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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| Singles from Return to Base | ||||
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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 studio 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. Prior to their last-minute call up for the 1980 Reading Festival, they were on the verge of disbanding.
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, while 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 followed, "Sign of the Times", failed to chart and most copies which were left were melted down.
Some of the tracks from Return to Base re-appeared on Slade's 1981 album We'll Bring the House Down, released following their successful appearance at the Reading Festival in 1980. 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 the series of remastered releases.
Having returned to the UK from the United States in August 1976, Slade found themselves out-of-favour at the time of the UK's Punk rock explosion. The band's 1977 album Whatever Happened to Slade proved a commercial failure while their tour that spring had shown that they could no longer fill large venues. Slade's waning success soon led to the band taking any gig they could. They found themselves playing small venues, mainly universities and clubs. The band's tours often ran at a loss, with the band having to bring their own PA and lightshow. Bassist Jim Lea however was unphazed. "I still thought the band was great," he told Chris Charlesworth in 1983, "We were playing as well if not better than we ever had... now we had something to prove again."
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Wikipedia