Return to Base
| Return to Base | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by Slade | ||||||||
| Released | 1 October 1979 | |||||||
| Recorded | 1979 | |||||||
| Genre | ||||||||
| Length | 33:48 | |||||||
| Label | Barn | |||||||
| Producer | Slade | |||||||
| Slade chronology | ||||||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Sounds |   |
| Record Mirror | |
| Wolverhampton Express and Star | (positive) |
| Trouser Press | (positive) |
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | |
| Classic Rock | (positive) |
Return to Base is the eighth album by the British rock group Slade. It was released on 1 October 1979 by Barn Records, and did not enter any national album charts. At the time of the album's release, the band's success had waned and were receiving little fortune. Forced to play at small halls and clubs around the UK, the only income they were reliant on was Noddy Holder and Jim Lea's songwriting royalties. Their recent singles had sold poorly and they were no longer drawing in large audiences. At the time of their last-minute call up for the 1980 Reading Festival, they were on the verge of disbanding and had only a couple of their road crew to help them on the day. "We had to pay to park in the public area," recalled Jim Lea incredulously. "With no roadies, we had to carry our own gear and there was even trouble getting into the backstage area!"
The band's previous album, Whatever Happened to Slade (1977), featured a "straight" hard rock sound, dropping the band's glam rock image, and despite critical acclaim, had brought the band little commercial fortune. Return to Base was conceived as a continuation of the band's sound, and an attempt to raise the band's fortune. The band aimed to record twenty songs, with the best eleven being put onto the album. In the 1979 July–August fan club magazine, drummer Don Powell confirmed that seventeen tracks had been recorded at the time. However, whilst the critical reaction to the album was generally positive, the album sold poorly, something partially blamed on Barn Records, who only pressed a total 3,500 copies of the album's lead single "Ginny, Ginny", virtually guaranteeing its failure to enter the charts. Even the single that preceded it, "Sign of the Times" failed to chart and most copies which were left were melted down, making the single extremely rare today.
Some of the tracks from Return to Base were included on Slade's successful next album We'll Bring the House Down. The remainder tracks from Return to Base were included as bonus tracks on the 2007 "Feel the Noize" remaster of We'll Bring The House Down. As such, the album was the band's only album not to be included in that series of remastered releases. The album peaked at #830 for 1979 on rateyourmusic.
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