How Does It Feel

How Does It Feel is a different kind of autobiography. Instead of a linear narrative, Jim Lea – the final member of the fabled four-piece to tell their story – opens his heart in vignettes about not just his time in Slade, but his Staffordshire childhood, songwriting, family life, musicianship, his retreat into the world of the therapy and beyond, exploring how the experiences made him feel, like in the words of one of Slade’s most cherished songs, that Lea wrote the music for when he was a young teenager.

Written with Whatever Happened To Slade? author Daryl Easlea, the book is full of hitherto unseen material from Lea’s personal collection – letters to his childhood sweetheart (and now wife of 52 years) Louise when the group were on tour in the US, archive family photographs, school exercise books, candid snaps of Slade and previous groups, as well as a timeline and discography.

All in all, it’s the book that every Slade has been waiting for.

'After all these years, I am still the ‘quiet one’ in Slade, the band I joined the year England won the World Cup and The Beatles released "Revolver". I’d always let (the) others tell the story, and sometimes it’s been recounted by complete strangers who ran with a misremembered anecdote and wrote a whole book out of it . . . How we were probably one of the last groups that everyone knew by name, how we worked so hard, what we achieved, and how, often, people only think we did "the xmas song" – well we did, and a whole lot more beside. But, to be honest, no matter what I achieved, or the chart positions we hit, I just wanted to be at home with my wife Lou and my family . . . Well, it’s time to tell my story . . . It’s time, as a wise man once said, to make some NOIZE.'- Jim Lea, 2024