However, their fortunes changed when they were offered a headlining slot at the Reading festival in August 1980, following a late cancellation by Ozzy Osbourne.

In September, the band released the extended play Alive at Reading, which featured three songs recorded at the festival.

But it is a compilation LP of a lot of the material that we have recorded over the last 18 months, which as the fans know, the majority of the public have never even heard.

It won't be the same as Return to Base as it will have a lot of the tracks pulled out and other numbers added, making up a more rocky album.

"Nuts Bolts and Screws", taken from Return to Base, was the other song to be remixed at Portland Studios for inclusion on the album.

Slade are essentially a live act and on vinyl the vital ingredient of spilt beer is sorely missed.

"[19][20] Steve Keaton of Sounds stated that the album is a "corker, brimming with a knowing confidence and expertise that has far from withered through age" and contains "ten tracks of rejuvenated roguery guaranteed to cause severe structural damage to the sturdiest of dwellings and delight the most surly of yobs".

"[14] London Trax said: "Overlooking the horrific, infantile, metallist symbolism of its sleeve, We'll Bring the House Down is somewhat surprisingly a bit of a cracker.

To sum up, Slade have released a great pop record and have more than adequately recaptured the territory left open, since their untimely demise.

"[14] Smash Hits felt the album lived up to a "dreaded Heavy Metal revival" rather than maintain their "natural pop sensibility".

They concluded: "They sound as raw and live as ever and Noddy Holder still has a unique set of vocal chords but play this next to their "Greatest Hits" and there really is no competition.

What the band did was to take the best five songs from Return to Base and mix them in with great new material for a killer album that wouldn't take forever to make.

"[13] All tracks are written by Noddy Holder and Jim Lea, except "I'm a Rocker" by Chuck Berry and "Okey Cokey" by Jimmy KennedySlade Additional personnel