James Whild Lea (14 June 1949)

A very happy birthday to Jim Lea who re-emerged this year under his full name of James Whild Lea with two great albums, 'Therapy', his new studio album and his 'official bootleg' live album. And both are excellent beyond measure.

Jim is the youngest member of SLADE and always portrayed as 'the musical one' since he played violin and was a member of the Midlands Youth Orchestra. He left that behind when he discovered the joy of rock'n'roll and joined The N'Betweens that later became SLADE. He was the musical one in truth since he co-wrote the majority of SLADE's songs with Noddy Holder, Jim mainly writing the music. The string of hits they had in the early-mid '70s, and then again in the early '80s, has never been properly evaluated and they've never been given due credit for the marvelous songs and achievements.

When I think of Jim from the glory years he's always wearing a red lurex suit. He never went that far with the glam stuff so the suit was probably as far as he felt comfortable with. It was the mainstay of his 1973 wardrobe, wearing red lurex suits on Top Of The Pops and playing live - he wore it when I saw SLADE live in Newcastle in July 1973. He left the dressing up to Dave and Nod.

He was never that comfortable with the stardom thing - he seemed to love playing live and in the studio, it was just everything else he didn't like. He took on the title of 'the Midlands misery' but I always think of him grinning as he pounded away on the bass, put his leg up on Don's drums and leaned back, like on the cover of 'SLADE Alive'.

It was with enormous joy that I found out he'd set up a website for his new studio album earlier this year. Available for download or purchase from the site, 'Therapy' is now available through iTunes. It was so good to hear new music from Jim, guitar-based rock music best played loud. Some great songs on there that deserve wider distribution, but it's his decision whatever he wants to do with his work. I wanted more and voila! the live album appeared for download. I still want more, though.

Happy birthday, Jim!