Slade guitarist Dave Hill has joined forces with former bandmate Noddy Holder’s son on his debut solo album.
The 79-year-old glam rock legend is gearing up to release the LP Dirtyfoot Lane – named after a place in his hometown of Wolverhampton.
Dave’s best friend Noddy – who left Slade in 1992 after 26 years fronting the band – was the one who suggested his son Django Holder produce the record, which is autobiographical.
The guitarist has also paid tribute to his original Slade bandmates – singer Noddy, 79, bassist Jim Lea, 76, and drummer Don Powell, 79 – on a track on the LP.
In an interview with Contact Music, Dave spilled: “I’ve done a solo album, a very important solo album.
“It’s true stories, slightly country, not Slade, but it has rock in there. There’s songs written about my mother, I’ve written a song for Slade. It’s a thank you to Noddy, Jim and Don, it’s called Thanks For The Good Times, it’s a great song.
“Noddy Holder’s son, Django Holder, produces the album. He’s 30 years of age, he’s a fantastic guy, very calm, very talented. Noddy recommended him, so I thought, ‘I’m going to try him.’ He was just great to be with.
“The album is called Dirtyfoot Lane. That’s a real place, I use to take my kids down and they used to play in haystacks. I’ve also written a song called Dirtyfoot Lane, it has a chorus like Paul McCartney’s Mull of Kintyre.
“The songs I’ve been writing for quite some time, the influences are more now. Django is brilliant at making spaces in music, he’s very clever of making the song sound interesting.
“I’m really happy with it, I feel there’s only one person you’ve got to please now and that’s me. My kids have heard one or two songs. It’s quite an original album. It’s almost like you’re reading a book in music. You hear little shades in it. My guitar is very prominent on it, Noddy said it must be. Nod said, ‘People can debate your clothes but they need to hear your guitar playing now.’ Noddy really encouraged me to do this album because it’s time for me to prove something to myself, which is that I can write songs. I feel I’m good at it. It took some time.
“It’s an album of memories, but I feel this album will appeal to a lot of people – not just Slade fans but a lot of others. There’s one song which is about a troubled person, a suicide, I don’t mention the name. I tell that story and it’s got an eerie sound to it. It’s even a bit like a James Bond theme – it’s like nothing you would imagine me doing.
“It will be a surprise because nobody knows my voice, it’s not like I’m great singer, but there are a lot of singers who are not great but they are interpreters and they can deliver a song. There’s a lot of that in country music, people like Johnny Cash. Sometimes it’s not all about a great voice, it’s about what you’re talking about.
“There are two or three rock songs and I got my bass player to sing them because he’s singing the Slade songs anyway. He can handle them.”
Dave Hill’s Slade are currently on a UK tour playing all of the band’s biggest hits, including the 1973 festive smash Merry Christmas Everybody.
Although the run of concerts has been billed as The Final Tour, Dave has assured fans that he is not retiring from performing live, he just wants to scale back the volume of dates.
Dave – who is joined in the group by John Berry on lead vocals and bass, Russell Keefe on keyboard and vocals and Alex Bines on drums – said: “Things get interpreted differently … I’m not going to do a back-to-back tour in the UK at Christmas. What I’m going to do is a couple of special gigs, slightly bigger.
“I tell the audience I’m not retiring, big claps!
“I’m just changing how I do the Christmas shows. I did three shows at the beginning of this tour and I was really knackered at the end of the first show, it was a fantastic gig in Wales.”
For more information and to buy tickets for Dave Hill’s Slade shows, head to ticketmaster.co.uk.
Slade Live Dates:
DECEMBER:
10 – Picturedrome, Holmfirth
12 – O2 Academy, Liverpool
14 – O2 Academy, Bournemouth
16 – O2 Academy, Oxford
17 – O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London
19 – O2 City Hall, Newcastle
20 – O2 Academy2, Birmingham
22 – O2 Ritz, Manchester