Slade's Dave Hill opens up about his "good relationship" with Noddy Holder

16 December 2025, 11:30

Slade in the 1970s in 1980s. Picture: Alamy

By Mayer Nissim

Noddy Holder left Slade over 30 years ago, but the singer is still in touch with Dave Hill.

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Frontman Noddy Holder and bass player Jim Lea left Slade back in 1992 and despite the occasional rumour of a reunion, haven't really shown any sign that they'll return to the band.

After drummer Don Powell was axed from the group in 2020, the sole founding member still in the lineup is guitarist Dave Hill.

Dave has continued to perform under the Slade banner and while the group are now on what's been billed as their final ever tour, he and the current lineup will still continue to play the occasional show.

But despite their musical separation, Dave and Noddy are still close to this day. Noddy's wife Suzan even posted a picture of Holder and Hill together at lunch in 2022.

"We're great friends, and we're keeping in touch with each other, seeing each other a lot," Dave told the Oxford Mail.

"We enjoy talking about the past, and also we encourage each other because we all have health issues, as indeed he did at one point.

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"Someone saved his life which I'm very pleased about, you know, because he's a national treasure to me and to the country. We've had such a good relationship and may it long last."

Of Noddy's inimitable voice, Dave added: "Nod loved John Lennon, and he loved Little Richard, and that's where he got his ability to sing those amazing high notes that he sang.

"I mean, nobody could sing like him with the Slade music. You know nobody can do it."

In 2023, it emerged that Holder had been diagnosed with oesophageal cancer back in 2018 and had been given just six months to live. Thankfully, he responded well to experimental chemotherapy treatment at Manchester's Christie Hospital.

Dave Hill performing with Slade in 2025. Picture: Alamy

"I did have oesophageal cancer and that was five years ago and, at the moment, they're still keeping a check on me," he later said.

"I'm on a level playing field at the moment after at the time being diagnosed with six months to live. So I've lasted the course, as it were."

Of why he left Slade, Noddy said earlier this year: "I always say there's five things that contribute to a band splitting

"The first one is egos, the second one is money, the third one is drink and drugs, the fourth one is women, and the fifth one is musical differences. And in the case of Slade, it was all five!"