “I’d never seen anything like it, you were nothing like anything I’d ever seen before” And then he said “Hang on, this is the guy who’s making everything work” and I said “All right, there you go”. Then he told me he was always worried that “you guys were gonna make it and when you did…” In those days you’d go to clubs and whatever, and you’d meet other bands and they’d ask you to go and play on a session and use that to woo you away. He told me he was always terrified of that. So he said that’s why you didn’t do interviews, but I was very shy then anyway, but he said “I didn’t want you to do interviews and get ‘full of yourself.’ But to be honest I wasn’t a ‘Full of myself” type person. And he said “So when you had your first number one I put Nod’s name first and yours second” and I went mad when he told me that! But he said the record was being pressed and it was too late, and he apologised to me for that.
Mark: I always remember reading about why ‘When the Lights Were Out’ wasn’t released as a single (except in the US) I think Chas had a hand in that too? He was worried that with you singing if it was a hit that you might be tempted away?
Jim: You’re exactly right. He wanted ‘Everyday’ to be the record after ‘Merry Christmas.’ So we had a big argument on a plane, I think we were going to Los Angeles. We were travelling ‘first class’ on the Jumbo Jets of those days there was a restaurant but it wasn’t somewhere you could stand up, it was just a little bump for you to put your head in, there was nothing luxurious about it. So everybody was huddled together, Chas was there, and I’d been arguing with him. I wanted ‘When the Lights Were Out’, I thought it would have been a good single. So I sat on the next table and there was this sort of raggedy looking bloke, he was a good-looking bloke, and he started to talk to me. So he said “What’s your name? Are you guys a band?” I said “Yeah”, and he said “What’s the band” so I said “Slade.” So he said “I’ve heard of Slade” then he said “I’m a musician” and I said “Oh yeah? Are you in a band?” and he said “No” then he said what his proper name was, but added “But most people know me as Cat Stevens.”
Mark: (laughs)
Jim: So I was talking to Cat Stevens. (laughs) Chas and I had been having this argument and Cat had been listening! (laughs) And so he said “I’ll have to check your music out, I’ve heard a lot about you and I know you’re quite successful” So he asked me what I played and I told him I was the bass-player but that I played piano and violin and did the arranging. And he said “Oh right you’re the bass-player, everybody says you’re the brains” (laughs) But I didn’t like that, I didn’t like being picked out. So Chas was wrong about that, you know I was trying to suppress myself never mind about him. And so at this meal we had he said “I always felt you’d leave the band and you’d go and play with Eric Clapton or someone.” So I told him “No I’d never do that” and he asked me why? And I said “Because I’m loyal. That’s why.” And he said “I never thought of that.” And then he apologised to me for sort of keeping me out of things like interviews, he apologised profusely. He said “I shouldn’t have done that.” And it was his wife Lotta who told him. It wasn’t really known that I was the musician of the band, it was all kept under wraps.
Mark: (laughs)
Jim: I bet you wish you’d never asked that now! (laughs)
Mark: I think it’s so interesting how it all worked behind the scenes and how people assume things and let it drive their decisions. I must admit I tried to play bass largely because of you but I was never really a natural musician at all, but it always struck me that and the writing especially always came very naturally to you?
Jim: Yeah, it just clicked. It just did. I was writing with Don at first, but Don couldn’t sing, he wasn’t tone-deaf but he’d just (Jim does an impression of Don singing then laughs) – and I’d just say “I can’t follow that Don!” (laughs) So I’d just sing something and he’d have the lyrics, he was so fast at doing the lyrics and that always came first. He’d come to my house and we’d write. Then when we had our first ‘hit’ – ‘Get Down and Get With It’ which got to about number 16 in England, we needed another song. So Chas rang me up and said “How’s the next song coming on Jim?” and I said “Oh I’ve not really been writing, we’ve been doing too many gigs.” He gave me the phone as well. The management could only give one member of the band a phone and he chose me. So he was always ringing me and asking how the writing was going, how the gigs were going. And I’d say “The gigs always go great” It was always the same – we always went down really well. So that day he called after that first hit he said “I’ve been thinking Jim, we need a follow up to ‘Get Down and Get With It.’ I was thinking ‘Let the Good Times Roll’,” (which was on the album ‘Slayed’) “would be a good one?” and I said “No, no, we don’t want to do that” I said “I’ve got the follow up.” And he said “You’ve got the follow up? Well what’s it like?” I said “Well it’s sort of like… It’s got a violin in it!” and he said “A violin!?” (laughs) He said “You can’t have a violin in a rock band!” (laughs)
Mark: (laughs)
Jim: But I said “No, really, Nod and I used to jam Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt” Do you know them?
