Legendary pop band Slade’s guitarist Dave Hill celebrated the 50th anniversary of the release of the group’s world-famous Christmas song at a concert with students from City of Wolverhampton College.
Dave, who lives in the city, joined in a rousing rendition of Merry Xmas Everybody with students from the college’s Futures Foundation Learning programme at the Wellington Road campus on Monday, 11 December.
The Futures programme is aimed at young people with inclusion needs and/or an education health and care plan and aims to enhance their life skills and develop their abilities to help them move towards living as independently as possible.
The concert also featured a host of other Christmas songs sung and Makaton-signed by Futures students, with students from other courses and staff joining in the fun, including Dave’s daughter, Jade Caddick, who is a hairdressing tutor at the college’s New Era hair salon.
Richard Cooper, a tutor on the Futures programme, said: “Merry Xmas Everybody is an iconic song that everyone recognises and hearing it just gets you in the festive spirit.
“It’s an honour to perform it every year with our students and, as a keen guitarist myself, the chance to play it with Dave was a dream come true.
“Our students worked hard to learn the words and practise their singing and signing and we all had a great time joining Dave in a good old Christmas sing-a-long!”
Get details of the Futures Learning programme here
