found themselves playing small venues, mainly universities and clubs. The band's tours often ran at a loss, with the band having to bring their own PA and lightshow. Bassist Jim Lea however was unphazed. "I still thought the band was great," he told Chris Charlesworth in 1983, "We were playing as well if not better than we ever had... now we had something to prove again." Despite being successful at filling small venues for their live performances, the band's new records were barely selling. 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. Even the band's second live album Slade Alive, Vol. 2 (1978), the sequel to their critically acclaimed and commercially successful Slade Alive! (1972), was a commercial failure. Recording The album was recorded over a period of six weeks in 1979. The album saw the band produce together for the first time. In a 1979 fan club interview, Hill said: "We each took it in turn to produce certain parts ourselves – which makes it the first album we have solely produced ourselves." Disagreements between the group – especially Lea and their producer/manager Chas Chandler – had been brewing since the recording of Whatever Happened to Slade, and, having continued throughout 1978, came to a head during the recording sessions for Return to Base. "Jim was becoming more and more involved in that side of things," lead vocalist Noddy Holder told Chris Charlesworth. "He wanted to produce the group and he didn't think that Chas was coming up with the goods." 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. "I've always felt that the song comes first and you craft your sound to suit the song... not the other way round." Although Chandler offered to end his association with Slade altogether, the band asked him to remain as manager while they produced themselves. Chandler said: "I agreed to this because if I refused I felt I would have been kicking them when they were down." Asked in 1979 for his thoughts on the album, Hill said: "I'm very satisfied with it. It's got a mixture