Mark: I do, of course.
Jim: So I’d got this melody and I thought about when we used to tune up and Nod and I would play about when I was tuning the violin in the dressing room before we went on the play. So I just went over to Nod’s as we didn’t all have phones in those days. So I got in my little car and I drove over to his house, and he opened the door and said “What are you doing here?” and I said “I’ve come to write a song.”
Jim: Nod said, “But you write with Don” and I said “No, this song has to be written with you because I need that Stephane Grappelli-Django Reinhardt thing.” I had my wife’s old beaten up guitar because we had no money, and I’d got my violin. And I went in there and I played it to him and then he added some bits –he came up with the ‘Because I Love You’ idea and it was all done really quickly. And I thought hang on that was easy! (laughs) So when it got to number one, it went up the charts incrementally starting at the bottom, then into the Top 20, then in the Top 10, then number one in England. After that I felt, well if that’s our first attempt I better keep doing that. I’ll write the melody, and I always had some ideas about how the lyrics should be. I loved the song “Hot Love’ you know (Jim sings the tune) you know that sexy thing that Bolan had! And so I said to Nod “This is what I want” and he did it. So that was that, and after that I would go to Nod with a tune and some lyrics and in the end I’d just play the song to him, he’d put it on a tape recorder and then I would just leave him to it to fill in the bits that were missing. And that’s how it went from then.
Mark: It’s brilliant, it must have been an incredible feeling especially to have that first number one? How did it feel?
Jim: Erm, well even with ‘Get Down and Get With It’ as I was walking down the road where I lived at the time I noticed people smiling at me as they were walking past me the other way. And I said to the others in the car “Have you noticed that people are smiling at you all the time?” I didn’t know if they were walking down the street and just smiling, or they were smiling at me? So I asked if anybody else had noticed that. And nobody said anything and then Don said “I know what you mean, yeah” and then the other two agreed. So I said to them “Look, if we start to have other hits what we ought to do is make sure that none of us get egos and we don’t start getting bigger than our boots.” So I said “Can we make a deal on that in this car now that all four of us will keep our feet on the ground?” And I asked them each one after the other. “Don?” he said “Yeah I think you’re right”; and then I asked Nod and he said “OK” and then Dave (laughs)…
Mark: (laughs)
Jim: (laughing) Dave just said “Well I’ll just act how I want to act!” So I said “OK, well, look let’s put a little bit on the end, can we agree that if any of us is doing the ‘big number’ with a big ego and throwing his weight around the other three just say, ‘Hey, stop it, you’re not gonna get away with that’” so we agreed on that. And that’s how that was. But it was very strange the first number one. I mean everything changed. We knocked ‘Maggie May’ off number one (laughs) I love that record! I felt so sorry it knocked it off because it’s great! But I think ‘Maggie May’ had been number one for four or five weeks and we ended up being number one for four weeks. But it was an amazing feeling and I was very happy, but I didn’t want to smile, I didn’t want to be smiling about it. You know, we had to get the next song, so I concentrated on writing the next song and the next song, and the next song and the next one. So you quickly forgot about all that and it became a pressure once you’d have a number one. You can’t go any higher. So Chas would always be on the phone, you know, asking how the writing was going. But you didn’t have to just come up with the next single it was also B-Sides, albums, and if you talk to anyone who has had a load of number ones they always say the same thing. The pressure is terrible.
Mark: It must have been.
Jim: It really is hard.
Mark: Do you think the kind of person you were though helped you in a way, keeping you grounded? I can imagine the temptations and the excess of being such a high profile band much have been huge, but you always seemed so incredibly down to earth? Like the anchor?
Jim: Yeah, I was very grounded. Yeah I was. Because I was doing the writing and now Nod was in on that now filling the lyrics in that was at least a bit of help. But I think we all were. You know that chat we had in the car? That sort of stuck so there was only Dave (laughs) who would be going off on one!
Mark: (laughs)
Jim: You can imagine can’t you?!
Mark: I can (laughs).
