Nobody's Fools (album) - Background

Background

Slade had always had very limited success in the United States. In the period of 1972-73, the band not only took their first step in America but also as the biggest group of the UK, complete with attendant record company hype touting them the next Beatles. It did them no favours. Slade had built up a huge live reputation but for all their strengths, Slade were no Beatles and they knew it. "So much hype," Holder told Geoff Barton in 1975. "And the American public don't like that at all. They like to go out and see things for themselves on stage, and make their own minds up...we knew that it was impossible to live up to."

Some U.S. cities such as St Louis, Philadelphia and New York took positively to Slade. But more often than not, Slade's stage act that was such a hit in the rest of the world, was received with bemusement and indifference by the stateside crowds. The average 1970s American rock audience expected to be wooed by vibes and virtuosity, not anthemic pop-rock songs and brash exhortations.

Back in the UK in 1975, Slade were feeling stale. After a mixed reception of their 1975 movie Flame and the less-than-frantic rush for tickets for the group's last UK tour (in decided contrast to the mayhem of their 1973 tour), manager Chas Chandler came to the only conclusion he could. To crack America - the only major territory to thus far resist Slade's sound, at least as far as chart action went - the group would have to move there permanently and build a solid reputation from their live performances, just as they had in the UK. Slade, sensing they were becoming worn-out, agreed. "During the past five years when the band peaked," Noddy Holder said in 1975, "we did five major tours of Britain, six tours of Europe, two tours of Australia, two of Japan, visited the USA a few times, made a film...you can understand why we felt more than a little jaded. We reckoned that we needed to undertake a fresh challenge to regain that old spark."

So it was that Spring of 1975 that Slade relocated to New York City; Noddy Holder lived in a suite at the Mayflower Hotel on the south west corner of Central Park, Jim Lea and Dave Hill took apartments on the Upper East Side and Don Powell went downtown, near Greenwich Village. They toured constantly, often on packages with the likes of Aerosmith, ZZ Top and Black Sabbath. Usually second on the bill, Slade honed their live show, taking the idea of playing skilfully seriously which went down consistently well with the American audience. The success wasn't translated into US airplay, but the band felt improved and rejuvenated.

In between tours Holder and bassist Jim Lea got down to what Holder called some "serious writing", booked themselves into New York's Record Plant in mid-1975 and recorded the album which would be called Nobody's Fools.

The album stands up today as a varied and highly entertaining listen and the band themselves are justifiably proud of their American album; drummer Don Powell rates it as his favourite Slade long player and Noddy Holder cites the single "Nobody's Fool" as the most overlooked of Slade's songs. Needless to say, it fared only moderately in the UK album chart, peaking at #14 but disappearing from the top 75 after only four weeks. This from a band who could previously expect an album to hang around for four months or more. And from that, things would get much worse for Slade before it got better.