SLADE’S BOYZ FEEL THE NOIZE

"You tell us we don't look any older, and we'll tell you, you don't look any older," offers Slade's bass guitarist, Jimmy Lea, flashing a wide, toothy grin. "And then we'd all be liars," I reply, with an equally boisterous gleam, just so damn happy to see these four guys alive, well, and sitting around a New York Hotel room—12 years on. To be honest, ask me to think of the most unlikely candidates for a revival of interest, long after they'd passed the "whatever happened to?" stage, and the winner would be—Iron Butterfly, hohoho, but the brash Wolverhampton quartet called Slade would've been way up there. Come to think of it—revival? Uh uh. With Slade, it had been an uphill battle all the way.