Monday 12 July Tuesday 13 July Wednesday 14 July Thursday 15 July Friday 16 July Saturday 17 July Sunday 18 July Monday 19 July Tuesday 20 July Wednesday 21 July Thursday 22 July Friday 23 July Saturday 24 July Sunday 25 July Monday 26 July Tuesday 27 July Wednesday 28 July Thursday 29 July Friday 30 July Saturday 31 July Sunday 1 August Monday 2 August Tuesday 3 August Wednesday 4 August Thursday 5 August Friday 6 August Saturday 7 August Sunday 8 August Monday 9 August Tuesday 10 August Wednesday 11 August Thursday 12 August Friday 13 August Saturday 14 August Sunday 15 August Monday 16 August Tuesday 17 August Wednesday 18 August Thursday 19 August Friday 20 August Saturday 21 August Sunday 22 August Monday 23 August Tuesday 24 August Wednesday 25 August Thursday 26 August Friday 27 August Saturday 28 August Sunday 29 August Monday 30 August Tuesday 31 August Wednesday 1 September Thursday 2 September Friday 3 September Saturday 4 September Sunday 5 September Monday 6 September Tuesday 7 September Wednesday 8 September Thursday 9 September Friday 10 September Saturday 11 September Sunday 12 September Monday 13 September Tuesday 14 September Wednesday 15 September Thursday 16 September Friday 17 September Saturday 18 September Sunday 19 September Monday 20 September Tuesday 21 September Wednesday 22 September Thursday 23 September Friday 24 September Saturday 25 September Sunday 26 September Monday 27 September Tuesday 28 September Wednesday 29 September Thursday 30 September Friday 1 October Saturday 2 October Sunday 3 October Monday 4 October Tuesday 5 October Wednesday 6 October Thursday 7 October Friday 8 October Saturday 9 October Sunday 10 October Monday 11 October Tuesday 12 October Wednesday 13 October Thursday 14 October Friday 15 October Saturday 16 October Sunday 17 October Monday 18 October Tuesday 19 October Wednesday 20 October Thursday 21 October Friday 22 October Saturday 23 October Sunday 24 October Monday 25 October Tuesday 26 October Wednesday 27 October Thursday 28 October Friday 29 October Saturday 30 October He was famous for his pudding-basin fringe, glittering face, gold capes, mighty stacks disguising his diddy, 5ft 4in stature and ray-gun-shaped guitar called Super Yob.
In his heyday, he drove a silver Jensen Interceptor and a gold Rolls-Royce with the number plate Yob 1. He may not have sung the songs, but Hill was very much front of house as Slade became huge in the s — six No 1s, most of the titles deliberately misspelt; the first band to have three singles enter the charts at the top spot Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me, Cum on Feel the Noize and Merry Xmas Everybody ; more than 20 Top 30 hits. They were as famous for their inane feelgood lyrics as their raucous pop-rock.
Hill, 75 next month, is still as Dave Hillish as you could hope for: thick Black Country twang, buck-toothed, grinning, garrulous, long hair covering his ears, though the fringe has receded into yesteryear. He Zooms from the studio at his Wolverhampton home. I can see eight guitars on the wall and a keyboard to his side. This is where he has been creating throughout the pandemic.
I show him an old, faded photo: me at the age of nine, with two framed pictures of Slade behind me. For many people in their 50s, Slade were the band. Noel Gallagher is a huge fan. The Beatles? Well they were undeniably great … but Slade? The Slade boys were quite different from their uncouth image. Holder and Lea were upwardly mobile working-class boys, while Hill had a fascinating background.
Each one of us had mums and dads who stayed together. At the age of 17, Dorothy became pregnant, and had a girl called Jean. He says that his mother never overcame the shame of having Jean out of wedlock, had severe depression, spent time in psychiatric hospitals and died in her 60s.
After her death, Hill discovered she had kept another secret. He grins. Hill learned to play guitar at 13, dossed at school, and at 15 got an office job at Tarmac that he hated. A couple of years later, he left to become a professional musician, and played with Powell in a band called the Vendors.
It was when they discovered glam that things really took off. But this was glam with a difference — working-class, cloth-capped glam. Why does Hill think they became so big? He says they were the perfect contrast to what had just gone before — the introspective, dark end to the 60s.
Slade were loud, extroverted and happy. Was this his happiest time in Slade? No, he says. It is a learning curve of coping. His best memories go back to the beginning: his last days at Tarmac and first as a professional musician. I had a complex about the size of my ears. So when the Beatles made it, I felt confident that I could grow my hair, and suddenly you felt more attractive. Girls noticed you. I was a little bit odd at school.
I was shy, believe it or not. My sister said I was a loner. Well, he says, he was a decent guitarist, but the unique thing was his personality. In , they tried to break the US. Their record label, Polydor, thought it was inevitable — after all, they were the biggest band in the UK. They did have their fans, though. Bruce Springsteen turned up at one of their shows and tried to meet them backstage, Hill says.
When they returned in , Britain had moved on.
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