Return to Base is the seventh album by the British rock group Slade. It was released on 1 October 1979 and did not enter the charts. The album's cover didn't help matters either. It's said that the band were so low on money at the time they didn't have the funds to hire a photographer, so all the album got was a plain red cover with the title stamped at the top. The 1993 Polydor CD reissue added all four band member's signatures on the front cover.
At the time of the album's release, the band were receiving next to no money. Forced to play at small halls and clubs around the UK, the only income they were reliant on was Noddy and Jim's songwriting royalties. Their singles weren't selling, and they were no longer drawing in huge crowds; "We had to pay to park in the public area," recalls Jim Lea incredulously. "With no roadies we had to carry our own gear and there was even trouble getting into the backstage area!"
In fact their record company only pressed a total 3,500 copies of the "Ginny, Ginny" single, virtually guaranteeing its failure to enter the charts. Even the single that preceded it, "Sign O' the Times" failed to chart and most copies which were left were melted down, making the single extremely rare today.
Some of the tracks from Return to Base were included on Slade's next album We'll Bring the House Down. The remainder tracks from Return to Base were included as bonus tracks on the 2007 reissue of We'll Bring The House Down.
The band aimed to record twenty song, with the best eleven being put onto the album. In the 1979 July–August fan club magazine, drummer Don Powell confirmed that seventeen tracks had been recorded at the time.
The album peaked at #830 for 1979 on rateyourmusic.
Read more about Return To Base: Background, Recording, Promotion, Release, Track Listing, Critical Reception, Chart Performance
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