S'funny how some bands go completely off the radar. Slade had loads of hits, but Xmas aside, they're rarely ever heard on t'radio (even on Sounds of the Seventies with Johnnie Walker), or the likes of Spotify. Same with 10CC. Is it because neither cracked the U.S. market, or in Slade's case, because they were a real working class band (when the "working class" was still an identifiable group) and most of the DJs tend to have middle-class backgrounds?
Slade were seen as 'stompers' and not serious musicians. Too many folk are music snobs. When I was at grammar school in the late 60's / early 70's there were two clear genre's formed. Those who liked progressive rock and people who couldn't see past Motown. Most of those people stupidly dismissed music from the other genre out of hand. I personally made no secret of the fact that I liked all sorts of music.
Slade were almost an early 'punk' (btw not much punk gets played on the radio these days either. I suspect for the same snobbery reasons). They were a genuine good time band whose music appealed to the kids on the streets and not the arty farty college students nor the kids who shared the musical tastes (motown) that their elderly parents tapped their feet to. Give me a tardis and I'd go back to a Slade concert in the early 70's long before a Pink Floyd concert or a double bill of the Temptations and the Supremes!
Music trends have been constantly invented by kids and rejected by their parents ... Rock n, Roll, Pop, Punk, and even the dreaded mind numbing boy/girl bands of the 90's before inevitably being dumbed down by clever marketeers to become acceptable to all. Started in my life as the bold, brash brilliant US based rock music of Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Elvis morphed into the soporific Mum's favourites Cliff and the Shadows / Billy Fury /Eden Kane etc. The Beatles and Stones thankfully swept all that away. The awful early 70's Glam Rock suffered the same fate when the kids on the streets faced with only the choice of either Gary Glitter / Alvin Stardust's little dittys or the godawful heavy rock 20 min drum solo's and so turned to the earthy brash Punk which blew all that away before inevitably being morphed by the marketing men into New Wave designed to appeal to a wider audience.
Musical change is constantly on the move with the rule of thumb over the decades being 'if your parents like it it's not for you!
