[Susan Foreman]

24th August, 1980 - On the verge of splitting up, Slade appeared at the Reading festival...

Guitarist Dave Hill:

"My thoughts on Reading Festival 40 years on…

I reflect on my memories of Reading Festival then and now, It’s amazing to think of the impact Reading Festival had on the band, I remember the day Chas rang me and talked me into playing the Festival, I wasn’t sure about doing it you see, but Chas said you have more hits and experience live than most of the other bands on the bill, so that was it we’re doing it. We went down on the day, it was lovely and sunny, we were all a bit nervous about doing it, but when we got there everybody back stage were so pleased to see us, it seemed that the festival was lacking any bands with real hits so it was a bit boring and not fun we were told.

The press were being kept away from bands but when they saw us, they were so pleased that we chatted for a while. We have always been a friendly band of guys and easy to be with, Tommy Vance the DJ we knew well, said he thought the festival needed a band like us to lift it up, we knew he loved us, how right was he that day.

We went on the stage nervous as we were not on the bill and had replaced Ozzy Osbourne, we played three songs one after the other as we always do, when we stopped there was an excitement from the crowd which was a great feeling, it then got better and better, they started shouting for the Christmas song and we wouldn’t play it, so Nod said you lot sing it. It sounded amazing, in short we were back with our greatest gift of playing live with great songs to a 40000 crowd, Chas was grinning at me with great pleasure, I will always say Chas made a great decision for us that day.

I must say there are moments in your life when something really good happens to alter the course of you life...this was it for me, kept me doing what I love most which led to more hits and tours again.

On reflection, even forty years later there are so many people who remember being there and how great it was, for me it kept me doing what I’m here to do and it’s my greatest gift and passion in life, performing and keeping the memories of them alive for future generations.

Keep on Rocking

Dave"