Jim: (laughing) He wanted an entourage you know! (laughs) But everybody knew that as a unit we were like brothers, we were stuck together, you couldn’t get a playing card in-between the members of the band. It was a band. And then when we weren’t with the others we all just did our own thing, obviously we had girlfriends and all that. So I think we were all grounded, even Dave I think. As soon as he started I’d say “What the bloody hell are you doing?” I’d turned into my Dad! (laughs) And he realised when he was being out of line and we’d just carry on, you know. But to people I just think we were ‘the lads’ not like the Beatles who were all stars, you know. We were more of a band I think. And that’s how it went along.
Mark: So was Noddy a good sounding board for you? Did you have that confidence in what you had written to know it would be a hit, or was it good to have Noddy there to say “Oh yes Jim that’s a good one?”
Jim: No that never happened. I’d just write the songs and take them to Nod, we didn’t talk about them being singles or anything. And it was Chas who used to say “Oh yes I think that could be a single” He picked a few that I didn’t think had a chance but they went to number one, so it counted! (laughs) So it worked!
Mark: So where did the characteristic ‘misspellings’ come from? My English teacher always used to get into a hot sweat when he saw one!
Jim: (laughing) Yeah! That started with ‘Coz I Luv You.’ We started off with the word ‘Because’ and although it was good it sounded a bit ‘namby-pamby’ so we said to Chas if we could have some ‘boot stamping’ like we did on ‘Get Down and Get With It’ and some clapping, and make an atmosphere. So we had hand-clapping in the beginning that came in with the guitar, but then while we were doing it I said to Chas. “You know ‘Because I Love you’ it just sounds so ‘namby-pamby’ so I just said what if we called it ‘’Cause I Love You’ and he said “Now that’s an idea.” There was another band that had some sort of funny spelling at the time, I can’t remember who it was now. But then I said what if we spell it the way we speak so not ’Cause I Love You’ but ‘Coz’ ‘I’ ‘Luv’ ‘You’ (Jim spells it out) in that Brummy accent. And that’s how that happened so when we had the next record ‘Look What You Done’ Chas said shall we miss-spell it again? And we just carried on doing it.
Mark: It’s great, I love that about the band but what I love more is the fact that no one wrote a song for audience participation as good as you did. It’s that whole ‘call and response’ thing that I guess goes all the way back to Gospel music. How important was that to you? To have something for the fans to really sing along to?
Jim: Yeah, I know what you mean, it was important and everybody does it now. George Ezra has an album full of it now. (Jim sings a snatch and laughs) I just wanted to do that from the beginning where everything was sung along with the audience. But I never had the guts to just really go for it. When we did ‘Cum on Feel the Noize’ I was cleaning my car and the Beatles came on, it was ‘She Loves You’ I think, obviously not in 1963, this was in the 70’s on an old chart show or something. I love those shows where they pick a year and play songs from it, I find them really illuminating. I love when they do a chart rundown! But I’ll get back to that.
Jim: It’s funny when you were talking about number ones before, because as you know I had the phone and the others used to go to a phone box, you know the old red phone boxes, and they’d ring me. And my mum who didn’t want me to join the band at all, I’d be in bed because we’d been playing the night before and I’d hear her on the phone saying “Ooh yes, ooh yes” and I knew it was the office ringing, and then there’d be an “Ooooohh’ (Jim laughs at his impression). Then I’d hear her put the phone down and she’d shout up the stairs “Jim you’re number one!” (laughs)
Mark: (laughs) Classic! Then the guys would crowd into the phone box and ring you?
Jim: Yeah then they’d all ring me, and I’d say “Yeah, we’re number one” They thought I was having them on that first time, and then we were number one again and again and again. But when I first said it they all thought I was just messing about. But I wasn’t really a joker at all so I didn’t know why they thought that. But they’d say “Are you sure!?” But ‘Take Me Bak ‘Ome’ for example was only number one for a week, we’d just done this Festival (the Great Western Festival near Lincoln) and it just made it take off. And there were records like that, but then I think when we got round to ‘Mama Weer All Crazee’ back to what you were saying before, I knew that was going to be a big hit. I took that one over to Nod’s and we did the same thing again I had the (sings) “Don’t Stop Now, Come on” and I wanted “My, My” and Nod came up with “But Weer All Crazee Now” and that was that. It all seemed like ‘stir and drink’ you know.
Mark: And you’re back in the Top Ten now, I saw the video that you posted a couple of days ago. How’s that feel?
