Slade
He originally played with drummer Don Powell in a band called The Vendors. The Vendors changed their name to The 'N Betweens, met bass player Jimmy Lea and singer Noddy Holder, whereafter Slade was born.
Even though Hill is left-handed, he played and still plays guitar right-handed. Hill's best known guitar was the "John Birch Superyob" that was built in 1973. The guitar was used by Madness guitarist Chris Foreman in the video for Madness' song "Shut Up" and is now owned by Marco Pirroni of Adam and the Ants.
Hill was known as the class clown of the band, and his bizarre costumes and antics led to some friction with the more serious Lea. This led to a show-down in a BBC dressing room before a recording of Top of the Pops, where Hill replied to Lea's repeated criticism of his dress by saying "You write 'em Jim, I'll sell em!".
During 1983, both Hill and Powell were working on a Dave Hill solo project with local musicians around the Midlands area. By 1984, the project had not been completed and fan club editor of the time Haden Donovan described the project as "very interesting and very un-Slade-like."
In 1989, Hill formed his own group Blessings in Disguise, featuring Holder, ex-Wizzard keyboard player, Bill Hunt, Craig Fenney and Bob Lamb. The debut single, released in 1989 for the Christmas market was a ballad cover of The Everly Brothers "Crying in the Rain" with Noddy Holder drafted in for lead vocals, backed by a Hill/Hunt composition, "Wild Nights". The record was a commercial failure. The band also recorded a cover of the Elvis Presley song "A Fool Such As I" which wasn't released. The final single, "Chance to Be" was composed by Daniel Somers and Colin Baines and unlike the first single, did not feature Holder on vocals but a little known female vocalist. The b-side was a track written by Hill entitled "You're the Reason that I'm Strong". Released in 1990, the single was a charity record intended to raise money for Queen Alexandra College for the Blind in Birmingham.
Originally, Hill attended the launch of a £2 million appeal to raise funds for the Birmingham Institute where he heard a song called "A Chance to Be", sung by the blind and visually impaired children. Hill was so moved by the occasion that he agreed to perform and produce the recording of the song. The two writers of the song were staff at the institute. Ex-Shakatak vocalist Norma Lewis, local singer Michael Ryan, Hill and the children took several hours to record the song which was later engineered and produced by Hill. The b-side "You're The Reason I'm Strong" again featured Lewis on lead vocal and was written by Hill. Hill's band name, Blessing in Disguise, was picked as the group name.
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