Slade suffer first Christmas flop with awful ticket sales for festive tour dates
GLAM rockers Slade are suffering their first Christmas flop after failing to flog tickets for their festive tour.
The band are used to soaring to the top end of the UK chart every December with their 1973 hit Merry Xmas Everybody.
But they face half-empty venues as they travel the country performing 50th anniversary shows.
Tickets have been slashed to £5 on seat-filling websites — down from their original price at £38.50 — in a bid to fill the Engine Rooms in Southampton on Tuesday and Oxford’s 02 Academy on Friday.
Slade now consists of original lead guitarist and backing vocalist Dave Hill, 73, and new members Russell Keefe, Alex Bines and John Berry.
Singer Noddy Holder, 77, quit alongside bassist Jim Lea, 74, in 1992 amid feuding within the group.
Dave was said to have axed drummer Don Powell, 73, by email in 2020 — after more than 50 years performing together.
Noddy and Jim are thought to share £1million a year in royalties thanks to their Christmas anthem — which followed up the band’s fourth No1 Cum On Feel the Noise.
Earlier this year, Noddy returned to the stage with the Tom Seals Band for sell-out shows — five years after he was given six months to live when diagnosed with throat cancer.