Slade to release boxset in time for Christmas

But, speaking today, lead singer Noddy Holder insists there are no plans to reform the original band.

It seems to get earlier every year, but Noddy Holder's distinctive cry of 'It's Chriiiiiiiistmas' at the beginning of the band's 1973 hit Merry Xmas Everybody signals the start of the festive season.

The band, formed in the Walsall and Wolverhampton areas in the late 60s, are inseparable from the song. It was written by Holder and bandmate Jim Lea, sparked an annual race for Christmas Number One and has charted almost every year since. Holder refers to it as his "pension scheme".

Strip away, if you can, the fact you've heard it hundreds, maybe thousands of times, and underneath, there's a fantastic song. And it's most certainly not the only one in Slade's back catalogue, as the new box set is about to emphatically prove.

When Slade Rocked The World will be released on October 30, and features – among such things as a reproduced copy of 1975 book The Slade Story – a two-CD collection of their first four albums. As well as that, that quartet of peerless glam-tinged rock – Slade Alive!, Slayed?, Old New Borrowed And Blue, and Slade In Flame – have been remastered and reissued on heavyweight vinyl.

It's a collector's dream, and will hopefully earn Slade the kind of critical reappraisal they're so overdue. Bands as diverse as Motley Crue, Kiss, Ramones and Sex Pistols cited them as an influence. Oasis even covered Cum On Feel The Noize as a B-side.

"I think we're far more respected now than we were at the time," says Holder, 69. "We were incredibly commercially successful, but a lot of people regarded us as a bit of joke."

Look at any photograph of the band from their heyday and you have to admit, he has a point. There are tartan jumpsuits, 10-inch platform shoes, tailcoats, space-age silver one-pieces, and that's before you get to Dave Hill's ridiculous fringe or Holder's mutton chops and mirrored top hat.

"We were always on TV as well," says Holder. "A lot of people probably thought that overshadowed the content of the music. We don't have any complaints, though. Like I said, we were phenomenally successful so we didn't notice any criticism."

It's hard not to think a band with as many hits as Slade should be held in slightly higher regard than they are. They had six Number One singles in the UK, the same as Queen, Blondie and Rod Stewart, and more than The Police, David Bowie and Bee Gees.

Slade also made the Top 20 with 17 consecutive singles. There were chart toppers in Japan and Australia too, and they enjoyed a handful of hits in the States, years after they'd all but faded into obscurity in the UK.

Holder hasn't heard the four albums being reissued for some time.

"I don't think they've dated, they still sound relevant and fresh," he says. "These records are 45 years old.

Holder left the band in 1992, as did Jim Lea. Powell and Hill have continued to perform and record music under the name.

Holder says the band will never reform. "That's not going to happen. Too much time has gone by. I had 30 years on the road, that was enough," he says.

Over the past 20-odd years he's acted, had his own radio show, hosted a TV quiz show and toured his one-man show. As the Slade's 50th anniversary approaches, Holder's happy to listen to their music for the first time in years and let the memories come flooding back. He says: "I've been reminiscing, and there'll likely be more reissues to come. That's more than enough for me."