Jim: Well I’d feel a lot better about it (laughing) if I could have done the message to the fans first take! (laughs) I do believe it’s me that came up with the title ‘Cum On Feel The Hitz’ with a ‘Z’. I was looking at it and thinking “What’s it called again?!” But it was really funny you know, I just kept getting it wrong! It was like those programs like ‘Candid Camera’, or ‘It’ll Be Alright on the Night’ that sort of thing. In the end you just can’t stop laughing that’s the trouble! (laughs) I told them to leave the laughing on because that’s how it is. That’s what you get for not rehearsing! But being in the ‘Top Ten’, it got so that I wasn’t that elated about it back in the day, it got sort of normal, but you can’t keep getting to number one. I’ve spoken to people who have been in that position, you know big acts, and they’ve said you know its terrible pressure. But it didn’t seem like that with us, it was like being on a roller coaster. But then after ‘Merry Christmas’ and then there was the argument on the plane, back to the beginning of our conversation, with Cat Stevens listening to it all. With all the shouting and the screaming and Chas wanting ‘Everyday’. My wife wrote the verse to ‘Everyday’…
Mark: Oh wow.
Jim: Yeah, the lyrics and the melody. We were messing around at home and there were some friends of ours around the table, and they said “How do you write all these songs?” And I said “Well, anybody can do it really.” So I said “Let’s go round the table and just sing the first thing that comes into your head” and actually it wasn’t bad. They weren’t musicians or anything. So I said to Lou my wife, “Your turn” and she said “I’m not going to sing in here, let’s go in the other room and I’ll sing it to you” and she sang (Jim sings) “Everyday when I’m away I’m thinking of you, Everyone can carry on except for we two” – it just came out. And I said “Oh, that’s good. I’ll use that!” So after ‘Merry Christmas’ we were all scrambling for songs then. The record company and Chas always wanted product, product, you know, it was like ‘sausage machine, sausage machine!’, ‘keep going, keep going!’ So anyway, I was in the studio, Olympic Studios, and there was this bloke watching me, and he’d got some funny clothes on I’ll tell you. I could just feel him watching, you know and then he said “’Ere are you Jim Lea from Slade?” and I said “Yeah.” He said “I like your band man” and I didn’t look at him just nodded. And he said “My name’s David Bowie, do you fancy going for a cup of coffee downstairs?” and I said “No I’ve gotta write this song” and I was writing the “And you know that our love, and you know that I, and you know that our love won’t die” you know that bit?
Mark: Of course.
Jim: And I said “I’ve gotta do this. I can’t go.” And he said “Well everyone knows you’re a bit weird about talking to people.” (laughs) And I just said “Look I’ve gotta go.” and I picked up the guitar, put it under my arm and I walked off. We had the same promoter at the time, his name was Mel Bush, and Mel had told David Bowie about our band and me. And so I walked off and he shouted, just like a kid in the playground “Hey, Mel told me what you were like!” (laughs)
Mark: Ah Mr Bowie! To me Slade was the sound of the 70’s. We had The Beatles and The Stones in the 60’s but who would you pair Slade with in the 70’s?
Jim: Well the thing was… (at this point we’re interrupted by Jim’s other phone, he returns a minute later) Sorry about that someone chasing me for money! (laughs) See this is what always happened. Cliff and The Shadows, you wouldn’t have known about them would you?
Mark: Oh yes, from my mum especially. Hank lives over here in Perth too.
Jim: Have you ever spoken to him?
Mark: Just the once, very briefly.
Jim: He’s a nice bloke isn’t he?
Mark: He is.
Jim: Well if you see him again tell him you’ve been talking to Jim Lea from Slade and tell him “I’m sure you know this but you made thousands of people in the UK pick up guitars.” And every time I do one of these ‘favourite songs’ radio shows, you know the ones the songs that made you who you are. Well I always have ‘Apache’ because that’s the song that made me pick up a guitar. People always talk about gifts and talent and all that and so on and so forth, but it isn’t a case that you have a talent or a gift, at least in my case – it’s more ‘the gift has me.’ When I heard ‘Apache’ for the first time in my life I can’t tell you the impact. A finger came down from above and said ‘You!’ and I could not stop it, I just went berserk and dove into guitars and music! I remember going with some kids who wanted to wag an afternoon off school, and I said “Why do you need me, I don’t want to wag school and get into any trouble?” And they said it was because I played the guitar. So we went into Birmingham and we were in this guitar shop where a lot of stuff used to ‘walk out’ on a Saturday.
