Sladespeech

 An article in Tribune magazine by Rose Dymock about a novel -  Paul Mendez's Rainbow Milk - that uses phonetically spelled Black Country dialect - i.e. the same sing-song accent and archaisms that Slade grew up with and that filtered into the song titles:

"To those outside the West Midlands, the difference between Birmingham and the Black Country seems trivial, but for those who live there, it is akin to asking a Scouser what part of Manchester they’re from.

"... One of these key defining characteristics is the accent and dialect. To outsider ears, the two are often conflated into one homogeneous—and usually called ‘Brummie’—accent. While the flatter, more monotone Birmingham accent is more recognisable on TV and film.... the Black Country accent is its own, unique beast.

"There is a sing-song quality to the Black Country accent, but the most distinctive element is the use of dialect words that aren’t found anywhere else – with grammar and phrases that have been preserved from Middle English. It isn’t unusual to hear a young woman referred to as ‘wench’, or people greeting each other by saying ‘how bist’ or ‘you’m alright’ (how are you). Mendez manages to capture the accent of the Black Country in such a way it is impossible not to slip into rounded vowels and comforting sounds of the voices as you read.... 

"It’s not standard English—vowels are stretched into two syllables, words shortened, letters dropped from the text entirely—but Mendez manages to keep it both distinctive and recognisably comprehensible. It never becomes a caricature, dismissing an entire region as thick or unattractive; it is simply another layer of characterisation, a throwaway moment that feels oddly personal." 

Slade used the phonetic spelling in the song titles, I think, as both an expression of regional pride and a class thing - identifying their constituency as early school leavers, those who left aged 16 - or was it even 15 in those days - with minimal qualifications and likely heading into employment in manufacture, heavy industry or some kind of apprenticeship. What Slade manager Chas Chandler identified as a "wage packet audience"  - which is something I quoted in the book and realised later ought probably have to explained to younger readers, as it's a reference to a time when  young working class people would not have had bank accounts and were paid in cash (which they took home and gave a chunk of to their mum for bed-and-board in most cases).

Which was not precisely Slade's background / destiny - Holder went to grammar school and was most likely heading to teacher training college or university until rock'n'roll called him, Jim Lea applied to several different art schools and had been in a Youth Jazz Orchestra... 

But the mispelled titles did communicate a "we don't need no education", truant aura that went along with the raucous basic rock'n'roll and Dave Hill's SuperYob shtick 

And as you can see below, Black Country ways of saying are being banned in some schools in the area: 

Another piece on Slade's native tongue.