Midlands Heroes: We're still feeling the noize with Slade frontman Noddy Holder
Frontman of the legendary Slade and once the proud TV face of Banks’s beer, there are few Midlands Heroes as ‘Midlands’ as Neville John ‘Noddy’ Holder.
Famous for a plethora of hits including ‘Mama Weer All Crazee Now’, ‘Cum On Feel the Noize’ and ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’, Walsall-born Noddy has always been proud to fly the flag for the region.
A local lad who has never forgotten his roots, glam rock legend Noddy recalled his schooldays in Bloxwich and his strict old history teacher when speaking with us some years ago.
He said: “I went to a school called T P Riley Community School in Bloxwich, outside of Walsall.
"My history teacher was an ex-army disciplinarian. He was very, very old school. Very strict. But he was a genius.
"He arrived one year into our O-Levels when our mock exam results showed us to be way, way below par, and taught two years' worth of courses in one year. A lot of people didn’t like him but I did, because I could see that he was snatching success from the jaws of defeat.”
Though his time in school gave him his nickname (garnered from a habit of nodding to teachers instead of saying ‘yes’), it was clear early on that Noddy’s passions and future lay outside the world of academic achievement.
He started his first band, the Rockin' Phantoms, at 13, and dropped out of school during his A-Levels after "falling well behind" due to time spent gigging around the Midlands with them.
Before his Slade days, Noddy formed another band called the Memphis Cutouts and then, with Steve Brett & The Mavericks in the early ‘60s, recorded four singles for EMI's Columbia label.
