Noddy Holder and his veteran band Slade were made to pay 93 percent taxes at the height of their fame. Frontman Noddy made the startling revelation during a recent chat on Kate Thornton’s White Wine Question Time podcast.
The music legend first hit the scene with band members Jim Lea, Don Powell, and Dave Hill in the late 1960s, before they went on to become household names in the ’70s, thanks to hits such as Far Far Away and Take Me Bak ‘Ome’, Slade has sold an estimated 500 million records in total.
When asked by host Kate about how they gained their almost overnight fame in the Seventies, Noddy replied: “The only trouble was, in those days, we were shifted millions around the world, but in the UK, it was terrible at that time for us because we were paying 93 percent tax to the pound.
“I mean, they talk about the tax rate now, but it was 93 percent.” Kate then replied: “Wow, as a group or individually, or both?”
“Both!” Noddy exclaimed, before explaining: “I mean, we did go and work in America for two years, but it wasn’t for tax purposes. We didn’t uproot our citizenship; we were still shipping all our money back to the UK and paying UK taxes.
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“We thought we were doing some good being socially aware, but it didn’t do us any good at the end of the day; 93 percent we were paying the top whack.”
He continued: “A lot of English bands went to LA or Ireland, where the tax rate obviously was much lower. We didn’t do that because our base was Britain, Europe was our base.
“We hadn’t really taken off in America at that point, and although we toured America a lot, we were still paying UK taxes.”
Kate then asked: “Do you still stand by that decision?” to which the rocker said: “Probably not. If you’re thinking it’s going to do some good then fair enough, but it didn’t.”
However, Noddy, along with his bandmates, earn almost £1 million-a-year in royalties from their 1973 song Merry Xmas Everybody.
Elsewhere in the chat, Noddy opened up about the “crisis” that engulfed the rock band just two months before they recorded Merry Xmas Everybody.
The 77-year-old explained that they were in New York during the “zenith” of their career and drummer, Don Powell, was involved in a horrific crash.
“He went through the windscreen, as did his girlfriend, and his girlfriend was killed, and they’d given him not even 24 hours to live,” he recalled.
Thankfully, Don is a “tough cookie” and made a miraculous recovery which allowed him to be discharged from the hospital six weeks later.
However, he had lost his memory. “He couldn’t remember any of the songs, none of them; didn’t know any of the hits….” The band then took Don into the studio, and he started playing. During that studio session, Merry Xmas Everybody was born.
The band, who split in the early Nineties, earn £250,000 a year from their classic Christmas single and hit song Cum On Feel The Noize.