Forced to play at small halls and clubs around the UK, the only income they were reliant on was Noddy Holder and Jim Lea's songwriting royalties.

In the 1979 July–August fan club magazine, drummer Don Powell confirmed that seventeen tracks had been recorded at the time.

Some of the tracks from Return to Base re-appeared on Slade's 1981 album We'll Bring the House Down, released following their successful appearance at the Reading Festival in 1980.

The band's 1977 album Whatever Happened to Slade proved a commercial failure while their tour that spring had shown that they could no longer fill large venues.

With the band's new output no longer being released on Polydor Records but instead on manager Chas Chandlers' label Barn records, singles such as "Burning in the Heat of Love", "Give Us a Goal", "Rock 'n' Roll Bolero" and "Ginny, Ginny" were all chart failures.

"Jim was becoming more and more involved in that side of things," lead vocalist Noddy Holder told Chris Charlesworth.

Chandler, for his part, was unimpressed with the group's current material: "They felt that a great sound was the all important thing," he told Charlesworth.

Although Chandler offered to end his association with Slade altogether, the band asked him to remain as manager while they produced themselves.

"[11] "Wheels Ain't Coming Down" tells the tale of a near-death flying experience suffered by Holder and Lea when travelling to Los Angeles.

The track uses backward reverb effects and features a question and answer technique between Holder and the other band members Hill and Lea during the chorus.

"Don't Waste Your Time (Back Seat Star)" is an acoustic-based ballad, described by Holder in 1988 as a "surrealistic social comment".

To promote the album in Belgium, a Belgian film crew recorded the band performing the song at Portland Studios in London.

After spending time trying to get hold of a copy of the song, Holder obtained the album of the same name from an import shop.

Then one night we went into the studio, we'd been all over the pub, and we had half an hour left at the end of a session, and we decided to record it, and we got it down in one take.

Record Mirror stated that the song "is the nearest thing to a hit single with its jump along beat and pure sixties chord changes."

[1] Dressed in a plain red sleeve with the stark black title in a battered typeface, the album cover was intended to reflect a no-nonsense, back-to-basics, "never-say-die" attitude, although it was noted that "it ended up looking as threadbare as much of the public assumed Slade to be."

Upon asking if the album's artwork had been designed, Hill replied "It's still being done, but I understand that it is going to have a photo of a ticker-tape message on the front saying "Return To Base", in computer-like lettering.

"[18][26] Shortly before the release of the album, the Slade fan club newsletter editor Dave Kemp stated how he felt on the rough copy he had heard.

Record Mirror stated: "Assuming that the title should be taken to mean that the group are trying to visit the territorial war grounds of their golden years in the singles charts I reckon they are in for a shock.

I expect a little more than references to Big Brother, Stereo, Radio etc, in the otherwise catchy "Sign of the Times" and the reflection of "Born to Run" in "Wheels Ain't Coming Down".

"[15][28] Sounds were similar in their reception, writing: "Slade have managed to pull a fair to impressive performance out of the bag with this one.

Noddy's got one of the all time classic rock voices as he belts through ten steamy originals and one Chuck Berry cover.

"[28] Max Bell of NME was negative in his review, remarking: "Slade always were a poor man's hard rock band, appealing to the worst boys-night-out instincts.

In the days when bad glam rock was the British norm this sort of muck might have fitted the bill a treat, but in 1979 who wants to hear a bunch of pathetic old has-been Flash Harrys reiterating the limitations of their puerile sordid imaginations?

"[30] A more positive review came from Wolverhampton Express and Star: "Slade haven't had a big hit for some time now, but it would be silly to write them off just yet, to judge by their new album Return to Base.

"[1] In May 1980, Jon Young of New York magazine Trouser Press reviewed the album and stated: "On Return to Base, seven of the eleven cuts connect in every possible way, for a batting average of .636.

A retrospective review from AllMusic noted that Return to Base "marks Slade's low ebb in terms of popularity and morale", and were mixed in their reception to the album, rating it two stars out of five and noting the album was "certainly not a high point for the band, but they kept on keepin' on, no matter how bad things got.

Secure in the knowledge that practically no one had ever heard the thing, Slade eventually redid the record as We'll Bring the House Down, a fully realized project.

"[citation needed] Colin Harper of Record Collector said: "Searching for the UK zeitgeist, 1979's now abjectly obscure Return to Base ironically had a pleasingly diverse, reinvigorated musical palette.

[36] Thus Return to Base remains the only Slade album never released in the UK on CD, or re-released on any other format.