‘Cancer has definitely changed me as a performer’

Noddy Holder hopes to hit the road again in the new year, but the former Slade frontman says his cancer has changed who he is as a performer.

Holder was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in 2018 and was given just six months to live, but new chemotherapy methods helped him beat the cancer. In November, his wife said he was cancer-free.

He told BBC WM that acting was still important, so he thought “I’d better get out there and show up again.”

He said he had originally planned to tour with Tom Seals’ Boogie Woogie Band in October and November, but they postponed the tour until 2025 because they couldn’t get the theater dates they wanted.

Holder said he is “semi-retired now,” but was able to do some two-hour shows with the SEALs last year. The shows are a mixture of songs and anecdotes.

While he jokes that most of the people in the band are under 30 and “have no idea what I’m talking about half the time,” he says he believes he has plenty of stories to tell.

“They’re not just Slade’s stories, most of the songs I write in the show are things that have happened to me since Slade, but the public seems to like this insight into your life, real life, ” he said.

Holder, 78, said he was on a “level playing field” after responding well to experimental chemotherapy.

But he said “you can never heal” and it gave him “a different perspective on life.”

“It’s really changed me as a performer, because of the type of cancer I have, my breathing isn’t as consistent as it used to be.”

Now, the singer, known for starring on hits like “Merry Xmas Every” and “Cum On Feel The Noize,” says he’s trying to “chill out” and spend time catching up with friends.

These included a visit to a curry restaurant in his hometown of Walsall and a party with ex-Slade guitarist Dave Hill at one of their favorite Italian restaurants, Fiume in Wolverhampton.

He said there had been differences between them over the years, but both men acknowledged they were “too old to have silly arguments over anything”.

Hill is “as crazy as a box of frogs as ever” but is “one of the people I’ve built bridges with over the years at Slade”, he said.