Mark: (laughs)
Jim: There was this guy there who used to ‘police’ it, and there was nobody there because it was a Wednesday afternoon. And when he saw us he said “Hey, you boys! Put that guitar down! Put that guitar down!” And he came over just like some heavyweight school teacher! And he said “Can you play the guitar? If you can’t play the guitar you have to put it back right now!” So they pointed at me and said “Well he can play it” And I just managed to get out “Well I don’t really play” before one of them said “Here Y’Are Jim, you play.” And handed me the guitar. So I played and I was ever so nervous but I, you know, did whatever I could. It was a Blues thing and I played fast and hard, you know. And this guy just looked at me and said “How old are you?” and I said “I’m, err, fourteen.” He said “Fourteen?” he said “Son we’ve had them all in here, in this shop, everybody, The Moody Blues, Spencer Davis Group, everyone comes into this shop. But I’ve never seen anybody like you…You’ll be back!” (laughs)
Mark: (laughs) He knew he had a new customer!
Jim: I know! And when I got the job with the band I had this big Bill Wyman bass that was a bit too big for me really, but it had a thin neck so it was nice and comfy. But I went out and got a Gibson EB3, you know the model?
Mark: Yeah, a lovely bass.
Jim: Jack Bruce had one as well. So anyway there was a queue, but I got the bass in a polythene bag and he was filling in the things for what he’d just sold and he looked up and he just said “I’ve been waiting for you”
Mark: (laughs) That’s brilliant!
Jim: It was like the movies! (laughing) And he came to see Slade years later at Birmingham Town Hall and there was a sort of ‘meet and greet’ after the show where we were signing things for the fans and he came up and said “Do you remember me?” and I said “No I don’t” and he just said “Jones and Crossland” (the name of the now defunct store) I just laughed and said “Were you the guy that said put that guitar down?” He said “I’m glad you didn’t listen. That day when you came in you knocked my rocks off. I’d never seen anything like you, I thought this lad is gonna go places.” I always remember that, that’s a nice comforting story isn’t it? Going from nowhere to a God-like status (laughs) He said “You sounded like three people were playing at the same time!” (laughs)
Mark: One of the questions I always wanted to ask you is – can you remember the first song you ever wrote?
Jim: Oh that’s easy to answer that – “How Does it Feel” was the first song I ever wrote.
Mark: You’re kidding me, the very first song?
Jim: Yeah, but I didn’t know I was writing, I was just messing about on the piano. The piano we had at home all the black notes were broken off and other notes were all smashed off. My Dad said “There’s a bloke at work who said do you know anyone who wants a piano?” It was in an outside veranda, it was leaking in on the piano which was all beat in and horrible and out of tune, but it didn’t matter we got it. And I just started messing around on the piano but then I began to think I wonder how Paul McCartney writes songs? And then, and I told Paul McCartney this, and he was really chuffed. So I started coming up with this (Jim sings the notes to the refrain) – and I didn’t know I was writing I just told him “I just pretended that I was you!” And he said “That’s great Jim, I’m really chuffed!” (laughs)
Mark: (laughs)
Jim: He told me he’d spoken to John on the phone about Slade in America, “John’s aware of Slade” he said, and he told me John had said we sounded like The Beatles in the early years. He liked it. So think of all of these people who have tried to put us down and here’s Lennon and McCartney who like Slade! (laughs) But that was the first thing. But back again to Chas and these phone calls, he said “Jim, David Putnam, or Lord Putnam as he is now, he was producing the film (Slade in Flame)” and he said “Do you think you could write some music especially for the film, you know a sort of theme tune or something?” And I said “Oh, I don’t know, we have to make the Flame album and we’re doing this, that and the other, so I don’t know.” And then he rang me the next day and he said “Jim I’ve been thinking about this, maybe we’ll get somebody else to write something if you feel you haven’t got the time to do it?” So I said “Chas, it’s alright, I’ve got it.” he said “You’ve got it? How the heck did you do that?” I said “It’s something I wrote when I was a kid when I was just messing about on the piano.” And of course it’s regarded as probably the best track we ever recorded.
Mark: Is that your favourite though?
Jim: Erm, yeah. You know this guy Chris Evans?
Mark: The DJ?
