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Artist
James Whild Lea
12+ albums
glam rockrock
about
James Whild Lea (born 14 June 1949, Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England) is an English musician, most notable for playing bass guitar, keyboards, violin, guitar, and singing backing vocals in the English rock band, Slade. Lea was the nearest thing Slade had to a trained musician. Influenced by French jazz-violinist Stéphane Grappelli, Lea's first musical love was the violin. He played in the Staffordshire Youth Orchestra, 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', then went for auditions for a local band, 'The N'Betweens'. Drummer Don Powell, guitarist Dave Hill and vocalist Johnny Howells were already members, and when Noddy Holder joined soon after, the foundations for Slade had been laid. Howells later left the band. Lea was Slade's principal songwriter, along with Holder. In most cases Lea wrote the melodies, and Holder concentrated on the lyrics. 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 guitar parts on record. Lea also produced an album for singer / actor Gary Holton and he played all instruments (except drums, played by Geoff Seopardi) on Holton's cover version of "Catch a Falling Star", which was released as a single. Lea
