Born in Flete House, Holbeton, Devon, the son of a mechanic, he moved with his parents to Penn, Wolverhampton, when he was a year old.

[3] Hill originally played with drummer Don Powell in a band called The Vendors, whose name was then changed to The N' Betweens.

The pair then met bass player Jim Lea and singer Noddy Holder, whereafter Slade was born.

When the classic lineup of Slade went professional, Hill wrote one only one song, for their 1981 album Till Deaf Do Us Part, "M'Hat M'Coat".

This featured Holder, ex-Wizzard keyboard player Bill Hunt, Craig Fenney and Bob Lamb.

[8] The debut single, released in 1989 for the Christmas market, was a ballad cover of The Everly Brothers' "Crying in the Rain" with Holder drafted in for lead vocals, backed by a Hill/Hunt composition, "Wild Nights".

[10][11] Hill attended the launch of a £2 million appeal to raise funds for Queen Alexandra College for the Blind in Birmingham.

Hill's band name, Blessing in Disguise, was picked as the group name and the single featured ex-Shakatak female vocalist Norma Lewis rather than Holder.

[14] The music journalist Stuart Maconie commented: [H]e usually wore a jumpsuit made of the foil that you baste your turkeys in and platforms of oil-rig-derrick height.

In a 1992 interview with the Slade fan club, he said: "I approached John Ogden of the Wolverhampton Express and Star with a view to putting down some of my experiences and stories, to see if a book could be produced that would be entertaining and amusing.

"[24] Later in November 2016, Hill announced he was in the process of writing an autobiography, with a possible 2017 release through Unbound, subject to it reaching the online pledge target.