I loved Top Of the Pops.
I think that show was one of the main reasons that I got into Slade.
At home in West Hampstead we had one small Black and White TV - and my Mum had prime choice over what we as a family watched.
My mum died in May 1972.
She never watched Top Of The Pops. It wasn't because she didn't like music. Far from it. It was just that the Thursday night scheduling clashed with a favourite programme of hers. I'm not sure what it clashed with - but it must have been something like Tomorrows World, Star Trek or The Forsythe Saga - which were all favourites of hers. The only chance that I got was to ocasionally go round to my mate Chris's house and watch Top Of The Pops there - which didn't happen more than a couple of times.
After Mum's death, my Dad wasn't really bothered with TV. He let me have my choice. I'd watch Top Of The Pops religiously each week. I had previously seen Slade on the 2G's and The Pop People TV show - and now I saw them on Top Of The Pops with "Take Me Bak Ome". The performance was wow - I remember Dave wearing a silver collar - with just silver tinsel hanging from it. Dave Hill has always quoted that he used to say to Nod and Jim "You write 'em (the songs) and I'll sell 'em". I really think that this was the case. The first thing that I'd look for on any TOTPs performance was Dave's outfit.
During the half hour show my Dad was not allowed to come into the room, talk to me or do anything. I just concentrated on the show in it's entirety. I loved the show so much that in early 1974 I persuaded him to buy me a colour Sony portable - for my bedroom room! It was great to finally watch Top Of The Pops in colour!
I soon wanted to actually go to the show. I found out you needed to send a stamped addressed envelope off to the BBC and confirm that you were at least 16 (I was only just turned 14 - so I lied!).
I joined a waiting list and the first show I went to was in February 1974. The show was recorded a day before airing - on the Wednesday evening in the studios in Wood Lane, Shepherds Bush. It was a great show - performing were Mud (Tiger Feet), Suzi Quatro (Devil Gate Drive), Bay City Rollers (Remember), Lulu (Man Who Sold The World) and, my other favourite star, Marc Bolan (Teenage Dream). But no Slade! During the filming I was approached by Jonathan King ...... but that is another story!
I attended Top Of The Pops at least another 20-25 times in the 70's and 80's and was always unlucky - Slade were never on the show. Because the BBC kept lists of the attendees you were only allowed to apply every 6 months - so I used friends names and addresses. I would time my applications with how long I knew the waiting list was and to try to coincide with Slade's releases.
I was really unlucky in February 1976. I got tickets for the show - and Slade had "Let's Call It Quits" in the charts. But damn - they performed live with the song twice.....once the week before I went and once the week after! I was gutted. 
However, I noticed in the audience two Slade fans - Sylvia Kallen and Sue Ball - both big fans from North London like me. They had got tickets the week before - and they had the good fortune to meet Slade then! The girls had been featured the week before I met them in a Record Mirror article - they had been chosen as the Top Slade Fans. God I was envious. 
They had made airport trips to see the band - like I did. I remember them saying that the big thing that they were still amazed with was that Dave Hill was so small in real life - they doubted whether that he was actually the 5'6" that he claimed to be!
With Top Of the Pops I used to sometimes bunk off school on a Wednesday afternoon and try and chat up the commissionaire on the BBC gates to let me have tickets. Or else I'd ask any kids arriving if they had spares. I knew from Chas's secretary Susie that Slade were appearing at the end of October 1977 - with "My Baby left Me". I waited outside the studios for hours - but couldn't get in. The closest I got was seeing through the gates the band leave at the same time as Boney M - and watched them speed off in their cars.
However, I did get lucky once. My friend Paul Lythe was now running the Slade Fan Club when "Radio Wall Of Sound" was released in October 1991. He managed to get a few tickets - so I went along with Paul, Trevor Slaughter, Jenny Gamble and Dave Jewell. TOTPs was now being filmed at the new location of the BBC Studios in Borehamwood. It was Slade's last ever Top Of The Pops performance - a blistering one too. And I was there. Also, on the show that day were Dannii Minogue and Paul Young. My mate from West Hampstead, Chris, now works at the BBC - he has managed to get me a DVD copy of that show in full.
Supersonic
The other show that I really liked was Mike Mansfield's "Supersonic". I only went once - as it was quite a journey to get there. The show was recorded on a Tuesday night at the LWT studios on the South Bank. Slade only performed on the show three times (sometimes filming a couple of songs each appearance - they appeared to promote, I think, "In For A Penny", "Let's Call It Quits" and "Gypsy Roadhog").
I was damned unlucky - I have checked the show's history and I missed their "Let's Call It Quits" performance by two weeks! The week I was on was naff - they had Sailor (Girls, Girls, Girls) R&J Stone (We Do It) and Slik (Forever and Ever) in the studio. I was shown on camera at the end though - with my Slade scarf. The other good thing was that I sat next to Maggie Norden (Dennis "It Will Be Alright On The Night" Norden's daughter). She was a Capital DJ who did a Sunday afternoon show called Hullabaloo. She was interviewing kids about Supersonic - and she asked me to talk about how good Slade were when they performed with all the enormous inflatable balloons.
I also used to hang around outside Capital Radio in Euston Road when Slade made personal appearances on radio shows such as Hulabaloo or Kerry Juby's breakfast show, Kerry-Go-Round. Even though is was the mid-Seventies, and Slade were popular, I was often the only Slade fan waiting for them.
(My wife Barbara eventually worked with Maggie in her later job as a Senior Lecturer at the London College of Fashion in Oxford St. Amazingly, Jessica Holder, Nod's daughter, was a pupil of hers).
I got a letter from Maggie in 1979, allowing me to use some of the interview in one of my fan club newsletters. To see it click here.
List of Slade's "Supersonic" Performaces:-
20 November 1975 (Series 1, Show 12) - "In For A Penny" click here
25 December 1975 - (Series 1, Show 18 - Supersonic Christmas Special) - "In For A Penny" (repeat) click here
14 February 1976 - (Series 1, Show 25) - "The Bangin' Man" click here & "Let's Call It Quits" click here
6 March 1976 - (Series 1, Show 27) - "Let's Call It Quits" click here (repeat).
5 February 1977 - (Series 2, Show 20) - "Mama Weer All Crazee Now" click here & "Gypsy Roadhog" click here
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