album was released on their manager Chas Chandlers' label Barn Records on 1 October 1979 in the United Kingdom, over two and a half years since their previous studio release, Whatever Happened to Slade, which was their first album on the label. Commercial performance In the United Kingdom, the album continued the band's commercial failures, and found no audience other than the band's already existing fan base. As with their previous album Whatever Happened to Slade, the album did not enter the UK Album Chart. Their seasonal party single "Okey Cokey", released in December 1979, also failed to enter the UK Singles Chart. A similar fate greeted the 12-inch extended play, Six of the Best, released in June 1980. The EP, priced at the cheap price of £1.49, contained three tracks from Return to Base and three new tracks. The album saw success in Belgium in 1980, reaching No. 1 on the albums chart. As the album was not available in Belgium, fans in the country originally had to buy the album as an import. The album soon climbed to No. 1 on the Telemoustique chart, a weekly rock chart compiled by public votes. It also topped the Belgian radio station Impedance's daily chart on several occasions. As a result of the interest in the album, the album was released in the country by Warner Bros. in 1980. The album climbed to number one there, as did the Belgian-only single "I'm a Rocker. In a 1980 fan club interview, Noddy Holder spoke of the success in Belgium: "What happened in Belgium was that Return to Base was available on import, and it started to climb the import charts. I don't know why, it was as much a surprise to us as it was to anybody. Warner Bros. Records then said to us, due to it starting to show some action, would we want to release it over there as a major release. We thought "why not?" – and now it's the number one album over there!" Speaking of "I'm a Rocker", Holder said: "That was the track getting the most airplay from the album. But it's not just a case of that applying in Belgium – we've had so many people writing to us asking why we've not released it as a single. "I'm a Rocker" is not even one of our songs though – it's a Chuck Berry number."