Jim: Well he’s left the BBC now, and the day before he left he said, he always had these people around him who were laughing all the time, he said “We’ve decided to do a competition and it’s about ‘long single records’ – we’re not going to count ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ because that’s an obvious one, so that’s out of the picture. So we want people ringing in.” Then he played another song and said that they’d had a few calls about ‘long singles’ and he said “I think it’s gonna have to be ‘How Does It Feel’ by Slade. I loved that. I remember when I was teaching the others how to play it there was always another bit coming and Dave would say “I thought we’d finished! There’s more?” (laughs) “There’s more?” (Does a great Dave impression). So that’s how it finally came about, it was just in my head for years and years.
Mark: I heard or read somewhere once, talking of long songs that there was a 12 minute version of ‘Nobody’s Fool’ – was that ever recorded?
Jim: I really liked ‘Nobody’s Fool.’ We recorded that in America in the same Studio that we recorded ‘Merry Christmas’ and I was really hung up on it at the time, but I felt very uncomfortable in America, I didn’t like being there. To tell you the truth I’m just basically a home bird. I’m loyal. But with ‘Nobody’s Fool’ I had this idea of doing longer songs, I think it was something left over from the Prog Rock days – you know where you’d have an album with three tracks on one side and five on the other, or whatever. Or Deep Purple in Rock, where there was visually not much on it – three tracks on the A-Side and four on the other, but the music was great! You’d pick up the album and think seven songs is that it? But I liked longer songs so that’s where that came from.
Mark: I’ve been taking up so much of your time Jim, do we have any longer?
Jim: But we’ve only got up to ‘Nobody’s Fool!
Mark: (laughs) Oh mate, I could go on all day!
Jim: I’m the same, once I start telling the tale I keep telling the tale! (laughs) I did an interview yesterday for the BBC – they came and they filmed here, and they were here from about 12 O’clock to about 6 O’clock and my wife came in and said to the guy who was asking the questions “Have you got onto question two yet?”
Mark: (laughs)
Jim: (laughing) I can rattle there’s no doubt about it!
Mark: I’ll try and get a few quick ones in then if we can manage it! (laughs) So many questions to ask! Let’s have a few memories! There have been so many milestones throughout the story of Slade it’s hard to pick them, but as ‘live’ shows go let’s talk about two of the Festivals – Reading and Donington. I wish I’d been there! What are your memories of those two Festivals?
Jim: Well we never had any hits from 1977 to 1980. We did Reading in 1980 at short notice, we replaced Ozzy who wasn’t in Sabbath anymore and had joined up with Randy Rhoads and at the last minute it came out he was ill. I was actually in the office when Chas took the call from the agent. I heard Chas say (in a good Chandler voice) “Aye, Slade will go on any time of the day, no problem. Just get us on the bill, the later in the day the better.” So we got there and they wouldn’t let us in! (laughs)
Mark: (laughs)
Jim: Because we weren’t advertised we were just last minute replacements! Ozzy didn’t want to let down the show and I think it was Sharon who said ring Slade to the agent. But of course when we arrived there we weren’t on any of the posters, so nobody knew about it and we were just filling in the hole, you know. But they wouldn’t let us in, so me of all people, I just gave this guy on the gate a right rollicking. I said (adopting a stern voice) “Look, we are Slade, do you know that we are Slade? Look at us! We are Slade!” and we’d got our guitars and our gear and I pointed at them and said “We have come to play and if we don’t play there’s going to be a great big hole in this Festival, and it’ll be your fault!”
Mark: (laughing)
Jim: (laughing) And I added “So get out of the way.” and he did. And the others were all going “Jim you can’t talk to him like that.” (laughs) But as we were walking in, and there had been three years that were completely devoid of Slade, you know, we weren’t on TV or anything. So other bands as we were walking down past all the caravans back stage where everybody was getting changed to go on – they were all looking at us as if we were ghosts and smiling. And I thought “Hang on there’s a good vibe here” And Tommy Vance the DJ he came in and he said “Guys there’s a real buzz about you guys today, go and show them what you can do! I’ve never seen you live.” but he was a big fan Tommy Vance was. So we went on and well we stormed it, we absolutely stormed it!” And Donington was like that but it rained when we were on at Donington. And I don’t know if it was deliberate by AC/DC or not but we only got half of the PA on. There were 90,000 people there to see AC/DC they were the biggest Rock band in the world then.
Mark: And AC/DC were big Slade fans as well.
Jim: Yeah, absolutely. Jim sings “You shook me all night long” then “We get wild, wild, wild” (laughs)
Mark: Many bands of course made a career out of the Slade sound, I think we can both agree on that!
