Whatever happened to Noddy Holder?

I’ve been thinking all week – just trying to make sense of it all.

We got the news Wednesday afternoon. A last-minute change meant we were bound for the Slade Community Hall, and I immediately signed up and listened to their entire back catalogue on Spotify. And I continued listening on my travels to Woolwich, holding back my lungs from singing out on Blackheath Common.

But I arrived, slightly perplexed that the others weren’t in their 70s glad rags.

What is happening? I thought. And then I noticed they were all carrying backpacks - no doubt containing sequinned tops and trousers and flares. So I quickly changed and stowed my own jumbo top hat with stick-on reflective circles, and I joined the group, excited for our upcoming glitter adventure.

Sara began by asking what the take home message would be for each of our respective national appreciation days. For Sara, it was all about pronunciation – it’s SAR-UH, not SAIR-UH! And this snowballed – we had discussions about the number of ns in Jen(n)ifer and Jen(n)y; how it’s definitely not MartHa; the use of a PH in a name with a V sound; and peculiar typos of ‘Franki’.

With that settled and all of us looking ahead to our own National Appreciation Day, we started our run through Woolwich, and up to Plumstead. By this point, I thought the anticipation was palpably bubbling. None of us were mentioning it, not stating the glam-rock-elephant in the groove, and we just plodded, my sequinned top hat gently jingling in my rucksack. And then we arrived...

...and taking a brief sidestep from this silly prose, I must say the Slade Community Hall is gorgeous! It’s a hub for local people, with an adjoining community library and lovely rooms and spaces for people to meet up and connect. And it’s all run by the Glyndon Community Group, who we’ve been working with for the past 2 or so years at GoodGym Greenwich – they do great things for the Greenwich community, and I thoroughly recommend you checking them out :) …

… and we were waiting for Andy from the Glyndon Community Group to arrive. And well, I didn’t say anything, but I just knew that Andy would be bringing a very merry guest along with him. So, we chatted, and looked through the windows into the library, and thought about what tasks we might be doing – all the time knowing we’d be singing our lungs out with Slade’s superstar lead, Noddy Holder!

But who could have known your glam rock dreams can come tumbling down so quickly.

Andy arrived on his own, and he got the tools out for us, and he gave us our tasks, and everyone got to it, and.... I just stood there in my gardening gloves. Everyone else cracked on with the weeding and pruning and tidying up of the green spaces around the edges of the hall, and they filled bin bags, and they laughed and talked about upcoming plans, and they did a really fantastic job, but...

No Noddy.

We left, bidding Andy farewell (thank you, Andy, for being so helpful and supportive!), and we ran back down the hill to Woolwich and finished with a lovely stretch and a natter. And no-one mentioned Slade, the glam rock band from the 70s, ever, at all, not once. I think I must have got confused. My glitter-jumbo-top hat is back in the wardrobe. I wonder if Noddy will ever come to GoodGym Greenwich?