The Slade Bible

Chris Charlesworth's biography "Feel The Noize!" (Omnibus Press, 1984, ISBN no. 0-7119-0538-X) is by many fans regarded as a sort of Bible on Slade. It is so far the only official biography approved by all four original members of the band. The biography is very sought after by fans as it has only been published in one edition and prices run as high as £ 130 on eBay for a copy.
Not long ago a copy of the biography came my way. I'd been waiting for ages to read this book and when I finally did, I was…well, let's face it…I was a bit disappointed. The book is well-written and very loyal to the band and it covers the career of Slade from its very beginning and up until 1984. It also includes the background and early childhood of the Slade-members. That's all very fine and well, but what bugs me is that there's nothing new in it. I mean, to buy a book on Slade you have to be a Slade-fan, but if you're a Slade-fan you've probably followed the guys in the press and fan magazines of the time and this way learned all about them and their career. The biography brings no new inside information and all I learned from it that I didn't know in advance were the names of some of Don's former girlfriends and Jim's rather funny recollection of the presentation ceremony when Slade won the Band Of The Year category in Disc magazine's 1972 Readers Poll. Not much for a book on 128 pages.
When that is said I must admit that the book has many great photos of the guys - most of them are out there on the Internet on different fan web sites - as well as a complete discography from 1964 to 1984. The biography could do with an update, though, bringing it up to the end of Slade in 1991, but that is not going to happen as the plates for the book are said to have been destroyed.
I'm not saying that "Feel The Noize!" is a bad book. It is a nice work of reference, but I would never ever pay £ 130 for it. £ 50, tops! At that price I would warmly recommend it to everybody who wants to know what the heck Slade was all about.