Jim: (laughs) Yeah. Just back to Reading, I remember at the end we started doing encores and we’d over-run our time so they’d normally kick you off. But they didn’t kick us off, well they couldn’t, there would have been a riot! So we went off and we came back on again for the last time and then Nod had a masterstroke. He just said to the audience “Any requests?” And they all shouted things, and I don’t know whether anyone shouted it or not, probably not, but he said “Merry Christmas? We ain’t playing that!” And so he said “You lot sing it.” And so there we were with the crowd singing ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’ to us. (laughs) Follow that!
Mark: (laughs)
Mark: Over the years you’ve produced some wonderful music, one of the very best live albums of all time, and the best Rock and Roll movie of all time, that was years ahead of its time. Is there anything else that you’ve still got to do? Anything on that list?
Jim: Yeah, I’ve spend a few years trying to do a one-man string orchestra. It’s never been done before and to try to get the sound, because one person is playing the same thing over and over again, it has intermodulatory distortion and also phasing. You know like on (Jim sings the opening of ‘Strawberry Fields’) – you get that sound. But with violins, dear, dear, dear, I tried everything! I mean I’ve got ‘something’ and I’ve played it to a few people, and they say that they’ve never heard anything like it in their lives, you know. And then when I tell them I was playing all the instruments, the violas, the violins, the cellos, the double-basses they just don’t believe it. But my brother keeps telling me “James” I’m James to the family, “James, you’ve got to do Rock and Roll!” (Laughs)
Mark: (laughs) He knows what he likes! You’ve earned the right to do what you like though I reckon. I really, really appreciate you taking the time to talk to us today Jim, you’ve been so generous with your time. If I can leave you with one final question that I ask everyone the first time I speak to them, and it’s a really easy one to end with.-
Jim: Yeah.
Mark: What is the meaning of life?
Jim: What is the meaning of life? If I was still at Psychology College I’d have come up with something straight away! (laughs) You know I did Psychology in my mid-life in my 40’s?
Mark: I did, yes. Something I’ve always been interested in.
Jim: What is the meaning of life? Have you seen the ‘Umbrella Academy’?
Mark: Yes I just finished the second season the other week.
Jim: You know the one who’s the guru, when his followers say to him “Oh great one tell us some words we can think about” – well “Don’t go chasing waterfalls, please stick to the valleys and the lakes that you’re used to.” (laughs) and they go “Great words!” (laughs)
Mark: (laughing) I like that on so many levels.
Jim: But I have thought about that because over time I’ve changed myself into a completely different person, and when I did I wasn’t shy anymore, and it’s just been great to have freed myself of myself. So you know, up until mid-life I was captured by myself and I was shy, and I knew I had to kick the bucket with this. So I went to Psychology College and did a degree there and when I came out, and it wasn’t just Psychology College, it was years afterwards as well. I spent a lot of time on my own, I deliberately spent time on my own. So I think to ‘find myself’, I think that’s been my meaning of life. And I’m so glad I did it.
Mark: That’s a wonderfully honest answer. And I’m not even going to close by asking you that question that I’m sure everyone has asked you in interviews over the years.
Jim: What you mean are we going to get back together again? (laughs)
Mark: (laughs) Yes I’m not going to ask you that.
Jim: (laughs) Well I don’t think Nod can sing like that anymore, he gets headaches and I think he thinks he’d burst some brain cells, or arteries, or veins in his brain. And what can you say to him? If he wants to stop he should stop. That’s what he said to me, but you know Nod, he’s liable to say anything. If you asked him that question he’d say “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” (laughs)
Mark: (laughs) It’s been a pleasure to speak to you Jim, it’s made my day.
Jim: A pleasure to speak to you too, you know your stuff. It’s great.
Mark: I hope one day you’ll give me enough notice to get back next time you play The Robin.
Jim: (laughs) The Robin’s in trouble at the moment
Mark: Like a lot of places at the moment sadly Jim.
Jim: Yeah everywhere, theatres, so many venues have closed down in the UK.
Mark: Let’s hope it all comes back soon. It’s been great to chat, and thanks again for being so generous with your time.
Jim: It’s been great talking to you. I hope to speak to you again.
Mark: Stay safe.
Cum on Feel the Hitz is available everywhere right now!
Thanks so much to Jim Lea for taking the time to talk to fans Downunder!
