Noddy Holder has ruled out a Slade reunion.

The 65-year-old rocker thinks he and bandmates Dave Hill, Don Powell and Jim Lea have changed too much to work in same way they did until their split in 1992.

Asked if he would be tempted to reform the group, he said: “Not really. We’ve been apart for nearly twenty years and are not the same four people. We worked together in each other’s pockets for 25 years which is a long time. It was like having three marriages!”

Noddy also admitted he is amazed that his group’s 1973 festive hit ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’ has remained popular to this day, though he thinks it has overshadowed many of their other successful tracks.

He added: “I’m really proud of it. We knew we had a hit on out hands when we wrote it. It went to number one the week of release and stayed there for six weeks, which was into the New Year. We didn’t think for a minute it would still be going strong 40 years later. It’s great that a new generation discovers it year after year. I get little kids coming up to me saying they performed the song in their school Christmas concert. Though people do forget we had 40 other hit singles, too.”

While Dave and Don have re-launched Slade with different musicians, Noddy continues to work as a media personality and TV presenter.