Here comes the Christmas cash-in for 2009:

Don't forget to buy this new compilation to keep poor old Noddy Holder and Jim Lea
from freezing to death in their pokey little council flats this credit-crunch Christmas.

Ah, yes..... Slade... We remember them well....

Hundreds of sweaty nights with huge legions of fans having their eardrums pummelled into submission in a seemingly never-ending series of concert halls all over the world, from Wolverhampton to Wyoming. Nights of cheering at the TV as they took the number one spot on Top Of The Pops from Rod Stewart and his ilk and cheerfully kept it for the next few weeks..

The noize, the clothes, the noizy clothes in particular! The comical fringe, the big grin and the superyob guitar. The other one with daft clothes but with the incredible voice that could curdle milk at 25 yards, coming from this great big hole six inches under a mirrored top hat... The serious one who never smiled, except on stage, when he turned into some sort of demented furious berserker, playing the loudest bass guitar known to man, or inflicting unthought of cruelty on a poor defenceless violin - of all things, played behind his back, through his legs and everywhere.. And it's impossible to forget the one at the back, chewing gum endlessly, hidden behind his huge set of drums; the man who made such a great thunderous noize on a record called 'We'll bring the house down' that it sounded like five drummers all going at it at once.

They influenced groups ranging from Geordie to Oasis and from Cheap Trick through to Nirvana to Kiss.
They all remembered Slade too.