Jim Lea (musician)

James Whild Lea (born 14 June 1949) is an English musician, most notable for playing bass guitar, keyboards, piano, violin, guitar, and singing backing vocals in Slade from their inception until 1992, and for co-writing most of their songs.

Lea was born in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England, on 14 June 1949.

Influenced by French jazz-violinist Stéphane Grappelli, Lea's first musical love was the violin which he began playing aged 10.

His parents Frank Lea and Edna Whild owned The Grange pub in Bilbrook where he grew up.

He attended Codsall Comprehensive School – now Codsall Community High School.

He joined the Staffordshire Youth Orchestra in 1961, and gained first class honours in a London music-school practical exam, before moving on to piano, guitar and finally bass guitar.

He first played guitar, and then bass, in the schoolboy group 'Nick and The Axemen'.

Lea aged 16 went for auditions for a local band, 'The 'N Betweens', of which drummer Don Powell, guitarist Dave Hill and vocalist Johnny Howells were already members.

He was accepted and left school immediately.

When Noddy Holder joined soon after, the foundations for Slade had been laid.

Howells later left the band.

In December 1966, the 'N' Betweens signed to EMI and their first single "You Better Run" was produced by Kim Fowley.

Chas Chandler, former member of the Animals and former manager/producer for Jimi Hendrix, spotted and signed them for Fontana Records in 1969, and their name was changed to Ambrose Slade.

An album titled Beginnings was recorded.

It was during 1969 that Lea wrote "How Does It Feel" at home, on an old out-of-tune piano with half of the keys not working.

In 1969, Ambrose Slade adopted a skinhead image and changed their name to Slade.

Slade's lack of success during the late 1970s led Lea to wonder if their material would be better received if recorded by another band.

Following their first chart entry with "Get Down and Get with It" in 1971, Chandler encouraged the band to write their own material, and the song-writing partnership of Lea and Holder commenced.

In most cases Lea wrote the melodies, and Holder concentrated on the lyrics.

On the follow-up to "Get Down and Get with It", "Coz I Luv You," Lea played violin.

Lea had the most formal musical training of the original Slade band members.

In 1979, Lea formed Cheapskate Records with his brother Frank and made records under the name of The Dummies.

In late 1979, Lea formed The Dummies as a side project, with his brother Frank.

The group released three singles, "When The Lights Are Out", "Didn't You Use To Use To Be You" and "Maybe Tonite".

All three singles received plenty of radio airplay but sales suffered from distribution problems.

"Didn't You Use To Use To Be You" was listed in BBC Radio One's 'A' playlist and was expected to become a top ten hit.

"Poland" was a reworking of the 1979 Slade track "Lemme Love into Ya".

In the 1980s Lea also produced all of Slade's recording sessions (except for some of the singles), and became an increasingly dominant creative force within the band.

It was not uncommon for him to handle Holder's, some say Hill's, guitar parts on record.

"One Hit Wonder" was the same song as "Didn't You Use To Use To Be You", originally released in 1980 under the name "The Dummies", whilst the B-side was a cover of the Slade track "It Ain't Love But It Ain't Bad", from the 1977 album Whatever Happened to Slade.

The same year, Lea released another single, "Poland", under the name Greenfields of Tong, with the B-side carrying an instrumental version.

In 1981, Lea began record production and produced some of Slade's recordings.

Following their first chart success in America, Slade commenced a tour in the US with Ozzy Osbourne.

Lea fell ill after only one gig with Osbourne, the band returned home, and the original line-up with Lea and Holder never formally played live again.

In 1982, Lea was also busy working on solo projects.

Under the name China Dolls, he released the track "One Hit Wonder", backed by the B-side "Ain't Love Ain't Bad".

Later in 1992, an album A Day in the Life of the Dummies was released, which gathered all the material recorded by the band.

In a Q&A session for his official website in March 2017, Lea commented: "Over the last six months I've come to regret not going back to the States after I was ill in 1984. We did one gig with Ozzy and that was it. We should have gone back!!!!! The emergence of MTV would have made a huge difference."

In a Q&A session for his official website in March 2017, Lea disclosed his three favourite Slade songs were "How Does It Feel", "Far Far Away", and "Coz I Luv You".

He also identified "When the Lights Are Out" from Old New Borrowed and Blue as an album track he would have liked to have seen released as a Slade single.